VOL. 55 ISSUE 15 APRIL 17, 2018 P111
consciousness during the incident, but
admits she doesn't have a clear picture
of what happened. "I blanked out,"
Thompson said. "Once it was tipping
over, I said to myself, 'Oh shit! I'm in
trouble.' I knew I was in trouble. I knew
everything was in trouble. I just remem-
ber holding my hands into myself so
tight. Pretty much after that—it's all she
wrote. It was a slide to the finish line!"
After coming to a stop, Thompson
described her immediate reaction: "I
remember wiggling my toes and my
fingers and I said, 'Okay, I can get out
now.' Then the thought process was, 'I
gotta see the machine. I gotta get out to
see what I did.' That didn't happen very
well, but I did get out with some help
from the fire crew. Bless their hearts,
the rescue crew."
Aside from the streamliner's telem-
etry, the team has limited data to review,
as the cameras that were mounted
inside don't appear to have captured
the incident. "We had three cameras
in the cockpit, and all three cameras in
the impact, there's no data. There's no
video. And that's too bad," Thompson
said. "We're hoping that we can get
somebody to retrieve the data, because
that will tell us a lot."
The final impact point on the course,
in particular, revealed just how violent
the accident was.
"I did that?" Thompson exclaimed
with a gasp as she viewed the deep red
crater in the salt of Lake Gairdner, over
a half-mile from the point where the BUB
7 slid to a halt. The bright red skid mark
that led all the way to the crash site
started several hundred feet down the
course, indicating how far the 21-foot,
1600-pound streamliner bounced.
Thompson viewed the scattered and
broken pieces, studying the tire marks
and red paint on the salt, trying to re-
construct the series of events. Despite a
slight limp, and the bandage on her shin
It was a long, red slide to the finish.
Valerie Thompson
studies the wrecked
streamliner. Remarkably,
she was able to walk
away with only minor
injuries.
Once it was tipping over,
I said to myself, 'Oh shit! I'm
in trouble.' I knew I was in
trouble. I knew everything
was in trouble."
–Valerie Thompson
