Re: Cory Jalbert Accident -- NNY Racing & Parts Board

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Date Posted: 11:07:39 06/30/07 Sat
Author: Nancy
Subject: Re: Cory Jalbert Accident
In reply to: Nancy Fetterly 's message, "Cory Jalbert Accident" on 08:07:37 06/28/07 Thu

The following was an article released in todays Watertown Daily Times:

Driver Jalbert, 17, breaks neck in Frogtown accident
CAREER APPEARS OVER: Spectacular crash in Wednesday's bandit division feature leaves native of Cornwall, Ontario, with paralysis in lower body

By CAP CAREY
TIMES SPORTSWRITER
Saturday, June 30, 2007

HOGANSBURG � A promising automobile racing career apparently came to a sad end when 17-year-old Corey Jalbert was paralyzed in an accident Wednesday night at the Frogtown International Speedway.

Jalbert, a native of Cornwall, Ontario, was coming around the final turn of the last lap of a bandit division feature when one of his rear tires came off, causing his car to flip over an estimated 12 times before finally coming to a stop near the wall.

Frogtown's emergency medical technicians immediately arrived on the scene, but Jalbert had to be cut out of the car with the Jaws of Life. He sat in his car for close to a half-hour as workers cut him free until he could be placed on a backboard and taken from the facility. He broke his neck in the accident.

He's now in the Ottawa Civic Hospital and, according to Frogtown co-general manager Jamie Davis, has been given a 2-percent chance of being able to walk again.

Jalbert, who had won the previous three features and had five overall wins this season, felt some sensation near his stomach Friday morning, and surgery was expected to be performed Friday afternoon to remove bone fragments from two vertebrae that shattered in his neck.

He was put in a traction halo on Thursday and was able to move his arms but had no feeling below the middle part of his chest.

Jalbert turned 17 on June 18, and his parents, Dan and Tammy, both competed in the 358-modified division at Frogtown. Tammy has already put her car and equipment up for sale, and Dan may also retire from racing.

The bandit division is one of Frogtown's beginner classes, and Jalbert had raced in it since 2004.

"He's in good spirits," Davis said of Corey Jalbert. "I think it's going to be tough on everybody. It's absolutely devastating, not only in a personal way but to the speedway. It's a terrible loss. (The Jalberts) were three of the real good ones we've got out there.

"I really think he would have had a real good future. He did take a trip in a modified (car) at the end of last year and was very impressive."

Corey Jalbert was in second place in the bandit division standings behind his cousin, Ronnie Tyo, who will be a guest on Davis's prerace radio program at 6:15 tonight on CKON-FM (97.3).

"Ronnie will give an update on his condition and after the radio show I'm going to call a pit meeting at 6:30 and the drivers will go in the stands and the pit area and take up a collection for Dan and Tammy to defer the cost," Davis said.

Jalbert also competed at the Cornwall (Ontario) Motor Speedway on Sunday evenings, and that track also plans to raise money for the family.

Frogtown will have its regular racing schedule, weather permitting, tonight just three days after the accident.

"Before the national anthems we'll have everyone pause and say a prayer for him," Davis said. "I know this is what Corey would want us to do, keep on rolling with everything, and we're going to do that.

"(Injury) is in the corner of their mind all the time. Every driver has that regardless of if they are in the (NASCAR) Nextel Cup or a stock car on a Saturday night. There's always that risk. Nobody really thinks about it. You think about going out there, driving fast, turning left and having fun."

Jalbert was featured in the Times last season when he began the year competing at Frogtown before he was old enough to have a driver's license for public roads.

One condition of his racing set by his parents was that he drive respectfully of other racers, and Jalbert often ran clean races. His accident Wednesday was caused by car failure, not driver error.

"One thing Dan and I both told him: Racing is very expensive and if you want to be in it a long time, you've got to make friends and not enemies," Tammy Jalbert told the Times in August.

Based on reaction from other drivers and officials at both speedways, it appears Corey Jalbert did make plenty of friends as a driver.

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Re: Cory Jalbert Accident -- Coreys Girlfriends father, 17:29:13 06/30/07 Sat