ANDERSON — Roy Hiatt grew up to work at the track where he watched races as a kid.
The 49-year-old Anderson resident never missed a week of work and loved his job, according to coworkers.
Hiatt died at 9:21 p.m. Saturday from injuries suffered during the Pay Less Little 500 at the Anderson Speedway. Tyler Underwood, driver of car 41, did not see Hiatt and accidentally ran into him on the track, said Rick Dawson, president of the speedway.
“He’s pretty shaken up about it,” Dawson said of Underwood. “It’s a tragedy. We’re all grieving tremendously.”
This is the first death on the track since Dawson took ownership of the speedway about 12 years ago, he said. Racing officials are thoroughly investigating the accident to find out exactly what went wrong and keep it from happening again.
Here’s what their investigation had discovered as of Sunday:
• A car’s oil filter busted and caused the vehicle’s oil to spill across the track. Several cars tangled in the first turn on Lap 99.
• Officials called a caution on the track and sent safety workers out to slow cars down and clean up.
• Hiatt, a track crewman, was on the track too early and had his back to oncoming cars, which personnel are told not to do because of the safety risk involved. Hiatt was dusting the track with oil-dry powder.
• Underwood had control of his vehicle but did not see Hiatt in time to stop from hitting him, because of the angles involved and other cars in the area. Hiatt died from blunt-force injuries to the head and chest, said Ned Dunnichay, Madison County coroner.
What remains unclear is why Hiatt went onto the track when he did and why he had his back to oncoming traffic. It was probably just an involuntary action to get the track cleaned up, meaning Hiatt acted without thinking, Dawson said.
Witnesses at the scene spotted the No. 41 car racing around the track while Hiatt had his back to the vehicle and dusted the track with oil-dry powder. They shouted and pointed to try to get his attention, and then they heard a loud slam as they watched Hiatt get hit, witnesses said.
Track official Gary Mong saw an ambulance drive onto the scene and assumed a driver was injured, he said. But the ambulance drove away from the car wreck and toward the front stretch.
Mong was not sure what had happened until he got a radio call from Dawson asking how old Hiatt was.
“I was like, ‘don’t tell me he’s the one that went down,’” Mong said. “And he was.”
The night before the accident, Mong had spoken with Hiatt about how much they enjoyed the track.
Hiatt’s death was a shock to everyone, even those who did not know him, Mong said.
“The entire speedway is saddened by his death. We just lost a part of our racing family,” Mong said. “We’ve become very close-knit here at Anderson.”
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