Indy Motor Speedway officials meet to preparedness

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s emergency readiness team didn’t prepare specifically for a Boston Marathon-like attack on Tuesday because the nature of the bombings wasn’t yet clear when it met at Brickyard Crossing.

But about 40 people representing IMS and all local, state and federal emergency teams still worked on a plan to address situations like the blasts in Boston and the crash at Daytona International Speedway in February when fans were injured by debris when Kyle Larson’s car hit the catch fence.

The IMS team also examined procedures related to weather incidents, such as the one in 2011 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds when high winds toppled stage scaffolding on fans at a Sugarland concert.

IMS spokesman Doug Boles said Tuesday’s previously scheduled meeting was one of several dozen to be held in the months leading up to the Indianapolis 500.

Indiana State Police 1st Sgt. Brian Olehy said all events with large crowds — the Super Bowl, baseball’s World Series and races at IMS — have detailed plans in place to deal with catastrophes. The Boston Marathon incident is just a reminder to be diligent.

“There’s already heightened security at these events," he said. “Each of these agencies is going to do everything it can to make it the safest event possible."

Neither he nor Boles would provide details about the IMS plan. The Indy 500, which is expected to attract a crowd in excess of 200,000, is scheduled for May 26.

“To give you information as to we’re going to do X to prevent Y, we don’t do that," Olehy said. “We don’t give you the playbook. We don’t want to give intelligence out, because once we start to give information that is specific that will prevent something, somebody’s going to attempt to thwart it or find a way around it."

Boles said plans to avoid what happened in Boston can’t be worked out until investigators there understand what happened. Indy Star