Heart-stopping Grand Prix crash highlights life-and-death dangers of race car driving

iStock/Thinkstock(MACAU, China) — Sophia Floersch’s race car was blazing down the Macau Grand Prix track at 170 mph on Monday when she struck another race car, went airborne and smashed into the photographers’ pit.

It took doctors 11 hours to repair the 17-year-old Formula Three driver’s fractured spine.

The heart-stopping crash shocked racing fans across the globe. Yet Floersch was one of the lucky ones — she dodged paralysis and will be back behind the wheel “after some time,” Van Amersfoort Racing owner Frits van Amersfoort told the BBC.

The implementation of new safety protocols in recent years has driven down