Luger's Death Caused By "Human Error"

Luger's Death Caused By "Human Error"

Friday's accidental death of Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was not caused by the track, according to Olympic officials.

The International Luge Federation and Olympic officials have stated the deadly accident was a result of "human error" because the Georgian luger, traveling almost 90 mph, was late coming out of the second to last turn and overcompensated for the timing error.

"This resulted in a late entrance into curve 16 and although the athlete worked to correct the problem, he eventually lost control of the sled, resulting in the tragic accident," reads the statement.

The officials have agreed to make a "change in the ice profile" and raise the wall that Kumaritashvili was catapulted over, but only "to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again."

[Photo via Getty Images.]

Rebecca Romijn
Taryn Manning