Aidan’s mom released the autopsy results following Aidan’s tragic death:
”cardiac tamponade”
Where he crashed is a fast, sweeping blind roller. I’m guessing he low-sided and others collided with him. That kind of chest trauma can really only come from a sudden, high speed, and direct impact to the chest. He didn’t fall from the sky. The only other possibility is a high speed high-side, or impact with a tree. The latter didn’t happen here and I don’t see a high-side to dirt causing this kind of chest trauma either but it’s possible.
Certainly worth asking if soft-shell chest protectors are enough. Certainly worth asking if this could have been avoided in any way. I would hope the industry talks about this. Guys like Pingree seemed quick to suggest changes need to be made. Well, we have more info, so what changes need to be made, or is this just the cold hard reality of this sport and we move on?
There is absolutely no fault of any one person in a situation like this. Again, empathy needs to go out to those who were directly involved. It would have been completely unavoidable in my estimation. I don’t believe there would have been any role for flaggers to prevent this either. There was a fast train moving through a blind section of the course.
And kudos to the mainstream media for staying on this story. USA Today reporters continued to follow up on this throughout the days and weeks following the incident.
Not sure why the down votes this is a topic that needs to be discussed. One has to wonder if the Alpine Stars airbag system could have saved him?
Shitty news, but thanks for providing some insight regarding what could have contributed to it.
People will often down vote because of the emotional reaction to the story and not necessarily because they disagree with the post itself (I hope that’s the case here any way). It’s why these up-and-down voting systems are so stupid to begin with. They convolute sentiment.
It’s a shitty story with a shitty outcome. It deserves a thumbs down.
Aidan’s parents definitely deserve a thumbs up for continuing to push for answers. They deserve a hug, and their son back.
Hopefully some good can come from this.
Having watched a couple videos of Aiden Zingg, it seems if there is any way possible to learn from this tragic crash, I speculate he would be happy to help another racer have the opportunity to be safer will participating in his sport of choice.
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Why is USA today reporting on this and nobody that's actually in the media in this industry?
I say the below with nothing but respect & am in no way suggesting any measures would have changed the outcome of this tragedy.
MXGP requires chest protectors, I’m still not 100% how we “can’t”.
“They limit mobility” - Cool, so do the HANS devices in nascar, but after DE3 passed away, it was nonnegotiable and everyone now has the same mobility.
The vast majority are out there in a thin jersey, with no real protection between the top of their knee braces to the bottom of their helmet.
Adding a chest protector requirement would hurt no one, but it could certainly help.
Glad they released this. People treat death as such a taboo subject and hush up about it, but death is obviously a part of life and whatever we can learn from this can go a long way in helping us know how to protect ourselves on track.
Another article from the link above. Same discussion we are having here.
And yes, unrecoverable crash. There is no way to treat that onsite at a motocross track. No ones “fault”. Could a chest protector have helped? Maybe. Would a slower bike/track have mattered? Maybe. Just a sad deal all around.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/motorsports/2025/07/03/aidan-zing…
I think it's more complex than that, though; here's my take...
NASCAR drivers do not rely on mobility as much as motocrossers. Therefore, the HANS system's mobility restrictions do not create a safety issue for the drivers. Compared to NASCAR drivers, Motocross racers do gymnastics on their machines, and wearing a plastic chest protector impacts their ability to not only go fast, but also control the motorcycle. Additionally, a plastic chest protector would mostly protect from losing skin, hitting, or getting hit by small hard objects (rocks). The type of impact Aidan suffered from would have been the same, unless he was wearing one of those inflatable chest protectors. Not to mention the safety concerns of heat exhaustion, which would be exaggerated with a chest protector trapping heat.
The "Make them wear chest protectors" argument comes up when there are spinal cord injuries, too. But the same logic applies. A chest protector can't prevent twisting or bending injuries any more than it can prevent blunt forces that impact the entire torso.
God Speed Aidan
USA Today-level media and MX media is not the same type of media.
I asked the very same question and it was the motivation behind bringing this article to everyone's attention in the first place. I thought long and hard about it. I didn't want to be the person to do it.
It is a tad shameful of our own industry for sticking their heads in the sand but I also know the cold hard and brutal reality of this sport. It's one they are inherently at odds with.
A hard cover chest pro spreads the blow "out" nothing is ever going to be 100% safe. But those soft flimsy things riders wear now do absolutely nothing.
Powers that be probably asked to not bring unwanted attention to it
It completely restricts their visibility (being able to turn their head to spot drivers, which if I recall is why DE refused to wear it).
Chest protectors never come up in spinal injuries to my knowledge, but neck braces do….which I do understand.
The fact is, MXGP has the requirement and it’s not a problem, and those boys have zero issues with movement nor overheating….and again, they will all have the same “detriment”.
Doc Bodnar said it best: “put on a chest protector & have your friend hit you with a 2x4. Now take the chest protector off and have him do it again. Which one hurt more? “
I don’t know if a chest protector requirement is the solution, but I know for a fact doing nothing is not the solution.
Soft shell chest protectors (roost deflectors) are not enough and never have been
Mammoth does a great job running the race but the only issue I had while racing this year was they water the track during the race, not between the races. I know during my race I came around one lap and a corner went from normal to glossy wet in one lap and I was sliding all over the place. I just hope that a blind corner freshly watered during the race did not have anything to do with the crash. No matter how it happed, it still sucks.
I do agree that front and back impact chest protectors add a little protection for those unexpected crashes. Roost is one thing, a full impact from whatever (tree, giant rock, your bike or a competitors bike) is a different story.
Helmets need certification - we don’t let people race with an inadequate helmet. The same kind of thing could be done for chest protectors (require CE certificatied chest protectors to race).
Fox News also covered the news:
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/mother-motocross-star-aidan-zingg-reveals-cause-of-death-fatal-race-crash
Goes on to say there was no collision with another rider. Early accounts of the crash suggest someone was pulling another guys bike off of him. This is where I’m afraid the story will end. If he did wad on his own and take a direct hit to the chest, it’s certainly worth rethinking chest/torso protection. Same is true if he was hit.
Pit Row
I don't think the case of requiring a chest protector could be any clearer. Having anything between your body and a striking force is better than not having anything. It doesn't even have to be much to dissipate energy and take away the sharpness of any hit. It's a physical fact and thus non-negotiable.
A chest protector limiting movement is also complete BS. Euro riders smoke US riders on a regular basis whenever they meet and they have been wearing a chest protector their whole career and highly likely wore one when competing against US riders.
Impact on movement? Marginal at worst. Impact on performance? Absolute zero, as proven.
I don't see this even worthy of discussion, facts speak for themselves. Start requring chest protectors.
There is already standard for chest/back protectors that goes beyond CE which has nothing with security to do. One standard for back and own for front.
Alla FIM MX racing requires both.
I wear a Thor Shok every time I ride, I don't even notice it.
I can say one saved me from serious injury when a root bounced me off a trail and I hit the end of a dead tree branch. The end I hit was pointed and about 4" in diameter. It hit me righ abov therightnipple, and"Jousted " me off like a rag doll. I hit it pretty square, and know this because when I opened my eyes while flat on my back, it was right above me.
The protector helped it slide to the right and it definitely spread the impact, and didn't impale me.
It’s still unclear exactly what happened.
All I know is if Aiden’s parents are still seeking answers then, yes, this sport does in fact suck. At least this side of it.
Please, AMA, don’t let Aiden’s death not produce any meaningful attempt at making racing safer.
I know the Leatt Pro chest / back protector has a CE rating on it, I’d love for them, Fly, Astars, etc to weigh in from a technical perspective, if possible.
Travis pastrana wore a chest pro his whole career and all the crazy x games shit.
Restricting mobility isn’t a valid excuse to not make chest pro mandatory (at least in amateurs. )
Yea I have to agree. Football players are required to wear shoulder pads. Back in the day they used to wear leather helmets. These guys are essentially getting into a car crash at 40 mph every time they crash, yet theyre wearing spandex jerseys and pants. When you really stop and think about it how crazy is it that alpinestars is just now coming up with something more protective than your run of the mill chest protector. The chest protectors they have today are no more protective than they were in the 90’s and actually in many cases less protective. They used to have some big beefy double sided chunky plastic chest protectors with the big shoulder and upper arm protection. Today you get a soft one sided front chest only protector under your jersey. Nobody wants to look like a goon with the old school chest protectors anymore so they wear the bare minimum if they have one at all.
You shouldnt even have to look like a goon, its nice that alpinestars is doing their thing, but lets see some other companies start innovating their own ways to make the sport safer too. It seems everybody has been deeply affected by this tragedy, so lets not let him die in vain. Now that more info is coming out we should use the findings from that to make the sport safer for everybody. I really hope that is the end result of this horrible tragedy. We could even call it the zing rule, where you have no choice but to wear some type of advanced protection system. Give the brands a few years to come out with their own stuff and then make em mandatory. The guys arent going to do it unless its mandated.
It seems like up until today very few knew exactly what happened. I personally would rather something be reported on once the facts are gathered than the instant “we need a change in the sport” without knowing what exactly happened. I think all moto media outlets have reported on the accident - some multiple times. I would bet the timing of the autopsy details being the same time of a national might have something to do with it not being covered yet.
I could be mistaken, but I've only found Leatt, A-Star, and RXR Protect to have level 2 front and back protectors. "CE" itself means nothing, it's whether the CE rating is "stone shield", "impact level 1", or "impact level 2".
Why havent any riders in this race come forward and share what they saw? I have yet to read any posts except 1 where someone was sharing what Keefer Jr saw after the crash on the next lap, and lap after.
Prob 30 ridrers in this class, and at leaset 3-5 riders saw what happened and not a word from any riders. Very Strange.
In addition, Aidan's Parents sit here today, not knowing what happened to their child. Terrible.
Post a reply to: Aidan Zingg Cause of Death Disclosed