Post mortem

NASA released its report on the Columbia shuttle accident.

Aviation professionals, a long time ago, realized that studying accidents and incidents proved invaluable in preventing further occurrences of those situations. The other factor was the brilliant idea to share those findings with the rest of the industry.

If there is a piece of equipment or a procedure on an airplane, it is because somebody, at some point, either killed someone or bent some metal without it.

Accidents still happen and some of them are eerily similar but they are mostly due to deviation from procedure...pilot error.

Does racing have such a beast? Is there a database in the friendly neighborhood Jockey Club archive, where this information is stored?