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More debate Earnhardt death heightens concern about racing
Updated: Monday February 19, 2001 3:23 AM
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Dale Earnhardt needed freedom in the driver's seat. That's why he was still competing in an open-face helmet. It's hard to imagine him ever using one of those newfangled neck braces that a few Winston Cup drivers are now wearing. Earnhardt was killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500, heightening concerns about the safety of these high-tech machines after the fourth NASCAR racing death in less than a year. In 2000, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and truck racer Tony Roper died from basilar skull fractures or related conditions. Earnhardt apparently suffered the same type of injury. "It's a very sad thing that we haven't gotten as far as we need to get," John Melvin, a renowned safety expert who has worked with several NASCAR teams, said from his Michigan home Sunday night. "This is an example of why we should continue to move as fast as we can. But we can't move too fast." The Head And Neck Safety (HANS) device was designed to lessen the pressure on the most vulnerable part of the body -- the neck and base of the skull -- in the type of crashes that killed all four drivers.
But many drivers say the device is too bulky and uncomfortable, and only about a half-dozen competitors in Sunday's 43-car field were wearing the HANS. NASCAR has decided not to make it mandatory without additional testing. "Unfortunately, that may be a positive result from this," Melvin said. "You have to have this kind of impetus to cause the drivers to work a little harder to make this work." Dr. Steve Bohannan, among the team of doctors who treated Earnhardt at the track and at Halifax Hospital, was asked if the HANS would have saved Earnhardt's life. "I don't know if the HANS device would have helped," Bohannan replied. "I suspect not." But Todd Parrott, Dale Jarrett's crew chief, said it's time for all drivers to seriously consider using the HANS. Jarrett wore it for the first time at Sunday's race.
"We're going to have to take a look at some of the safety issues," Parrott said upon arriving at the airport in Concord, N.C. "My driver tested the HANS device over the summer and he will not get in the car without it now. If Dale had that on, we'd probably be looking at a different situation." Bob Hubbard, a biomechanics professor at Michigan State University, helped develop the HANS. He was at the speedway last week, working with teams to try to find a comfortable fit. Brett Bodine is one of the drivers using the U-shaped device that fits around the neck and attaches to the helmet with two straps. He wouldn't consider getting in his car without it. "We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the car go faster," Bodine said. "To not look at safety the same way we look at performance seems pretty stupid to me." Melvin, however, agreed with NASCAR's decision to make the HANS voluntary, not mandatory. "If you mandate this and it conflicts with the driver's ability to control the car, then all of a sudden you've made things worse," Melvin said. Former Winston Cup star Ned Jarrett, the father of current driver Dale Jarrett, wondered if NASCAR went too far with its efforts to slow speeds and produce tighter racing. For more than a decade, the series has mandated restrictor plates to reduce speeds at Daytona and a similar high-banked track at Talladega, Ala. Many drivers have complained about the horsepower-sapping devices, saying conditions are more dangerous when the cars are bunched together. For Daytona, a new aerodynamic package was implemented to create tighter racing and make it easier to pass after last year's snoozer of a 500. With 25 laps to go in Sunday's race, there was an 18-car crash that began in a tightly packed group of cars on the backstretch. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. Earnhardt was killed on the final turn of the final lap when his No. 3 Chevrolet brushed Sterling Marlin's Dodge, swerved sharply to the right and was struck by Ken Schrader's car before slamming into the outside wall. "NASCAR does a good job of keeping the competition as close as it can," Ned Jarrett said. "They might have gone a little bit overboard here at Daytona." Melvin said it's too early to begin demanding a measure that might prevent another tragedy. "There's a tendency to talk about solutions right up front," he said. "Right now, we need to respect the man and recognize all he represented. He was an amazing individual."
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