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Autopsy confirms cause of death Blunt force injuries to head ended Earnhardt's life
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt died of a massive blow to the head when his race car struck a wall at 180 mph hour, a medical examiner said in a report Monday. Dr. Thomas Parsons made no attempt to determine if a head and neck brace worn by some of the other drivers could have saved his life. Earnhardt, 49, died instantly Sunday after losing control of his car on the final lap and slamming into a concrete wall. Earnhardt had a skull fracture that ran from the front to the back of his head, according to the autopsy. The impact also fractured his sternum, eight ribs on the left side and his left ankle. There was no reference in the autopsy report on whether or not a new safety device being used by some drivers could have made a difference. The report said there was a blow to the back of the head, but did not indicate any broken neck vertebrae. There has been a movement in NASCAR toward drivers wearing a new protective device called the Head And Neck Support (HANS). He was not wearing the apparatus during Sunday's Daytona 500. Only about a half-dozen drivers donned the U-shaped device for the 500. The brace keeps the driver's head and neck from snapping forward on impact, perhaps preventing skull and neck fractures, but Earnhardt and most other drivers shunned it as bulky and uncomfortable. Three other NASCAR drivers, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and truck racer Tony Roper, died last year of similar injuries. "We are not able to say" if the HANS device could have saved Earnhardt, said Dave Byron, a spokesman for Volusia County where the autopsy was done. The final autopsy report will not be available for several weeks, pending the completion of routine blood and toxicology tests, Byron said. "We don't expect that those will show anything," he said. Earnhardt's body was being released to the family later Monday, first going to a local funeral home, Byron said. Plans for services were pending.
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