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Monday, February 19
Safety truly needs to come first
By Jerry Bonkowski
ESPN.com
Seventeen dead in 10 years. Seventeen funerals. Seventeen men killed pursuing their high-speed dreams.
That's the staggering, frightening, almost incomprehensible on-track body count that has taken its toll on the world of motorsports since 1991. All perished at high speeds ranging mostly from 150 mph to 310 mph.
|  | | No one will ever know if a head and neck system (HANS) would have saved Earnhardt in his crash with Ken Schrader. |
The death certificates keep piling up, with the cause of death in EVERY ONE of those 17 fatal crashes coming from basal skull fractures or other massive head injuries that snuffed out the lives of rookies, journeymen drivers and superstars alike, the latest victim being NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, who died after hitting the wall head-on at 180 mph Sunday in the closing lap of the Daytona 500.
At the same time their cars would go bang, their heads would snap like a dried out twig. Their bodies might be strapped in tight to the driver's seat, but their heads become a literal missile, snapping straight into the impact and direction of the crash. More often than not, the resulting fatal injuries have left their heads hanging limply from their bodies by nothing more than veins and skin, with all semblance of neck support gone.
End result: immediate death.
After each fatal crash, life goes on and the names of victims eventually fade back to the recesses of our minds. It is only when subsequent tragic deaths such as Earnhardt's occur that safety concerns in all forms of motorsports are rekindled, bringing the names of those who have died untimely and premature deaths rushing back into our consciousness.
Consider those who have perished behind the wheel in the past 10 years:
NASCAR: J.D. McDuffie, Clifford Allison, Neil Bonnett, rookies Rodney Orr and Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Craftsman Truck Series drivers John Nemechek (brother of Winston Cup veteran Joe Nemechek) and Tony Roper – and now Dale Earnhardt.
CART: Jeff Krosnoff, Greg Moore, rookie Gonzalo Rodriguez.
USAC: rookie Jovy Marcello.
NHRA: Blaine Johnson.
FORMULA ONE: rookie Roland Ratzenberger, Ayrton Senna.
IRL: Scott Brayton.
And that doesn't include others who died away from the track such as NASCAR drivers Davy Allison and Alan Kulwicki, or those who have been left permanently injured like former IRL competitor Sam Schmidt, who was left a quadriplegic after his spinal column was crushed from the impact of a crash while testing.
In the wake of Earnhardt's tragic death Sunday, it's easy to play Monday morning quarterback.
How many countless thousands of racing fans, officials, drivers, reporters and team owners – basically anyone associated with the sport from the fans in the stands to the multimillion dollar owners along pit road – are saying to themselves today what should have been done or what could have been done to possibly prevent such a tragic ending to NASCAR's greatest driver of the past 20 years (and perhaps all-time)?
But the end result is virtually nothing has been done. Nada, zip, zero.
Shame on NASCAR and its officials. Shame on track owners who are more concerned with profits than making true, concerted efforts at making their so-called racing palaces as humanly immune from death and tragedy as possible.
As easy as it is to play Monday morning quarterback, it's also quite easy to point the finger of blame at NASCAR for failing to address issues in a head-on way, much like the head-on impact that claimed Earnhardt's life. Granted, NASCAR has made cursory attempts to increase safety, such as restrictor plates and the automatic gas pedal shutoff system (to prevent stuck accelerators) that resulted from last year's deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin, but those were nothing more than first steps rather than an all-encompassing solution to solving what is an obvious safety problem in stock car racing today.
Even though some experts today have said there really was not much that could have been done to save Earnhardt's life, there are just as many experts that beg to differ.
I tend to agree with the latter, rather than the former.
There are many, many things that NASCAR could do to improve safety for its drivers, including mandating use of the HANS (head and neck support) restraint device, as well as accelerating development and implementation of so-called "soft" walls that absorb impact better and soften the trauma a driver endures when hitting the wall.
A recent report in the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel spelled out, in particular, the effectiveness of the HANS device in stark reality, saying that the majority of the aforementioned deaths from basal skull fractures or associated head trauma that have occurred in auto racing since 1991 could likely have been prevented if the drivers that were killed had been wearing the HANS restraint device at the time of their deaths.
Some news reports today have said Earnhardt could have survived Sunday's wreck if he had been using the HANS device. We'll never know.
But on the surface, NASCAR has done precious little on the safety front. It would seem the highest level of NASCAR officials, as well as the owners of the 30-plus tracks that the Winston Cup circuit visits, are more concerned about profits and counting TV, marketing and ticket revenue rather than forthright addressing the issue of safety.
Die-hard NASCAR fans might balk at that last statement, but let's look at the facts:
First, CART and Formula One – series where speeds routinely eclipse those of NASCAR – have mandated the use of the HANS device for drivers of all cars this year. NASCAR has not, citing among other things a lame excuse that drivers "don't like" the HANS device. Who cares if the drivers don't like it? NASCAR is the SANCTIONING BODY – it is going to make unpopular decisions that not everyone agrees with. So what? Who's running NASCAR, officials like Mike Helton or the drivers? If the drivers don't want to adhere to safety regulations, they can permanently park themselves. I guarantee it would take less time than the two seconds it took for Earnhardt to hit the wall after tapping bumpers with Sterling Marlin for drivers that balk to step back in line and accept NASCAR's edict.
The three major open-wheel series, CART, IRL and Formula One, have all spent millions of dollars in research in developing car tubs that not only absorb impact better but also break apart to prevent the high G-forces of a crash from propelling and pushing the damaged areas of the car into the driver's body. Granted, there is probably little that CART could have been done to prevent the tragic death in the 1999 season of budding superstar Greg Moore, but tests have shown that the HANS device would likely have saved the life of CART rookie Gonzalo Rodriguez, who died from a basal skull fracture (the same thing that killed Petty and Earnhardt) resulting from a crash with a wall in Monterrey, Calif., only six weeks before Moore's tragic death. How much money and research has NASCAR expended to making its chassis' more safe in recent years?
Drag racing is the fastest sport in the world, with top-level dragsters routinely eclipsing 325 mph in a burst down a quarter-mile racetrack. In 1996, Blaine Johnson was tragically killed in Indianapolis when his engine exploded, spewing shrapnel that immediately shredded a rear tire, causing Johnson to lose control and crash into a retaining wall at 310 mph. He died less than an hour later from massive head and torso injuries. Since then, the NHRA has taken extensive steps to not only make cars safer and be able to absorb impact better but also it continues to this day to coerce independent track operators to install the so-called "soft" retaining walls at their venues. Several drag racers this season also have started wearing the HANS device – look for even more to do so in the wake of Earnhardt's death.
The biggest hindrance to change, of course, is money. It takes a lot of cash to fix safety problems, particularly to tear up existing track walls and install "soft" walls or to develop other forms of impact-robbing devices. And with many track owners crying poor, claiming they don't have the funds available to make improvements, little has been done by NASCAR to force its track owners to do so.
What then, I ask, is NASCAR doing with the $2.4 billion dollars it is receiving from Fox, NBC and Turner for national network TV rights? Are you telling me that NASCAR can't spend a few million dollars to not only examine or develop new safety measures but also spread some of that cash around to tracks to actually pay for installation of the soft walls?
It was a year ago that I found myself in Darlington, S.C., not far from the fabled Darlington Raceway. I was at a nearby drag racing facility covering the season-opening race of the International Hot Rod Association, the alternative smaller cousin of the NHRA. I walked over to the pit of Top Fuel driver and team owner Jim Head.
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There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing more important to the future of drag racing or any other form of motorsport than driver and fan safety. I admit I'm a rebel, a troublemaker at times to people at the NHRA and IHRA, but do you think I want to die or have my friends die? I've already seen too many of them die, like Blaine (Johnson). To me, even one racer being killed is one too many.
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—Jim Head |
Some of you may recognize Head's name from his 10 years of on-and-off competition on the NHRA circuit, prior to jumping to the rival IHRA (mainly because it was more economical for the nonsponsored Head to race there) last season.
Head has long been an innovator in drag racing, using equipment and trying things – primarily for safety reasons – that most drivers initially scoffed at, only to eventually embrace those measures themselves when they saw how they worked for Head. What I had planned to be a 10- or 15-minute interview wound up being three hours of one of the most enlightening conversations I've ever had.
Head and I naturally talked about drag racing, with more than half of our chat being the subject of overall safety in the sport, as well as other forms of motorsports. Pardon the pun, but Jim is not just a talking Head. He knows what he speaks of. He is an immensely successful construction engineer, a man who has made himself quite wealthy over the past 30 years specializing in construction of things such as runways and sound and impact retaining walls for airports around the world. He has also consulted on numerous racetrack construction issues, including retaining walls.
Head has long been a thorn in the side of the NHRA (and now the IHRA) when it comes to safety, taking it upon himself to represent other drivers and their safety concerns. And while he admittedly has been a pest over the years, his actions have helped bring about several rules changes and safety upgrades.
Here are some excerpts of the interview I had with Head, particularly the relevancy and impact of how some of his year-old comments spanned all forms of motorsports, including NASCAR (and coming more than two months before Adam Petty was killed at New Hampshire):
"There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing more important to the future of drag racing or any other form of motorsport than driver and fan safety. I admit I'm a rebel, a troublemaker at times to people at the NHRA and IHRA, but do you think I want to die or have my friends die? I've already seen too many of them die, like Blaine (Johnson). To me, even one racer being killed is one too many.
"...The biggest problem facing drag racing, Indy car racing and NASCAR racing today are the walls. They don't give. They don't bend. You hit a wall head-on at 200 mph, you're dead, buddy. End of story.
"...Like here in the IHRA. Since I came over here, I've been trying to get them to have the track owners close up gaps in the retaining walls and to make the retaining walls built in such a way and with materials to keep drivers from dying or being seriously hurt.
"...But they say the cost is too much. How can you say it costs too much for driver safety? I even offered to help rebuild some of the walls with more energy-absorbing materials, but they say the track owners can't afford it. Well, if I'm going to commit myself to running on tracks like this and have myself and others risk our lives, you mean to tell me the track owners can't make a similar commitment to keep me and the other drivers as safe as possible?
"...As much as I hate to say it, it's going to take a lot more racers being killed before something is done. It may be a combination of a lot of things to stop (the deaths). It may be different walls, it may be safer helmets, more new construction of the chassis to absorb the impact of a crash better, all kinds of things.
"...But you know what? Until the IHRA, NHRA, NASCAR, CART and the others are willing to spend the money to help solve the problem, even if it means giving several millions of dollars to track owners to upgrade their facilities, you're probably not going to see much done. It'll probably take some real big names dying before this thing is finally addressed, but by that time, it'll be too late. They'll be gone."
It's time for NASCAR officials like Mike Helton, Bill France Jr. and others to step in and mandate any and all possible safety devices humanly possible – and damn the cost. Who cares about being liked or not liked by drivers? Who cares about being politically correct or not? Who cares if the drivers don't like certain changes? If Helton, France, etc., have the guts to say to the drivers "this is our game; you play by our rules or you don't play at all," rather than worrying about how much more money NASCAR can generate, or whether or not to issue media credentials to "magazine" or "nonmagazine" TV programs that allegedly infringe on TV rights holders, maybe the carnage will finally stop.
Yes, NASCAR has become America's most favorite motorsport over the past 20 years. Through a combination of down-home flavor and grassroots appeal, drivers, team owners and NASCAR officials have become wealthy and prosperous.
But NASCAR should be ashamed, downright embarrassed at losing nine drivers in 10 years, particularly an icon like Earnhardt. The sweeping excuse of "that's racin'" every time misfortune strikes is a sweeping indictment of an idiotic mentality. Are the good old boys down in NASCAR's headquarters in Daytona Beach and Charlotte really dumb backwoods hicks and rubes, too? Are they blind?
I know I'll probably draw some heat for saying this, but one of the first things NASCAR should examine is the bumper to bumper racing that contributed to Earnhardt's death. In CART, F1, IRL and other forms of road racing, competitors are flagged off by officials when they get too close to another competitor. Although it goes against the longtime history and aura of stock car racing, with drafting and things like that, but maybe NASCAR should start thinking of a similar move.
I'm not saying safety devices such as soft retaining walls or the HANS device are the be-all and end-all solutions to NASCAR's safety problems, but they are major starts in that direction. The time of makeshift remedies is over. It's time for the most serious changes necessary in NASCAR's 50-plus year history.
NASCAR prides itself in putting on good shows for the fans. But if fatalities such as Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Dale Earnhardt continue to occur with regularity, there may not be any drivers left to put on any kind of show, let alone a good show.
Perhaps NOW something will be done to bring auto racings death toll to a screeching halt. Perhaps NOW that The Intimidator ultimately proved he was mortal will NASCAR finally wake up. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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