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Wednesday, August 22
Simpson's life, reputation have suffered
By Robin Miller
ESPN.com
INDIANAPOLIS -- He wasn't a great racer nor a great husband and not many of his friends would describe him as classy. He can be downright obnoxious when he's in the sauce and he can't spell political correctness, let alone practice it. But, for the past 40 years, the one consistent redeeming quality about Bill Simpson is that he's conscientious.
Nobody in the history of American motorsports has done more, or cared more, about the safety of race drivers than Simpson.
|  | | Seat belt maker Bill Simpson says he's upset with NASCAR's handling of the Dale Earnhardt investigation. |
From his days on the dragstrips of California in the early '60s to taming fire in his driving days at Indy in the '70s to making sprint cars less lethal in the '80s to assisting Winston Cup guys in the '90s, Simpson has always been on the leading edge of development.
He's without peer when it comes to being responsible and proactive. That's what makes NASCAR's treatment of him so vile and so demeaning.
Since Dale Earnhardt's fatal crash at Daytona, Simpson has died a thousand times because NASCAR left him dangling on the end of a rope and twisting in the wind. Instead of accepting culpability or assessing responsibility to the proper party, NASCAR chose to keep Simpson a suspect.
Instead of admitting Simpson's safety record with seat belts was impeccable and the only possibility of failure had to be self-induced by improper installation, NASCAR took the low road and suggested the separation of the lap belt increased the potential for serious injury.
Which, surprise, directly opposed what a Duke University medical examiner told a Florida court after viewing autopsy photos.
And that dog and pony show from Atlanta on Tuesday only reinforced my loathing for NASCAR's Hear No Evil/Speak No Evil/Say No Evil propaganda. Mike Helton delivered his message:
This is what happened, don't you dare question it.
So consider this column a NASCAR news conference, because you're only going to hear two voices -- mine and Simpson's.
While all the NASCAR apologists were praising the 293-page report and Winston Cup drivers were acting (the key word) satisfied, Simpson was rightfully seething Wednesday afternoon in his restaurant on the westside of Indianapolis.
"I'm sick of keeping my mouth shut," he said. "I really thought NASCAR might issue a formal apology to Simpson Safety Products down there (Atlanta) and instead they continue to spew that crap.
"This controversy should be over. Dale was restrained when he broke his neck. All NASCAR had to do was say what happened but they chose not to."
What happened was Earnhardt chose to mount his seat belts differently and everyone looked the other way.
"Dale liked to pull up his seats belts instead of pulling them down," said Simpson, who hunted, fished and palled around with the seven-time Winston Cup champion for the past 12 years. "We specify how the belts should be mounted and at what angle (45 degrees), but Dale's seat was four inches lower than anyone else's to accommodate how his belts were mounted.
"I was always telling him to at least make the hole in the seat larger so the adjuster wouldn't get hung up in it. I had three occupant restraint specialists, who work with NASA, the Navy and the Air Force, do a report and give it to NASCAR. They concurred that the seat-belt separation was caused by faulty installation. It was not up to spec by eight inches. But, hey, that didn't make NASCAR's report.
"I warned Dale all the time that this was going to bite him some day, but he just laughed and said I was going to check out before he did. I mean, we were good friends and shared a lot of laughs but he always did what he wanted to do."
What Simpson hoped NASCAR would do was share this information and exonerate his business. Instead, NASCAR expert Dr. James Raddin said: "It would be nice to see seat belts not separate in racing accidents."
Despite testimonials from racers everywhere and thousands of crashes much meaner than Earnhardt's where the belts didn't come apart, NASCAR never gave Simpson the benefit of his track record.
"NASCAR has the obligation to inspect the cars and Richard Childress Racing has the obligation to properly install the belts, so who's responsibility is it? Blame them, not somebody who didn't do anything like me.
"But by blaming us they take the heat off themselves. I'm not saying the belt didn't separate; I'm saying it failed because it went from 5,800 pounds of safety to 1,900 pounds of safety because it wasn't mounted properly. They were warned and chose not to do anything about it."
If NASCAR adopting black boxes and naming a series medical director didn't seem cutting edge (gee, welcome to the 20th century -- open wheel cars have had those things since the mid-'80s), it's total neglect in addressing the frontal impact problem (the chassis are too stiff) and overall arrogance (refusing to make the HANS Device mandatory like CART does on ovals) almost made you forget Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper lost their lives to basal skull fractures with no seat belt alibi.
The tragedy of Earnhardt's death is that it took losing a major star to get NASCAR to make some kind of safety gesture. But throwing Simpson under its bus is just as irresponsible as NASCAR's attitude.
"It's affected my personal life and my business life and I can't think about anything else," said Simpson, who moved out of Charlotte, N.C. and now lives in Avon (a suburb of Indianapolis). "I got tired of having guys come up to me in restaurants and say, 'Hey, aren't you the guy who makes the seat belts that killed Earnhardt?'
"It's sad because NASCAR has so much power and people in that organization are so scared to speak the truth. The only way to get the truth is to have a forum they can't control and that's in a court of law."
Simpson, who resigned as company president, was asked what his old buddy would think about this investigation.
"I think Earnhardt would throw a bomb at the NASCAR office," he replied. "He wouldn't believe it. And neither do I." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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