Safety expectations

[dd38]

[

And Dale's seat belts were not installed improperly......that is the NASCAR cover up.......they completely buried Simpson as the scapegoat.......[/QUOTE]




You got that right fred23! It was just a freak accident (and a cover-up). But someone/something had to be blamed. I guess Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty's seat belts were installed incorrectly too.

[sprint11]

No Ambulance

If there is no emt or ambulance at a track NOBODY should take the track.. OSW in the 90 's always had a ambulance ,if something happened we had to wait for a backup.. What the heck is wrong with these tracks and there are many. We raced out o0f town and there was always AMBULANCE or we didn't take track. Bubba has a 11yr old racing 360 sprint cars what a joke. Maybe this will wake him up or SHUT him down. There are plenty o0f tracks around central florida to race at..Safety fIRST BUT ACCIDENTS HAPPEN mAYBE IF THE RIGHT EQuIPTMENT WAS THERE IT WOULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE....just saying

[fred23]

Just found this video.....Keselowski tweeted it......very telling. There is also a video of Johnnny Benson I saw back soon after Dale died. It was an in car video of him in a late model.....It was amazing how far his helmet traveled.....almost completely off his head......this video shows a rally car wreck...the co pilot has a HANS the driver doesn't......


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g40Ya...ature=youtu.be

And Dale's seat belts were not installed improperly......that is the NASCAR cover up.......they completely buried Simpson as the scapegoat.......

[sbracer58]

An absolute tragedy to be sure...but much of the discussion has focused on her age as a reason kids shouldn't race "big cars". The size of the car or age of the driver almost never have anything to do with cause of death. (Who was more experienced than Dale Sr.?)

The VAST majority of the time it comes down to improperly installed or applied safety equipment. After all the dust (finally) settled on Dale's crash, it was improperly installed seat belt. Would some type of head and neck restraint saved him? No one knows for sure, but most likely. But the fact still remains, had his belts been installed properly he would likely still be with us today.

It's too early to tell what caused this tragedy...but it wasn't that she was too young in a "big car". Regardless of the cause, my heat breaks for that family.

[MJM10]

Sometimes something that looks safe to you is not. When I ran the Whelen Modified race at Daytona they made us watch a video on the updates to the seats this year and the seat belts for 2015...the video was actually pretty amazing in the fact that NASCAR does an incredible amount of testing, and I mean incredible, to make sure the drivers are safe. I know this is different as they are going 200mph, but it really is not different at all. You can die in a car going 45. I used to run speed boats that went 120-180 mph, well one time we were at a poker run and four people died when the boat flipped over turning back to the dock...they were going 60 at the time. I know its apples and oranges but in your head you think well if it flips going that slow I'll just jump out, or if I hit the wall going 50 mph I'll just hold my neck up or this flimsy aluminum pad on the right side of my head will keep my neck still, or my head will never reach that bar...when its just not true. The force on a body during impact is remarkable.

I mentioned the Nascar thing because every time there is an injury they put in hours and hours to make sure it doesn't happen again (even something like a broken collar bone), I feel like the safety is up to par in late models but not in many of the lower classes. If you are not a driver, just a spectator and you watched a super stock go around the track, then a late model a month later, you would say they are both going really fast. Even though it is a super stock, they are still going very fast, 80mph and 100mph are the same when you hit a concrete wall. I would never get in a car without a full containment seat and a HANS, I did when I drove sportsman and looking back it was so stupid. I put those aluminum head rails on the seat and hit the wall at New Smyrna, the thing was bent straight out 90* from where it started.

I wish every short track in the country was required to put up safer barriers like on the Nascar tracks, I know its completely unrealistic because of the cost, I just wish somehow it would happen. Maybe there should be a sanctioning body for the safety of short tracks and car requirements throughout the country. I just can't stand to see a young child get killed doing this.

[Benny The Mule]

Wow, what an "expert" opinion...

From what I understand, there was no ambulance or EMT on site...if that is true, it's criminal...correct me if I am wrong...if not hope they sue his azz off...

There is one in every crowd..........congratulations! you are the first.

[egspeedway]

Wow, what an "expert" opinion...

From what I understand, there was no ambulance or EMT on site...if that is true, it's criminal...correct me if I am wrong...if not hope they sue his azz off...

I am not offering this as fact but was told that some track insurance companies do not require an ambulance on hand if the track is within a certain proximity of a hospital.

[Winger]

If there were no emt or ambulance then every driver should boycott BRP.. though i doubt that was the case.every track should have more than one on hand ..

When I was shooting there, they had one EMT to cover the whole facility. They had an old ambulance for appearance sake but it was basically useless with doors that wouldn't open, no lights or equipment inside or anything else. Things may have changed but I doubt it.

rhinoracing11
Safety expectations
We had another young driver Sat. Night put themselfs in harms way doing what they perceived as, a love to race.She is 15, driving in her 1st race. On a dirt track, in a 4cyl Gladiator.Prayers goes out to the family.That being said....Should tracks let 14,15 yr olds drive? ALL drivers should have a HANS device and should be track regulated no hans no racing.Should so much pratice time be put in before you actully race.I beleive this happen last year as well another young driver injured him self.Tracks wake up!
Rob

There needs to be a lot of education in the field of safety at the tracks, particularly in regards to young people. It's hard to criticize parents who don't know any different and thought they were doing all they could. It looked like the parents of this girl did that. The car appeared to be well built, and she had a new helmet and fire suit. Padding is seriously lacking on a lot of cars, particularly in the lower divisions. Knowledge of helmets, HANS devices, seats, and seatbelts and how they all must work together to protect people, especially younger people is non existent locally. You don't want a HANS device without the proper full containment seat. A HANS device can get hung up on the back of a seat in a rear end collision if the wrong seat is used. That can actually cause a neck injury. Seatbelts must be properly mounted and then tightened, checked and tightened again, then tightened again. Helmets must properly fit. Helmets are now being made especially for children and should be fitted exactly for the child. Don't expect to buy a large one that they can grow into. I knew a kids head was bigger than an adults but they are actually longer and require helmets made for the different proportioned head. I didn't know that. Here's a link to a great site with some good safety videos for new young racers. It's done by professionals by one of the top racing groups in the world. Videos are done in plain language that everyone can understand. If you're a racer or plan to become one, it's worth visiting the site and watching the safety videos. Then you can go on to watch the fitness videos, nutrition videos, etc. I guarantee you'll learn something no matter how long you've raced. http://safeisfast.com/

[rhinoracing11]

Following the story leading up to the accident to me it was a recipe for diaster.She had never driven a car till that day and only drove it in the pits.She wanted to be like her sister, her sister had raced before.Racing is All she wanted to do.Personally the little girl was as brave as they come, she had No Fear.Thus a 15 yr old wouldent have the respect of the machine she was driving or really didnt know the dangers of what can happen.To me parents are to blame, no Hans no roll bar pads and no understanding of the situation you are in.
Rob

[sprint11]

No emt?

If there were no emt or ambulance then every driver should boycott BRP.. though i doubt that was the case.every track should have more than one on hand ..

[Jimmy McKinley]

Wow, what an "expert" opinion...

I'm not understanding your "opinion" comment. What was the "opinion" that I stated?

[Groundpounder]

The young lady's car at Ocala hit head-on; it wasn't a "right-front" hit (watch the video of the car being hauled off the track; the front took a *square* hit).

As for Dale's crash, what they found was that the seatbelt had been installed to the seat incorrectly, tearing the webbing of the belt. Bill Simpson got blamed for "faulty manufacturing" of the belts, and that's about when he sold Simpson Safety Products and started up Impact Racing.

Another part of Earnhardt's wreck was the fact that as he was hitting the wall, Schrader's car plowed into the right front corner at the same time, and Earnhardt's head and neck were strained in two different directions at once.

Wow, what an "expert" opinion...

From what I understand, there was no ambulance or EMT on site...if that is true, it's criminal...correct me if I am wrong...if not hope they sue his azz off...

[Jimmy McKinley]

This crash and picture are eerily similar to the wrecks of Dale and Adam Petty. They all involved a hard hit on the right front that angles diagonally back through the driver. In all three cases if the car had a very rigid roll bar setup the energy of the accident is transferred straight back to the driver. While I can't see the bars in the recent wreck we do know that NASCARs bars were ridiculously rigid before the generation 5/6 cars. To this day I believe this is what cost us Dale for sure.

The young lady's car at Ocala hit head-on; it wasn't a "right-front" hit (watch the video of the car being hauled off the track; the front took a *square* hit).

As for Dale's crash, what they found was that the seatbelt had been installed to the seat incorrectly, tearing the webbing of the belt. Bill Simpson got blamed for "faulty manufacturing" of the belts, and that's about when he sold Simpson Safety Products and started up Impact Racing.

Another part of Earnhardt's wreck was the fact that as he was hitting the wall, Schrader's car plowed into the right front corner at the same time, and Earnhardt's head and neck were strained in two different directions at once.

[Winger]

I posted this on another thread but I'll add it here. Watch this video of a 59 Chevy Bel Air colliding with a 2009 Chevy Malibu. I think you might be surprised. I was. The driver of the 59 Bel Air would have been killed instantly, while the 09 Malibu driver may have suffered a slight knee injury. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_ptUrQOMPs

[Bobby Diehl]

The cost of safety is never to high.

The FASTRUCK Series in 2003 made it part of the rules. No head and neck device no racing period. Impact at any track with concert walls can be fatal period. No one can't afford one period.
Just my 2 cents period.
Good luck.......