Earnhardt's Seat Belt May Have Been Cut!
Dateline: 04/15/01
It now appears that Bill Simpson was the scapegoat in a bizarre attempt to hide the truth about Dale Earnhardt's death. Previously, as all race fans are aware, NASCAR President Mike Helton had stated that Earnhardt's lap belt broke, allowing the driver to be thrown forward in the car and leaving him unrestrained during his fatal accident on the last lap of the Daytona 500. Simpson, one of the most respected names in motorsports equipment, and manufacturer of the belt that "broke", today announced that he has a video, filmed by a fan, that shows a rescue worker with a knife entering Earnhardt's car immediately after the accident and that it appears the belt in question was cut.
Simpson, who has maintained throughout this ordeal that the belt did not break, has been the target of death threats, lost business and a general loss of respect within the racing community. And for what? To keep the truth away from the fans? To cover up the facts? Only time will tell, but it appears that NASCAR is attempting to place blame for the accident, rather than find the facts in the case.
Just what are the facts? Actually, they are few and far between. First, NASCAR had been under fire by the Orlando Sentinel because of its safety record. Next, three drivers have died in the past year. Finally, NASCAR failed to mandate safety equipment such as the HANS Device, leaving its use up to individual teams. These facts are known by every team, every driver, every track official and every fan, so why the broken belt story?
Again, the answer may be very simple. The odds of a broken belt are so great that it would tend to draw attention away from the logical conclusion that the Sentinel was reaching in its investigation, that NASCAR does not pay close enough attention to the safety issues. We've all heard Mike Helton say, "Safety is our number one priority." But it really isn't. Instead, the number one priority of NASCAR is profit. Just like any business. Safety took a back seat to making the sponsors happy. A new tragedy, during the opening race of the season, would further solidify the forces who say that NASCAR isn't doing all it can to protect the drivers. It would mean bad publicity, right when NASCAR was starting a new season, on a new network, with new sponsors. But if that tragedy were caused by a "one in a million", freak accident, then NASCAR's lack of action isn't an issue, nobody blames them and there is no new controversy to possibly upset the apple cart. Bad publicity means lost revenue and NASCAR didn't want that, thus the diversion.
In my opinion, Dale Earnhardt died because of pride. NASCAR was too proud to admit that it needed to pay more attention to driver safety. If they had, they would have required some sort of head restraint system, like other forms of racing have done. The independent medical expert, Dr. Barry Myers, who examined the autopsy photos, confirmed that Earnhardt died of "head whip." Whether the HANS Device would have saved his life is unknown. What is known however, is that NASCAR appears to have concocted a broken seat belt story and attempted to shift the blame from their safety record to a totally innocent man. And that is something Dale Earnhardt would have abhored.
