Join the Discussion "Sure, they've come light years from where they began (they used to not even wear seat belts), but its painfully obvious that there is so much more that could be done." HAWK

Related Resources • Dale Earnhardt • After Earnhardt • Focus On Safety

Dateline: February 26, 2001

Since the untimely passing of Dale Earnhardt, there has been an outcry in the media for NASCAR to make some radical and immediate safety improvements. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

Reviewing The Problem

Last weekend in Daytona Dale Earnhardt's seat belt failed. This type of failure has never been seen before in the fifty-two year history of the sport. How can NASCAR reasonably be expected to change the rules to accommodate this?

It was stated that due to the seat belt failure that the HANS device would likely not have prevented Dale Earnhardt's injuries, so why the new focus on this device now?

Similarly, after Tony Roper was killed in a truck series race last fall at Texas Motor Speedway there was an outcry for soft walls. Unfortunately, Tony hit the wall on the front tri-oval where there likely wouldn't have been soft walls anyway since tracks that use them typically only put them in the corners.

Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty both had their throttle stick. NASCAR then made some rule changes and improvements to the cars to help avoid future stuck throttles. NASCAR identified a clear problem and took reasonable steps to correct it.

Statistical Oddity

Essentially the recent rash of fatalities in NASCAR is a statistical fluke. Irwin and Petty stumbled across identical shortcomings of the throttle system and NASCAR fixed it. A failed seatbelt is a one-in-a-billion problem that happened to pop up last week.

Testing and development are underway on the HANS device and others like it and drivers are free to use the devices if they want to. Personally I would encourage drivers to test out the HANS device but understand that it was designed for a very different type of motorsports so it may not be the best solution for NASCAR drivers. The problems can and will be solved with time but forcing drivers to use the current imperfect device could cause more incidents since it limits the drivers view around him.

I also believe that work should continue on identifying a material other than concrete to build walls out of. NASCAR President Mike Helton has said that they have tested all known soft wall materials and have not found an appropriate solution. Again, lets not rush to implement the wrong solution.

Naturally people are seeking answers for what appears to be a rash of tragedy. However, until a clear problem is identified for NASCAR to fix or some new safety advance is developed and tested there is really nothing that NASCAR can do but continue to dedicate time and energy to seek out new solutions.

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