Deaths like this aren't caused by any direct impact trauma to the body, it
is from within.
Inertia drives the head forward, typically tilting the head down and
stretching the neck vertebrae and spinal cord. At the same time the brain
pushes against the top of the skull then snaps back against the fragile
base of the skull. This fractures the thin ring around the spinal cord and
major arteries. The arteries and sometimes the nerves are cut by the
jagged edges of the shattered skull. Most often it is the nearly
instantaneous blood loss at the base of the brain not a broken neck or
severed spinal cord. The victim bleds out very quickly. This is called a
basal skull fracture and is the leading cause of death for our heros in
motorsports.
There was blood coming from Dale's mouth, nose, and ears on scene. He was
probably dead within seconds of the wall impact.
The G loading itself might have been worse without Kenny Schrader's punt
just before wall impact. The tail of Dale's car reached nearly all the way
to the flat of the track. It shot straight up the track in what really is
a worst case scenario for a racer, the only direction the head is not
supported is directly forward.
The schrader hit deflected the force laterally to a great degree. However,
racing accidents are exercises in chaos. Dale might have been physically
prepared for the impact and the Schrader impact may have knocked him out of
position and lowered or angled his head in such a way as to increase the
chance of a basal skull fracture type injury. The G forces necessary for a
basal skull fracture to occur maybe great, but depending on impact angle
and situation the speed necessary for a fatal accident may not be. One of
the worst accidents of this type resulted in the death of Penske rookie
driver Gonzalo Rodriguez. Telmetry recorded the G's at 71. He hit the
barrier above the cork screw at Laguna Seca at between 70 and 80 MPH. Jovi
Marcelos at Indianapolis was barely off-idle coming out of the pits.
Obviously, limiting speeds can't solve this problem.
These are never easy incidents for me. As a child, I grew up in a family
where all too often the phone would ring and my parents would become
shaken, later they'd explain to me that another racing friend had passed
away or been seriously injured.
There is something called the HANS (Head and Neck Support) device that has
recently been available to the racing community. Christian Fittipaldi and
Michael Andretti have been on a strong crusade for its use worldwide in all
professional motorsports. NASCAR hasn't shown much interest in its use.
Instead of aero-packages, I'd like to see them address the real issue.
Until very recently we didn't understand how these drivers died, now we do,
and there is something we can do about it.
http://www.cart.com/R15/news/CAR20000823qporxx00001wfc.html
www.hansdevice.com
Steve Ekstrand
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:59:20 EDT