I hadn't seen this reported before. I'm not on the DML off-list... y'all can
take this over there if the discussion is still ongoing.
- Alex
++++++
Racing Past the Truth
Media misses the mark on Earnhardt accident coverage
http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=540
[excerpt]
It turns out, however, that Earnhardt didn't die from a basilar skull
fracture (although HANS demands are today running in every mainstream U.S.
newspaper). Preliminary autopsy results released late Monday revealed that
Earnhardt suffered a skull fracture which ran from the front to the back of
his head -- not the base. Further eroding the HANS cause, there was no
spinal damage, although the crash did break Earnhardt's sternum (previously
broken in a crash in 1996), eight left ribs and his left ankle.
[snip] ...Earnhardt's skull fracture is puzzling; the autopsy reported
"blunt trauma injury" to the back of the head. This isn't usually an injury
caused by the skull whipping forward, as is basilar skull injury. It's
caused by something hitting the rear of Earnhardt's crash helmet hard enough
to break his skull.
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