And then there's this -> http://espn.go.com/classic/s/2001/0223/1104412.html
which sounds like it may be consistent with the broken sternum and ribs.
Alex Harris wrote:
> 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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