Of course the fans are following along this same path, some feeling that the report contained all that it needed to contain and others saying that Nascar is still doing nothing; only giving lip service to the safety issues. The best part of all this is that it has made for lots of interesting reading. The Internet message boards have been buzzing twenty-four hours a day with fans ready and willing to do battle with each other to make sure that their view is the one that is going to prevail; each side completely unwilling to admit that neither side is completely correct.

Sort of like most things in this life, isn’t it?

I have to wonder what exactly people expected from this investigation and report. We already knew the extent and types of injuries involved; millions of people witnessed the fatal crash either in person or on live television; there was no question that this was nothing other than a tragic racing accident. OR was there?

Up pops the separated seat belt. In their press conference a week after the accident, Nascar showed a seatbelt “similar” to the belt that was found separated in the # 3 Winston Cup car that Dale Earnhardt had lost his life in the previous week. Gary Nelson pointed out the area in which the webbing had separated, and it was quite clearly pointed out that this was only one issue that was being addressed. It was stated at that time that the broken belt was being sent out for lab testing to try and determine why it had separated. Dr. Bohanan speculated that the belt may or may not have been a factor in the fatality; he went into some detail at that time explaining his reasoning, but at no time did he state that the belt was the cause of the fatal injuries. I believe he was quite specific in pointing out that there was more testing and the autopsy results yet to be considered.

Now, enter Mr. Bill Simpson, the former owner of Simpson Safety Products, the company that manufactured the belts. Instead of taking the normal path and questioning why this belt broke; instead of telling Nascar, the Childress organization, and the other teams who use his restraint systems that this is something that he has never seen before, that we need to do some testing to find out what the problem is; we need to check the mounting of the belts in the car; Mr. Bill Simpson immediately reacts that this is impossible, Nascar is making him the scapegoat, that his belts do not break. Unfortunately for Bill, a short track racer had filed a suit against his old company for that exact reason, a seat belt broke and that driver suffered some serious injuries. v Then, to compound Bill’s problems, another belt was found to have a tear in the fabric after a crash in a Busch race. Bill’s own attorney’s advised both he and Nascar to avoid conversations unless they, Mr. Simpson’s, attorney’s were present, but Bill takes it upon himself to visit Nascar Headquarters without notifying either Nascar or his attorneys and then screams to the press that Nascar refused to even talk to him. This despite the fact Bill’s attorneys had told Nascar not to talk to Bill unless they were present.

Now Nascar is in even deeper water with the media and the fans because they “refused” to talk to Mr. Simpson when he made a special trip to Daytona to meet with them. Of course the initial version of this tale of woe stated that Bill was in town anyhow and just thought that he’d stop in for a chat with Nascar’s top dogs.

Enter the mystery video showing the belt being cut by a rescue worker; or at least it shows a pair of scissors on the roof of the car. All of this leads to the announcement that Bill Simpson is resigning from the company he founded because of death threats and the treatment he feel he is being subjected to by Nascar.

While this mess is playing itself for the media, we are shown the depths that people will descend to when first the Orlando Sentinel, and then both a website and a student newspaper go to court to gain access to photographs of Dale Earnhardt’s autopsy. At a time when Dale’s wife and family should have been allowed to grieve, be given support from the media and the fans, they instead must go to court to protect their privacy. Something about this little scenario should make everyone involved feel very, very dirty. At this time, as far as I know, there are still lawsuits over the sealing of those photos as well as the legality of the law that was passed to protect the privacy of the individual in case such as this. There certainly are some sick people residing in this old world, aren’t there?

Of course, all of this is considered to be the hottest news by the largest portion of the sports media, they make sure that it is spoon-fed to the fans, and, as the old song said, “the beat goes on, and on, and on.”

Onward to a week or so before the press conference to release the findings of the investigation; now we have a mysterious leak to Ed Hinton of the Orlando Sentinel, who tells us the investigation has found that the results agree with the report of their own expert who viewed the autopsy photos after getting a court order to be allowed to see them. Once again it seems as if everyone is up in arms, either for or against, and wanting to do battle with those who disagree.

How great the power of the press.

Well, on the 21st of August the report was released in a press conference in Atlanta, I’m not going to get into its findings here, they have been discussed by nearly everyone in this, and probably two or three other universes, and still folks are ready to do battle with those who disagree with their own opinion. It would seem that some people felt this report was going to tell them things that they didn’t already know, perhaps it would give them some sort of comfort and closure, (although I have no idea how an investigation of this type is going to give someone any type of closure). From what I have seen, the investigation did its job reasonably well. (I do have to admit that at this time, I have not read the complete report). It did point out areas of both the car’s design and construction that need to be addressed and improved as well as the need for ongoing work in the area of driver restraints and personal safety equipment. Oh yeah, they also felt that the broken seatbelt may, and here I must stress the word MAY, have been one of several factors that led to Mr. Earnhardt’s fatal injuries.

Is everybody happy now? Not on your life. Simpson now comes forward in his own press conference and claims that he had informed Dale many times in the past that the belts were improperly installed in the # 3 car, and of course he has witnesses to these conversations. Now he feels that perhaps he should take this matter to court, his whole life is a shambles, he has received more threats and even feels the need to carry a weapon for protection.

With all of the mudslinging going on, Richard Childress naturally had to issue a statement claiming that, to the best of his knowledge Simpson had never informed Earnhardt, himself, nor any of his crewchiefs that the restraints were improperly mounted; that those belts were mounted the same way they had been doing it since 1986. (I thought that one of the facts released back in February was that the belts in Earnhardt’s car were not mounted according to the manufacturer’s instructions, and questions were raised at that time as to the effect that might have had on them separating).

I’m not trying to make any determination as to who is right or wrong in this little game of “he said, no he said, but no you said.” I do think however, that just because someone has done something one particular way for years, doesn’t actually make that the proper way to do it. Mounting the belts that way may have worked all those years, but it would appear, if we are to believe the experts who conducted the investigation, that method of mounting the belts did fail at the worst possible time.

As for Bill Simpson, he has definitely been THE leader in racing safety for the last half of the twentieth century, not just here in the U.S. but worldwide. However, his actions since last February lead me to question his mental condition. It would appear to me that he could have served the interests of both himself and his business much better if he had worked with Nascar and the investigators and tried to determine exactly what the problems were instead of acting like a hurt child who imagines that his best friend is out to do him harm.

It has been said that this investigation didn’t say anything about the other fatalities of the last year. I have to ask why it should have? Both the Petty crash and the Irwin crash were the result of a known problem that steps had been taken to correct. The Roper crash was a racing accident, and again, changes were made to the trucks in an effort to keep that type of accident from occurring again.

But these drivers all died of similar injuries. But of course they did. The type of accidents that occur on the racetrack frequently result in this type of injury. I think the design of the human body, combined with the laws of physics, throw in the nature of a sudden stop from racing speeds, golly, we have a basal skull fracture.

For all of the armchair crewchiefs and engineers to sit back and cry that something needs to be done, that no one is doing anything, only shows how little attention those folks are paying to the sport. I think we’ve seen the used of head and neck restraints become much more prevalent since Adam and Kenny’s crashes, the use of restraint nets on both sides of the driver’s seat, modified seats, new designs, new materials, and ongoing crash testing of seats, restraint systems, even chassis and roll cage design. Oh yeah, and the testing to come up with a softwall system that will work with the heavier stock cars is also still being conducted as well. But some media and their fan followers would have us all believe that nothing is being done.

Perhaps we should simply redesign, re-engineer, and rebuild the human body? That might be the best solution, although it seems as if the current design has served us pretty well just as it is, for quite some time and I think that the female of the species is kind of neat, even at my advanced stage of life. But that’s another subject and probably better not to go there right now.

I read claims that racing, and Nascar in particular, is reactive; only making changes after the fact. Excuse me for thinking, but how else can the sport of auto racing be? While we can and must do all possible to make the sport as safe as possible, it would seem that just when we have a few years without fatalities, up pops that old devil and he shows us that more needs to be done.

Is racing too slow to react? Nope, to jump to conclusions and change simply for the sake of change is an open invitation to all sorts of problems and it would appear to me the sport has enough of those already.

We need to remember those who lost their lives in the sport they loved, certainly. But more importantly we must learn all that we can from this last year, do the testing and make the changes that are still needed, and let’s get back to the enjoyment, the excitement, and the sheer thrill of racing.

It’s either that, or we could all sit around and play tiddlywinks. There’s a nice safe game as long as no one stuffs a tiddle in your eye.

Thank you for your time.

Comments, questions, and hate mail to:
BoB
topaz@cyberportal.net

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