Safety Measures Taken by Formula One Body : Auto racing: Swift action designed primarily to reduce speeds in wake of tragedies.

With two racers dead and a third in a coma, the organization that runs Formula One auto racing took drastic measures Friday to make the sport safer.

Overriding its agreement with Formula One teams, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) unilaterally imposed measures designed primarily to reduce speeds.

“Anything that needs to be done--anything that we think usefully can be done--will be done,” FIA President Max Mosley said. “We don’t have any choice.”

FIA has been pressured to act since the deaths of three-time world champion Ayrton Senna of Brazil and Roland Ratzenberger of Austria in high-speed crashes during the San Marino Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Then on Thursday, the first day of racing since Senna’s death, Karl Wendlinger of Austria crashed during a warm-up before the opening qualifying session of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Some of FIA’s new regulations are to take effect immediately after Sunday’s race. The new regulations will reduce cars’ downforce, increase minimum weight limits and improve protection for the driver in the cockpit.

The action is an apparent violation of the Concorde Agreement, which stipulates that the teams and the governing body must agree on any major changes to the sport.

“The time has come, because of the gravity of the situation and the force of public opinion, to push aside such considerations and do what is right in the general interest of the sport,” Mosley said. “What we want to put forward does not meet with everyone’s approval.”

Doctors at Saint Roch Hospital in Nice, France, said Wendlinger was being kept in an artificial coma on a respirator to lighten the load on a brain bruise. His team said Friday it would not race Sunday.

Meanwhile, in Australia, 1980 Formula One champion Alan Jones said the Monte Carlo course is unsafe because it does not have enough escape areas for cars in trouble.

“Basically, the modern Formula One cars have outgrown the circuit,” Jones said. “It’s dangerous in a lot of places, but at the same time it’s difficult to shift seven-story buildings to create more run-off (areas).

“Because it’s Monaco, the drivers continue to race there.”