Design of Cars Facet of Probe

NASCAR’s investigation into the death of racing legend Dale Earnhardt reveals safety problems in the design of the race cars, according to reliable sources close to the investigation.

The investigators also essentially confirm the findings of the court-appointed independent expert who determined Earnhardt died of a sudden head-whip action when his car hit the wall Feb. 18 in the final lap of the Daytona 500. The four-month investigation has been the most far-reaching independent inquiry in NASCAR’s 52-year history.

Multiple sources closely tied to the investigation have revealed some of the findings to the Orlando Sentinel but have requested anonymity. Here are three key points, according to the sources:

* NASCAR race cars, built by individual racing teams and inspected by NASCAR, lack sufficient crush resistance in the front ends to adequately protect drivers from the severity of crashes. Redesigning probably will be recommended, with energy-absorbent bumpers and the aluminum-foam “crush box” currently under development.

* Earnhardt’s fatal basilar skull fracture will not be blamed on a broken seat belt. Investigators have essentially confirmed the findings of Dr. Barry Myers, the independent expert appointed to settle a suit between the Sentinel and Earnhardt’s widow, Teresa. Myers in April found that Earnhardt died of a violent forward head whip. He said the seat belt, even if it had been broken in the crash, did not cause the fatal injury.

* Emergency medical technician Tommy Propst might have incorrectly concluded that Earnhardt’s lap belt was intact when he arrived at the crash scene.

NASCAR President Mike Helton and Chairman Bill France Jr. declined to comment on the findings of the investigation. It’s also unclear what NASCAR will do with the results.

Earnhardt’s death was the fourth in NASCAR in a nine-month span and focused national attention on the organization’s record on driver safety.

Five days after the racing legend’s death, NASCAR announced a broken seat belt had been found in Earnhardt’s car. Steve Bohannon, a physician employed by Daytona International Speedway, theorized that the breakage of the belt caused Earnhardt’s head to move forward and strike the steering wheel, causing his fatal injury.

But Myers concluded April 9 that the belt, even if it broke during the crash, didn’t cause Earnhardt’s death. That same day, NASCAR announced an expanded investigation using “internationally acclaimed experts” and promised the results in August. Bohannon later recanted his theory, deferring to Myers’ expertise.

NASCAR has refused to divulge the identity of its experts or the results until the investigation is complete. The report is scheduled to be released Aug. 21 in Atlanta.

The two major groups spearheading the investigation, sources say, are Biodynamic Research Corp. (BRC) of San Antonio and the Roadside Safety Research Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Both groups are outside the immediate NASCAR family of racing teams and suppliers.

Biodynamic Research is handling the biomechanical phase of the investigation--that is the body movement involved in Earnhardt’s death. As with Duke University’s Myers, BRC’s chief consultant to NASCAR, James V. Benedict, has a Ph.D. in engineering and a medical degree. Benedict’s primary partner, James H. Raddin Jr., holds a medical degree, and a master of science from MIT.

Chuck Merrill, vice president of operations at BRC, would neither confirm nor deny that his firm is involved. “I have no comment on that,” Merrill said.

Nebraska’s safety center is in charge of the car-crash part of the probe, led by Dr. Dean Sicking, who has a Ph.D. in engineering. He has not returned phone calls.

A third organization, Autoliv, a Swedish-based manufacturer of automobile-safety equipment with a major research and testing center in Auburn Hills, Mich., has been conducting various car-crash and crash-dummy testing as requested and/or directed by Benedict, Raddin and Sicking, sources say.

The investigation will complement NASCAR’s ongoing study of other safety measures, such as energy absorbing walls, the use of “black box” crash recorders, and the addition of a specialized traveling medical team. It’s unknown whether these topics will be part of the Aug. 21 report.

In addition, NASCAR hasn’t decided to mandate head-restraint devices. Since Earnhardt’s death, more than 75% of drivers in NASCAR’s elite Winston Cup series have begun wearing head-restraint devices--either the HANS (head and neck support) system or the “Hutchens” (which in testing has proved adequate, but not as effective as the HANS). A notable exception is Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Also since Earnhardt’s death, six drivers--Jeff Gordon, Ward Burton, Michael Waltrip, Roy “Buckshot” Jones, Elton Sawyer and Earnhardt’s teammate, Mike Skinner--have survived crashes at angles known to be conducive to basilar skull fracture. All wore a type of head-and-neck restraint.

Dr. Steve Olvey, medical director of Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc., wasn’t involved in the investigation and has been critical in the past of NASCAR but now praises the group’s thoroughness.

“It’s my understanding that NASCAR is doing a very thorough and complete investigation of the crash, similar to what the [National Transportation Safety Board] does with airplane crashes,” said Olvey, who also is an associate professor of neurosurgical intensive care at the University of Miami medical school. “So there may be more information that comes to light as a result of the investigation. But I think the final analysis of the cause of death is going to be consistent with what Dr. Myers reported.”

Among Myers’ most significant findings was that Earnhardt’s head would have whipped violently forward and down, regardless of whether the belt broke during the crash. Based on bruising to Earnhardt’s lower-left abdomen and other factors, he concluded that the belt did its job, holding at least until after the fatal head whip had occurred.

The head whip, he further found, caused two types of basilar skull fracture: inertial head “loading,” or separation stress on the base of the skull, and a violent strike of the underside of Earnhardt’s chin on the steering wheel as his head moved downward.

The consensus of experts is that the exact motions of Earnhardt’s head could not have occurred unless his safety harness held.

“Everything tells us the drivers are getting killed because their heads are coming off [not literally, but straining to come off due to G-forces]--because the body stops and the head doesn’t,” said an expert source extremely familiar with the fatal injury pattern in NASCAR. In Earnhardt’s case, “The belt did its job well enough to cause the basal skull fracture.”

“We know definitively that we had chest restraint in this case,” said another highly qualified expert. “There’s nothing about this case that points to the belt as somehow having caused it [the fatal injury to Earnhardt].”

The seat belt controversy was stoked by EMT Propst, the first rescuer on the scene after Earnhardt’s crash. Propst told the Sentinel that the driver’s seat belt--part of a five-belt safety harness--was intact when he reached into the car to unlatch it. But, according to the source very close to the investigation, “If you recreated this [the situation moments after the crash], you would see why he said what he said--because he didn’t know the belt was broken.”

NASCAR has reenacted the crash as part of the investigation, but Propst said he did not participate on advice of his attorney, because NASCAR would not allow the reenactment to be videotaped. The investigators say Propst could have felt tension from all of the four belts that remained intact, but especially from the right side belt, which came under stress when he pulled the latch toward the left side of Earnhardt’s body, sources said.

Propst on Thursday night remained adamant that he felt tension on the left lap belt as he jerked on the belt release. He disputes NASCAR’s suggestions that he was not in a position to feel tension on the left lap belt.

“That’s wrong,” Propst said. “I said the left one was tight and I pulled and jerked on it both ways.”

In the long run, the controversy over Earnhardt’s seat belt may not prove as significant as the questions about how NASCAR race cars are built. Ford Motor Co. has taken the occupant-restraint part of the Detroit effort to improve NASCAR safety, helping to develop a cocoon-like seat made of composite fibers. Ford last week formally recommended to NASCAR that drivers begin using the composite seats, which help manage body movement in crashes.

General Motors is participating in the car-structure part of the research and development Detroit manufacturers are doing for NASCAR to improve driver safety. Engineer Tom Gideon, GM’s racing safety manager, said the front ends of NASCAR cars “could be improved, and I think we’re going to work on ways of doing that.”

Rigid structure in the fronts of cars has been cited as a possible cause of G-spikes--the result of abrupt impacts--that kill drivers. The concern is focusing on the roughly two feet of mostly empty space between the nose of the cars and the heavy engine blocks.

In that space, only the radiator and some lightweight bars to support bodywork provide any crush resistance. So engineers believe the real culprit may be the engine block--that the cars smash too quickly until the crushing reaches the engine. At that point, they believe, the engine offers too much resistance, stops the crash too suddenly, and therefore transfers enormous G-spikes through the rigid tubular steel roll cages to drivers’ bodies.

“We’re looking for more energy-efficient ways to manage the whole crush sequence” of crashes, Gideon said. As for changes, “I think it’s very likely,” said Gideon, that crush resistance will be increased in the fronts of the cars, probably with energy-absorbent materials in the now-barren areas.

But, he added, “I wouldn’t think we’re going to get anything [new] in the cars this year, as far as structure. I’m just being realistic. I think it’s a long-term project.”

Meanwhile, Gideon points out, “You don’t see anybody getting hurt with the HANS on.”

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Ed Hinton covers motor racing for the Tribune Co. He can be reached at ehinton@tribune.com.