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Breaking News: Earnhardt's seat harness was broken!

JoLLyRoGer

JoLLyRoGer

Diamond Member
We have CNN on all day where I work. They just found out that the left lap belt of the 5 point harness that the drivers wear was torn. This was not a result of the emergency crew removing Earnhardt from his car. It has been said that because of the torn restraint that Earnhardt's body was allowed to move forward resulting in his head and body making contact with the steering column most likely leading to the fractures in is skull, sternum, and ribs.


CNN Press Release.
 
It' true, NASCAR is still investigating this but I just finished watching the press conference and it was said that the harness was in fact compromised and had it not been then Earnhardt's chances for survival would have been much greater.
 
hmm.. i thought nascar people were supposed to be so "safe" what's with the not checking the 5 point harness.. grr..
 
There is no need for a lawsuit. Those kinda issues are involved when someone takes the risk to do those sort of things. Anyone can figure out that when you race a car near 200mph, some sh!t is bound to happen. My .02
 
Now that they found out that his harness was broken does that mean that they can resurect him or something? so they found out that his harness was broken. The fact is that he's still dead. Allot of good that information does now... 🙁
 
NASCAR is suppose to check the vehicle prior to the race. Perhaps they forgot this. It would really be odd if they found themselves at fault. More than likely they will just blame it on the accident.
 
yeah, i've seen those crashes before, and it was not THAT bad... but with the seat harness broken... hmmmmm

note: the crash was HORRIBLE, but it could've been worse...
 
Of course WE will hear that it happened during the accident I imagine, and it may have been, but............what if? I agree, it won't bring Dale Earnhardt back, but, what about all the others??????
 
I think they said that there was never a problem with the harness before, hmm. Going to have to see how it broke. There have been pretty bad crashes before, but havent heard the harness breaking in any. Tominator: I do work the navy, and we make displays, they go thru a shock test of 160 G's, and the displays survive those.
 
You guys still have to remember that whether the belt was broken before or after the accident the internal organs in the human body aren't strapped down with a seat belt heh... they're free floating and when your brain or something sloshes around in your skull bad things happen. 🙁
 
<<Now that they found out that his harness was broken does that mean that they can resurect him or something? so they found out that his harness was broken. The fact is that he's still dead. Allot of good that information does now>>

It certainly won't bring him back, but hopefully this information will prompt stricter safety checks so that this kind of thing might be avoided in the future.
 
Broken lap belt, open face helmet... Correct those two problems, and instead of Dale being dead, he's 'only' brain dead and in a hospital for the rest of his life. The accident was terrible, there isn't much that could have been done to prevent him from dieing in the accident, IMHO. I'm no physicist or doctor, but I don't think that anyone could have survived that crash with the current NASCAR rules.
 
What Perry said. Kenny Irwin, Adam Petty, and one other NASCAR (truck series though) died in the same head-on collisions into walls during the past year. I don't think a &quot;good&quot; 5 pt harness and full helmet would have saved Dale anyway.
 
Somehow I can imagine Bober as the green monster in the Listerine CoolMint commerical. You know, where the CoolMint strip gets shot into its mouth and then its eyes get big, and the head blows up? 🙂
 
You know when the autopsy said he had 8 broke ribs and a broke sternum I told my buddy the Big E fan that with a 5 point cinched the way it's supposed to be there was NO way that that could have happened and we both speculated that as much of a comfort seeker in the cockpit as Big E was that it was possible that he had a &quot;loose&quot; fitting 5 point. You know just something to give his body a little travel distance before it impacted something. It sucks to find out my speculation came half true. Hopefully they'll find out what caused it and it'll be a fluke, I'd hate to think it could've been avioded.
 
if nascar is so safe, why didn't they even bother to check the safety harness, or worse yet, it they did, how'd they let something taht major slip through??
 
According to the press conference the harness was brand new and broke between the roll cage fastening point and the central buckle in the lap area.Just a terribly unfortunate freak accident that has broken my heart that won't make Sundays ever seem the same...
 
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