Dale Earnhardt Accident Articles
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| 10 | 8/22/01 |
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| 09 | 8/21/01 |
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| 08 | 4/29/01 |
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| 07 | 5/2/01 |
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| 06 | 2/19/01 |
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| 05 | 3/5/01 |
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| 04 | 2/22/01 | Dale
Earnhardt Accident, The Funeral Service, A Legend With the Guts and the
Glory:
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| 03 | 4/10/01 | Expert Says Earnhardt Died of Head Whip: Dale Earnhardt died when his head whipped violently forward in the seconds after his car hit a wall going 150 mph at the Daytona 500, an independent medical expert has concluded. | |
| 02 | 2/27/01 | The Last Lap: For Dale Earnhardt, the race was never over. Back when he was winning everything in sight--11 races one year, nine in another--he would come home some nights mad as hell about something that somebody had done to him on the track. Squeezed him, bumped him, as if he would never do such things himself. And this was after a victory. | |
| 01 | 2/18/01 | Dale Earnhardt Sr. Killed on Last Lap of Daytona 500: Stock car racing's greatest current star and one of its most popular and celebrated figures, Dale Earnhardt, crashed and was killed today after he made a characteristically bold lunge for better position on the last turn of the last lap of the sport's premier event, the Daytona 500. | |
| (These links below are our most important links and are not on this page) | |||
| Index - Earnhardt Accident Photos and Articles | |||
| Earnhardt Accident Photos Plus Coroner's Autopsy, Police & Medical Examiner Reports | |||
| Album 2 - Album 1 Photo Albums | |||
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| b | 6/9/01 | Earnhardt's Seat Belt Really Broke (Police Photo Shows) Daytona Beach police on Friday released photos of the controversial seat belt that NASCAR says broke apart when racing legend Dale Earnhardt's car slammed into the wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500. | |
| c | 2/18/01 | Police Accident Report Down at the Daytona Beach Police Department, the stuff of legend amounts to precisely 64 words. Even a minor fender bender would probably generate a longer narrative. But the sparse language of the Dale Earnhardt "incident report" epitomizes the generally hands-off attitude that the world of law enforcement has toward the world of stock-car racing. | |
| d | 2/18/01 | Video of Last Lap | |
| e | 2/26/01 | Earnhardt's Final Autograph Brings $41,000 For School Dallas Morning News | |
| f | 4/10/01 |
Text of Medical Examiner's Report Text of Medical Examiner's
Report,
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| g | 4/10/01 | Timeline Photo Sequences (Photo) By Barry Myers, M.D., PhD Duke University | |
| h | 2/19/01 | Autopsy Report (CAUTION: vivid and descriptive) | |
| i | How accident happened graphic | ||
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For more articles, see: Index 1 - Links August 22, 2001 Several Factors Killed Earnhardt, Report Says By DAVE CALDWELL, NY TimesATLANTA, Aug. 21 — Dale Earnhardt, the seven-time Winston Cup champion, most likely died of a fracture at the base of his skull Feb. 18 at the Daytona 500 when the unprotected part of his head hit either the steering wheel or the bucket seat inside his famous No. 3 black Chevrolet, a team of independent experts commissioned by Nascar said in a report that was released today. While a torn seat belt was determined to be a factor in Earnhardt's death, the panel of experts said Earnhardt was the victim of a series of events that Dr. Dean L. Sicking, the director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, called a worst-case scenario. Sicking and Dr. James H. Raddin of Biodynamic Research in San Antonio ran through details of the chain of events during a nationally televised two-hour news conference today in a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency hotel here. "We can't identify a single factor enough to say, `It was this and not that,' " Raddin said. Nascar's president, Mike Helton, said at the news conference that his organization planned to take several safety-related steps in the aftermath of the Earnhardt investigation, including the installation of crash data recorders, or "black boxes," in Winston Cup and Busch Grand National cars by the start of the 2002 season. Helton, however, stopped short of making any immediate changes to Nascar rules. Forty-one of the 43 drivers who participated Sunday in the Pepsi 400 in Brooklyn, Mich., wore a form of the head-and-neck restraint devices that Earnhardt had not worn. Among them was Earnhardt's 26-year-old son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who wore a restraint for the first time. Helton said Nascar would continue to recommend the devices to its drivers, but would not mandate them. He said Nascar did not want to implement changes that might jeopardize existing safety features. "There's not a bulletin going out this afternoon to change the laws at the racetracks or the roll bars in the race cars," Helton said. The 324-page Nascar report, which took more than 50 experts nearly six months to complete, differed somewhat from the conclusion of Dr. Barry Myers of Duke University. Myers said in April, after looking at Earnhardt's autopsy photos for The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, that Earnhardt probably died of a basilar skull fracture when his head whipped forward violently at the time his car hit the Turn 4 wall at Daytona International Speedway. Earnhardt, the Nascar team said, said such a situation was most unlikely. Myers could not be reached for comment today. The investigation team commissioned by Nascar did not have access to the autopsy photos, which were sealed in court at the request of Earnhardt's widow, Teresa. The team did have access to the autopsy report, the wreckage of the car and videotape of the accident. Then it was able to replicate the crash in a laboratory setting. Several elements, the report said, contributed to Earnhardt's death. • Raddin said Earnhardt had made "variations" in the way his seat belt was connected, particularly in his crotch and over his shoulders. That, apparently, was not unusual for Earnhardt. Still, the way his belt was connected may have caused his left lap belt to bunch up during the accident. The belt then tore when Earnhardt hit the wall, and he was propelled into the steering wheel. An emergency medical technician who tended to Earnhardt said that it appeared the seat belt had been cut while getting him out of the car, but today, Helton said, "The evidence shows he was just wrong." • Earnhardt's car was bumped before it hit the wall by a car driven by Ken Schrader. The collision with Schrader had two effects. Earnhardt was jostled violently in his driver's seat. His car was then sent into the wall at about 160 miles an hour at an angle that was more severe than it would have been had Earnhardt's car not been hit by Schrader's. Only four-tenths of a second — two times the duration of an eye blink, Raddin said — separated the collision from the crash. Earnhardt had virtually no time to straighten his head. The investigation team said it was unclear if a head-restraint device would have saved his life. • Earnhardt's car decelerated by 42 to 44 M.P.H. when it hit the wall. Raddin compared the impact to that of a car traveling 75 to 80 M.P.H. hitting a parked car of similar make. Earnhardt was propelled with such force, Raddin said, the velour finish of his seat melted. Raddin said it could not be determined if Earnhardt died when his head hit the steering wheel or the seat upon rebound. But the report did say that Earnhardt's helmet had been displaced, and that the unprotected bottom of the left side of his head had hit the inside of his car. Dr. Alan Nahum, a professor emeritus of surgery at the University of California in San Diego, was one of two peer reviewers of the report. He said in a telephone interview today that the investigation team would have benefited greatly from viewing the autopsy photos, but he was confident that the team had arrived at a logical conclusion. "I think all the pieces fit together with the scenario," Nahum said. "What happened was unusual, but every accident is different." Richard Childress, the owner of Earnhardt's car, sat in the audience during the news conference and did not take questions. In a statement released to the news media, he said, "I commend Nascar on the thorough and unbiased job they did in this investigation and accept their findings." His statement continued: "It is now time to move on. This has been a very painful process for a lot of us, and I hope today's statement can bring us some closure. All of us — owners, drivers, manufacturers and independent research groups — need to continue to work with Nascar to ensure a strong future for our sport. I know Dale would want it that way." In another statement, Teresa Earnhardt said, "The findings released today are based on the most comprehensive information available and appear to be consistent with previously released medical reports and our own understanding." Bill Simpson, whose company manufactured the seat belt worn by Earnhardt, held a news conference later in the day. He said that an investigation team he commissioned found no design flaws in the seat belt and that the belt failed because it had not been installed properly. Helton said other safety-related steps would complement the use of the crash data recorders. An advanced research and development center is expected to open in Conover, N.C., next year. Nascar also plans to hire its own medical expert to assist local physicians at tracks. Asked if he planned to start a drivers' safety committee, Helton said: "We have one. It's 43 drivers every Sunday." But he emphasized the importance of communication among participants. At the beginning of the news conference, with a large blue screen backdrop that read, "Official Accident Report — No. 3 car," Helton said, "We will continue to approach this with a firm belief that even in a sport where danger is inherent, any single death or serious injury is one too many." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/22/sports/22AUTO.html?todaysheadlines
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For more articles, see: Index 1 - Links NASCAR releases findings of fatal Earnhardt crash probe Posted: Tuesday August 21, 2001
3:18 PM
ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) -- Six months after the death of Dale Earnhardt, a NASCAR investigation determined a broken seat belt was a factor in The Intimidator's death. However, the report does not recommend widespread changes to improve safety. The findings were released Tuesday and found the seat belt, the collision with another car and angle and impact in which Earnhardt hit the wall all played a role in the fatal crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18. "We are dismayed and disappointed that NASCAR leaves open the question of whether the belt separation caused Dale Earnhardt's injury, and failed to mention that the installation did not conform to manufacturers specifications," said Jim Voyles, an attorney for Bill Simpson, maker of the safety belt. "The shadow that continues to be cast is in the direct contradiction to our experts. "NASCAR failed to mention that seat belt was not installed according to manufacturer specification, and this improper installation was the cause of the separation of the webbing." In its two-volume report, NASCAR said that beginning next season it will install "black boxes" in cars to help understand the forces during crashes and improve safety. In mandating the installation of "black boxes," which will only record data, NASCAR is following the example of CART and the Indy Racing League. Ford and General Motors has been supplying black-box technology to the two leagues for several years in an effort to better understand the forces in crashes. Until now, NASCAR had resisted using the boxes on its cars, in part because it feared teams would use the information for competitive advantages. However, NASCAR will not require drivers to wear head and neck restraints, although it said it encourages their use. "We are still not going to react for the sake of reacting," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. Earnhardt was not wearing a HANS restraint when he was killed, but NASCAR said it was unclear whether the device would have saved him. Use of the devices has dramatically increased since his crash; 41 of 43 drivers wore them in Sunday's Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Helton said NASCAR will use computer models to design safer cars and will be involved in testing of race track barriers. However, the report contained no recommendations on changes to cars or barriers. "There's not a bulletin getting ready to go out this afternoon to change walls at race tracks or roll bars in race cars," Helton said. "But there was an effort that began this time last year, and that became very aggressive as we were given opportunities in a very tragic way to understand things that we never understood before." Kyle Petty, father of NASCAR driver Adam Petty, who was killed in an on-track crash last year at Loudon, N.H., said, "Even though the results were announced [Tuesday], the drivers and teams have been seeing a lot of these results all season long. There have been plenty of times that someone from NASCAR would come through the garage asking and checking different things in the driver's compartment, making suggestions and offering some new ideas. "I guess the public heard some new things, and maybe we heard a few new things too," said Petty, who drives the No. 45 Dodge. "But by and large, a lot of things NASCAR has learned since February have already been implemented. They didn't make a big deal out of it, and neither did the teams." Dr. James H. Raddin Jr., one of the lead investigators, said the conclusion of the report is that "there were a number of factors in which the timing came together" to cause Earnhardt's death. Raddin said one finding was that Earnhardt's left lapbelt broke from the force of slamming into the concrete wall, allowing the driver to be flung further forward and to the right than if the entire five-point seat-belt harness had remained intact. He added, however, that the study found the collision with the car driven by Ken Schrader before both slammed into the wall might have played a major role in the death of the seven-time Winston Cup champion. Earnhardt was thrown to the right, and his fatal injuries apparently came when his head turned, his helmet rotated on his head, and the left rear of his skull was left bare to hit the side of the steering wheel, the rear of the seat or both, the report said. A second investigator, Dr. Dean L. Sicking of the University of Nebraska, found that the car was traveling between 157-160 mph when it hit the wall. In finding that the fracture started with a blow to the back of the head, Raddin disagreed with a court-appointed, independent medical examiner who determined the fracture was caused by a violent head whip. That examiner, Dr. Barry Myers of Duke, studied Earnhardt's autopsy photos and concluded earlier this year that seat-belt failure "does not appear to have played a role" in his death.
"It is now time to move on. This has been a very painful process for a lot of us and I hope [Tuesday's] statement can bring some closure," said Richard Childress, Earnhardt's longtime car owner. "All of us -- owners, drivers, manufacturers, and independent research groups -- need to continue to work with NASCAR to ensure a strong future for our sport. I know Dale would want it that way." Teresa Earnhardt, widow of the seven-time Winston Cup champion, said in a statement: "My family and I appreciate NASCAR's thorough report into Dale's accident. The findings released today are based on the most comprehensive information available and appear to be consistent with previously released medical reports and our own understanding. We thank NASCAR for its good faith effort to make the facts known, and look forward to hearing future recommendations." Helton said the stock car racing organization will commission a study on restraint systems to take a closer look at seat-belt strength. NASCAR also is working on opening a research center in Conover, N.C., sometime next year and will continue to work with experts on car safety. But NASCAR will not mandate the use of the head and neck restraints that are designed to reduce violent head whips in crashes. "We are pleased that a majority of Winston Cup drivers now use them," Helton said. "But we are not completely satisfied. We have intensified our efforts with drivers, equipment manufacturers and outside experts with the goal of helping all drivers find a system in which they feel comfortable and safer." As for the seat belt, Raddin ruled out that is was cut by rescue workers as they tried to remove Earnhardt from the battered car. Five days after the fatal crash, NASCAR said a broken seat belt had been found in the car. "The physical evidence is clear," said Raddin, who displayed a blown up photo of Earnhardt's seat belt. "This was not a cutting of a belt afterward. This was a belt that separated under load." Raddin, a director with San Antonio-based Biodynamic Research Corp., attributed the break to a phenomenon called "dumping," which is when the webbing is pulled or moved to one side of the adjustment device through which the belt webbing travels. When a dumped belt is under stress, it can separate and tear across the entire webbing. Raddin concluded that the dumping was not caused by driver adjustment because the marks on the left lap belt showed it was tightened in a symmetrical fashion. The controversy over the seat belt, made by Simpson Race Products, led to the resignation of the founder of the Charlotte, N.C.-based company. Simpson quit last month, saying the stress "got to be too much." Earnhardt died of a massive blow to the head, concluded Dr. Thomas Parsons, a medical examiner in Daytona Beach, Fla., who conducted the autopsy. Earnhardt had a skull fracture that ran from the front to the back of his head and the impact also fractured his sternum, eight ribs on the left side and his left ankle. According to those close to the investigation, NASCAR spent more than $1 million, bringing together outside experts to delve into Earnhardt's fatal crash, as well as taking a second look at relevant details from the crashes that claimed drivers Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper. The two organizations that led the investigation are Biodynamic Research Corp. and the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska. A third group, Autoliv, a Swedish-based manufacturer of safety restraint systems with a testing center in Auburn Hills, Mich., was brought in to focus on the failure of Earnhardt's belt. Last month, Autoliv demonstrated for CNNSI.com that in rare circumstances, if not properly installed or worn, the heavy-duty belts could rip apart upon impact. The point was earlier made during a re-enactment conducted this spring in North Carolina, attended by two of the paramedics who worked on Earnhardt at the accident scene, Helton, Schrader and representatives of Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. "When it was explained to me how the belt broke, then it all made sense," said Patti Dobler, one of the paramedics. "It had to do with that swivel piece you put the seat belt through and pull through to the other side to adjust it, on the left hand side and down low, where the seat belt mounts to the floor. "When he hit the wall, the belt got pushed forward and got jammed up into the swivel thing, and then it just tore." Simpson, founder of the company that supplied Earnhardt's belts, has also had two separate investigative reports compiled and forwarded to NASCAR attorneys in Washington. Simpson expects his findings -- which clear the company -- to be mentioned by NASCAR, and stands ready to challenge any flaws he perceives in the final report.
CNNSI.com has learned that Simpson attorneys have asked NASCAR to address a handful of points in its report that would clear the company, including: NASCAR has not responded to the Simpson request, and company officials arrived here expecting to not be fully satisfied with the sanctioning body's response. Helton and the two lead investigators met with the majority of the drivers at a North Carolina country club early Tuesday morning to present their findings and answer questions. Among those in attendance at the presentation where Earnhardt's eldest son, Kerry, his daughter, Kelly, and several members of Dale Earnhardt Inc. Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not attend the presentation, but a NASCAR spokesman said Helton has privately gone over the report with him. Earnhardt Jr.'s spokesman said the driver would have no comments Tuesday.
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For more articles, see: Index 1 - Links Orlando Sentinel: Rescuer says Earnhardt seat belt intact Posted: Sunday April 29, 2001 4:59 PM
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Dale Earnhardt's seat belt was intact after his fatal Daytona 500 crash, according to one of the first rescuers on the scene, who said he had problems unbuckling it. The emergency medical technician's recollection contradicts NASCAR's claim that the belt was broken in the crash. Tommy Propst, an Orange County firefighter and emergency medical technician who was one of the first on the scene after the accident, said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel that he struggled to pull open the seat-belt buckle before finally releasing it. NASCAR claims that Earnhardt's left lap belt broke when his No. 3 Chevrolet crashed into the track wall in the final lap of the Feb. 18 race. "Somebody hollered, 'I'll cut it.' I said, 'No, let me try it.' I reached over, pulled, and I had to really jerk. I pulled hard, and that's when it come open," Propst said. "If it would have been broke, the whole thing would have come open because I was jerking. ... It was in one piece at the time." Propst, a 24-year veteran of the Orange County Fire Rescue, said no one from NASCAR has yet questioned him about what he found when he reached Earnhardt's car less than a minute after the 4:39 p.m. EST crash. "If they're doing this big investigation and they wanted to know the truth, why wouldn't they interview the one that took the seat belt off?" he said in the interview, published Sunday. Efforts by The Associated Press to reach Propst were unsuccessful. A telephone operator said Propst's number was unlisted and unpublished.
Winston Cup director Gary Nelson disagreed with Propst's account. Nelson said that to his knowledge, the only person in the car was a female rescue worker. A male rescue worker was kneeling and leaning in the other window, he said. "When the woman tried to unhook his belts, she said she didn't find the buckle in the usual place," Nelson told The Associated Press on Sunday. "They searched for it and found it wedged over at one side. They said the buckle was out of place and the belt seemed loose." NASCAR has refused to display the seatbelt and is conducting its own investigation by unidentified experts expected to continue throughout the summer. NASCAR officials have not said whether the details of the investigation will be made public. "I don't know of anybody that does a big investigation and tells the world their conclusions on a daily basis until the investigation is concluded," NASCAR Chairman Bill France told the AP. Earnhardt's autopsy found that the base of his skull was cracked, causing massive internal injuries and resulting in an almost instant death from the impact of the crash. Similar injuries caused the deaths of three other drivers last year, causing some to question whether NASCAR should require drivers to wear safety devices that restrain the head and neck and keep them from being jolted forward. At a news conference a week after the fatal crash, NASCAR officials said the seven-time Winston Cup champion's seat belt was broken. Steve Bohannon, an emergency-room doctors who worked on Earnhardt after the crash, said he thought the faulty belt allowed Earnhardt's head to strike the steering wheel of his Chevrolet. Propst said he and partner Jason Brown expected to find Earnhardt uninjured but instead found him motionless in his seat, his head on his chest and his right hand and arm on a spoke of the steering wheel. The wheel also was bent to the right. Earnhardt's goggles were torn from his face and his shoulder belts were stretched about four inches, Propst said, but he noted that Earnhardt may have loosened the straps during the race. "Jason raised his head up. He had those cold, steel eyes," Propst said. "We actually looked at each other and, you know, we knew right then that he was dead." Propst said the first thing the pair tried to do was remove Earnhardt's helmet. Brown bent his scissors trying unsuccessfully to cut the chin strap. He then undid the chin strap by hand so he could open Earnhardt's mouth to force air into his lungs, Propst said. Patti Dobler, another rescuer, tried to remove Earnhardt's seat belt, also unsuccessfully, Propst said. Propst said he leaned into the car, reaching across Earnhardt's body for the Velcro tab over the seat-belt buckle latch, which was wedged against Earnhardt's body. Propst said he did not see any cuts or tears on the seat belt. A spokesman for Earnhardt's widow said she was following the NASCAR investigation but did not comment about the discrepancies in the seatbelt reports. "It seems that this is in NASCAR's realm, not in Mrs. Earnhardt's realm," Peter Himler told The Associated Press on Sunday. Himler said Teresa Earnhardt's primary concern was keeping the autopsy photos private. Florida lawmakers passed a law following a court fight over access to the Earnhardt autopsy photos making it a felony for the photos to be made public without a court's permission. "She's interested in the developments of the case and following the investigation that NASCAR's undertaken, but the question of what NASCAR said or did following the accident is NASCAR's domain," Himler said. Source:
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For more articles, see: Index 1 - Links Rescue worker offers her account of Earnhardt seat belt
May 2, 2001 For nearly three months, Patti Dobler, a 37-year-old single mother of two children, was the mystery rescue worker who crawled into Dale Earnhardt's mangled race car after a fatal last-lap crash Feb. 18 during the Daytona 500. And, according to NASCAR, Dobler was the person best positioned to tell if his seat belt broke. Meanwhile, CNNSI.com has learned that top NASCAR management officials from across the country are scheduled to gather Wednesday in Daytona, Fla., where the direction and handling of the Earnhardt probe looms as a key topic of discussion. There has already been grumbling within the corporate sponsorship community about NASCAR's perceived missteps. So, what's the story? Is NASCAR's stance that the belt failed on solid ground? Dobler isn't sure, though she lends a bit of credence to fellow paramedic, Tommy Propst, who insists Earnhardt's five-point safety harness was intact after his car shot into the concrete wall. "I don't doubt him," Dobler says of Propst's contention. Reached on her cell phone at Daytona International Speedway, where she works about six days a month as an emergency medical technician, Dobler said she was called a week after the accident by an investigator for NASCAR, who didn't make a major issue of the seat belt. "One of the questions was, 'Were the seat belts loose or tight?' But he never asked me if it was intact or if it was cut," says Dobler. "That was never an issue, not when I talked to him. And that was the only time I talked to him."
Propst says investigators never contacted him. Propst, an Orange County, Fla., firefighter, has been a thorn for NASCAR in recent days, popping up on at least a dozen TV news shows since his account was reported by the Orlando Sentinel. Propst insists Earnhardt's lap belt was not broken when he reached inside the car to free it. NASCAR's response has been that Dobler had the better view, having crawled into the opposite window and positioned herself at Earnhardt's right side. And on Tuesday, NASCAR's campaign received a much-needed boost when Dale Earnhardt Jr. stood by its assertion that the belts failed. "I'm not discarding anyone's statement as fiction," says Earnhardt Jr., "but there are always going to be two sides. I believe the belt broke." Dobler, a regional sales manager for an Internet company, has "an opinion" -- but she's not offering it for fear it'll be taken as fact. Dobler wonders how she landed in this mess, anyway. It was only a race-day shuffle that saw her join Propst and his regular partner, Jason Brown, on the EMT unit positioned above turn 4. Now, she's being pulled by Propst to back his story and pondering the idea that, "I don't want to get into a battle with NASCAR, either." But does what Propst has put forward make sense? "He's a pretty down-to-earth and honest man," says Dobler. "So, I don't doubt what he says he saw. [But] it would be hard to see from outside the driver's window unless he was looking down in there. ... Hey, he could have been looking there. "My first concern was my safety and the safety of the crew ... to shut down the engine and make sure there was no fire and to attend to Dale Earnhardt. I wasn't in there looking to inspect the seat belt. All this came up afterwards." The faulty seat belt has been NASCAR's core theory, however, since either the night of the accident or the next morning, depending on which official is to be believed. Officials kept the seat belt out of the public spotlight until a news conference five days after the crash during which a Speedway doctor suggested that the failure could have contributed to the head injures that killed Earnhardt, a seven-time Winston Cup champion. That idea was contradicted by independent biomedical expert, Dr. Barry Myers of Duke University. After studying autopsy photos, Myers surmised Earnhardt died when his head whipped violently forward during the collision. Similar basal skull fractures have been linked recently to several other deaths in NASCAR, opening officials to criticism for not mandating the use of a head-and-neck restraint device. At the same time, officials must deal with Bill Simpson, head of the company that made Earnhardt's seat belts, who reportedly will ask that a statement be issued clearing his company in a meeting Thursday with NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. and president Mike Helton. Helton has declined to discuss the investigation, saying he'll only address it when the review is completed late this summer.
The NASCAR president, however, called Dobler on Sunday to apologize for any undue attention incurred since her role in the Earnhardt investigation surfaced recently. Dobler refutes assertions that NASCAR had a "gag order on me," saying it was her prerogative to remain on the sidelines. After working Tuesday at the Daytona International Speedway, which is currently site of the Richard Petty Driving School, Dobler offered CNNSI.com her most detailed account yet of what transpired in the frantic minutes after she and two other emergency medical technicians reached Earnhardt and his black No. 3 Chevrolet. "I climbed in through the passenger window," says Dobler, who has worked part-time four years at the Daytona. "When I got in the car, the engine was still running so I flipped the toggle switch to shut the engine off and reached across Mr. Earnhardt and swiped the panel, turned off all the toggle switches and then pulled his head back. By this time, Jason [Brown] was trying to ventilate him. Tommy had called for 99, which is the doctor, the transport truck and for the tool truck. [Earnhardt] was unconscious. "I pulled his head back, went for a pulse. There was no pulse. The doctor had just shown up ... I was holding [Earnhardt's] head back with one hand, so with the other hand I reached down to do the buckle on the seat belt. I had my left hand on his forehead holding his head up, and trying to work with my right hand. I went to undo the buckle. The straps were loose. So, I was trying to undo the buckle and it was moving around it. "Tommy helped me out. He reached in through driver's side window and undid the buckle and we pulled the straps off of him. Then, I went to get the steering wheel off. He had the old style steering wheel, which nobody uses anymore -- has the pin in the side. ... Tommy again helped me out there, reaching in to pull the pin out and then handed me the steering wheel. That was about it. By this time, you had guys on there extricating him, cutting the roof off." Nothing mattered. It was over. "There was no pulse," remembers Dobler. "He wasn't breathing. ... We knew, as professionals, that he was dead." Dobler remembers the steering wheel being "bent off to the right," and it being obvious that that was what Earnhardt hit. And hit hard. And the infamous seat belts? She recalls them being loose. "They weren't tight," she says. "But as far as being intact or cut, it was on the driver's side and I would have had to lean all the way over to see. If you get into a racecar like that, where they're saying [the belt] was broken is way down on the [left] side of the seat. I couldn't see that." Another theory put forward is that one of the paramedics might have cut the belt in the rush to free Earnhardt, but Dobler inquired about that herself and found it not to be true. "When I was in the car, I saw Jason pull out the scissors," she says. "At this point, they were cutting the top of the car. So, Tommy is telling me, 'Get down, put your head down.' So, I saw the scissors come out and then I put my head down. "Now, I worked with Jason a couple weeks after the wreck. I asked him, 'Did you cut the seat belt?' Because this is when the controversy had started. He said, 'No.' And he couldn't have. After the roof came off, then we pulled the helmet off. The strap is undone on his helmet. He was going to cut that. He wouldn't have cut the seat belts, because the seat belt was already off at this point." Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/motorsports/nascar_plus/news/2001/05/02/earnhardt_dobler/#more
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For more articles, see: Index 1 - Links Dale Earnhardt's NASCAR: A Throwback Dale Earnhardt represented the roots of
NASCAR.
Monday, Mar. 05, 2001 Doing the Dale Earnhardt story a week ago was revelatory, if not, to one who follows sports, altogether astonishing. There were two reactions in America to the news of Earnhardt's death. Within the massive NASCAR family, there was the abject shock of losing their sport's reigning king, its Mark McGwire, its Jack Nicklaus. More than a few times you heard that Elvis had left the building. And then, beyond the borders of NASCAR, there was sympathy for an athlete cut down in competition, but there was also curiosity. Who was this guy? Why is this such a huge story? Surely the phenomenal success of NASCAR is no longer a secret north of the Mason-Dixon line. For years now, races have been sellouts in New York and New Hampshire, and poster boy Jeff Gordon has been dropping by Rock Center for "Today Show" schmoozings with Katie and Matt. But because of what the sport once represented, NASCAR is still, to many, a thing best kept in the garage, doors down so the neighbors won't see. Tell these people that, in this week's Billboard 200, the Dixie Chicks' latest CD is still a million units up on the Beatles, 8 to 7, and they choose not to believe you. Before returning to this point — NASCAR as a vast cultural force that barely touches those outside its walls — I should explain, for those ignorant of NASCAR, just how it differs from other forms of car racing, because this has everything to do with the outpouring of grief over Earnhardt. When we talk about the "sport" of NASCAR we're talking about a particular church with its own righteously faithful congregation. NASCAR racers drive stock cars: simultaneously — paradoxically — primitive and ultrasophisticated versions of the Fords, Chevies, Pontiacs and Dodges in America's driveways. These cars have engine blocks of 1960s vintage; neither you nor I have driven a car with a carburetor for 15 years, but the car No. 3 that Dale Earnhardt drove two weeks ago at Daytona had one. Certainly Earnhardt's Monte Carlo was a modified machine: Its engine had been juiced to 700 horsepower; its sheet-metal skin was lighter than a road-ready car's; its tungsten rollbars were designed to render the cab a fast-moving cage. Still, a NASCAR car looks like any old car wearing a sweater of decals, and in NASCAR racing there is little psychic distance between the superstar and the fan in the stands. The European Grand Prix circuit, with its dukes and duchesses and scarf-wearing playboy drivers, is as foreign to NASCAR as Bordeaux to Bud. Even American Indy-car racing, with its open-wheel roadsters that look like go-carts on steroids, has no great hold on the heartstrings of its audience. But NASCAR in America, to return to the metaphor, is religion, replete with charismatic figures, creeds and commandments about how life should be lived. It didn't start out as such a holy thing. Early on, stock-car racing events ranged from illegal to highly illegal. In the South, in the hill towns of Pennsylvania and out in California's wide open spaces, a race often meant kids speeding wherever they might in souped-up cars. It's fair to say that the hottest stock races in the Carolinas during Prohibition were between bootleggers making deliveries in jury-rigged junks and tax agents sucking their dust. Postwar, dirt tracks were laid out in cornfields and competitions took on a semblance of order, but it wasn't until a racer named Bill France started the National Championship circuit in 1946 — which incorporated as the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing in 1948 — that jalopy races started looking like something resembling a league, an organization, a sport. Young NASCAR had a nucleus of 15 to 20 drivers, and they were of a type: southern, rugged, poor or near-poor, fearless. Some were wilder or nastier than others away from the oval, but you couldn't survive in NASCAR without driving wild and nasty on the track. As Dale Earnhardt, who would have been at home amidst the early lions of NASCAR, once put it: bumpers are meant for bumping, and on any given Sunday the leaders would routinely be forced onto the infield or into a rickety wooden wall by aggressive challengers. NASCAR's was a tougher, dicier form of racing than, say, Indy's, and traditions were accruing to NASCAR that, in its respectable middle age, would be as hard to scrape away as barnacles. The sport was gaining a big fanship in the South, but wasn't playing nationwide. For one thing, its cast of good-old-boy characters just didn't look like sports heroes to northerners. Driver Smokey Yunick once said of Herb Thomas, who won 43 times in 175 races in the 1940s and '50s, that "until he experienced serious sheet time" — Thomas's career ended in 1956 after he fractured his skull in a race — "he was on his way to becoming the greatest ever." Yunick added a little sadly, "He was a hillbilly with a terrible set of teeth so nobody knew how good he was." Problems weren't just cosmetic. NASCAR was rife with, let's say, cheating, with illicitly customized cars nearly as common as legit ones. At the big weekend-long meetings, a NASCAR crowd could get, let's say, rowdy; in Darlington, N.C., the local sheriff took to setting up his jail right in the middle of the infield. And some would-be stars had, let's say, problems. The storied Junior Johnson, who some consider the greatest driver ever, was a bootlegger's boy who mastered his technique while running moonshine whiskey through the hills of Wilkes County, N.C., at 4 in the morning. (Some of his famous cars — "The Black Ghost," "The Midnight Traveler" — were never used at the track.) Junior got nabbed in 1955 and missed a season and a half of racing while paying his debt to society. Not long before, baseball star Ted Williams had missed a couple of seasons, too, because he had proved an able fighter ace in World War II and was asked to serve again in Korea. Who's Daddy going to tell his own Junior to look up to? So NASCAR had issues. But France negotiated the rough road efficiently and then, in the late 1950s, Detroit moved south and everything changed. The car companies had learned that NASCAR's extremely loyal audience was buying whatever their heroes were driving. Ford, Dodge and others started to pay the Junior Johnsons and Lee Pettys and Fireball Roberts of the world big money to drive particular models — and, meantime, to stay out of jail, cut the crap on the track and, oh yeah, get your teeth fixed. NASCAR started to smell better, look richer and become more popular. Way more popular. Much of America thinks stock car racing broke through about five years ago when The Kid — Jeff Gordon, he of the Tom Cruise looks and the middle-class Indiana upbringing — started winning everything in sight and taught Matt Lauer how to climb in though a window. Consider this: By 1965 NASCAR was already the second most popular sport, by attendance, in the country. And it hadn't started its northern offensive. That would be mounted gradually, if not quietly. To an itinerary of Birmingham, Spartanburg, Talladega, Hickory and Asheville NASCAR added, over time, Long Pond, Pa.; Sonoma, Calif.; Joliet, Ill.; Brooklyn, Mich.; Dover, Del.; and Loudon, N.H. Tens of thousands of fans flocked to these tracks, and they weren't trekking up from Atlanta like Deadheads chasing the next show. They were coming out of the woods and hills and cities and suburbs. NASCAR Nation, it turned out, was everywhere. They were attracted, in this mature iteration of NASCAR, by the thunder of the cars, which have been able to reach 180 mph for 40 years now, and also by a host of stars every bit as human and accessible as the early characters, if better scrubbed. Richard Petty, Lee's boy, won 200 races. David Pearson beat Petty head-to-head 33 times to 30. Bobby Allison won 84 times in 25 years. Cale Yarborough won 83 times and was an entertaining throwback, a broad-bellied, bullheaded racer, maybe the biggest sonuvabitch on the track this side of.... Dale Earnhardt.I think, finally, the reason that Earnhardt was so appealing to NASCAR fans — and so appealing beyond NASCAR, to people for whom NASCAR is an intriguing oddity — was this throwback quality. He was a cowboy. He was a dirt-track racer. He was Ironheart's kid, and who wouldn't love such a one. In researching last week's TIME cover story, I went to lunch with a friend more knowledgeable in the ways of NASCAR than... well, than just about anybody. I asked Stephen Madden, who has written on racing for Sports Illustrated and other publications, for a favorite Intimidator story. He paused but briefly. "In 1996 at the superspeedway in Talladega, Earnhardt had a near thing when [Sterling] Marlin bumped him when the two were fighting for the lead in the DieHard 500. I was at the Atlanta Olympics, but Talledega was on, so I drove over. I remember it like yesterday. It was a hot, humid day — thunderstorms came in and they delayed the start of the race. Then they finally get under way, and it's terrific stuff, a great race. It was on Turn 1, and after the nudge by Marlin, Car No. 3 just launches, ass-over-teakettle, a total highlight crash — not just SportsCenter highlights, but network. Earnhardt broke his sternum and fractured his clavicle. For some guys, that's the end of the summer. "Next week is the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis, and everyone is telling Dale to park it. He says, 'No f---ing way,' and gets into the car, basically driving one-armed. He qualifies pretty well. And then he lets someone else take the ride — he qualifies the car, then gives it to his teammate for the glory. A total Ironhead move. "The week after that, at Watkins Glen [N.Y.], still mending, he sets a course record. In NASCAR they look at that and say, 'That's a real man. That's why we sing about him around the campfire.'" And ever will.
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For more articles, see: Index 1 - Links February 23, 2001 Dale Earnhardt Accident, The Funeral
Service, By RICK BRAGG NYTimes.comCHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 22 — Once, back when Dale Earnhardt was banging fenders on short tracks, back when his sideburns were a little too long and his temper too short, his friends and family could have gathered in one of the little white wood churches so common here to say goodbye to him. But today, after so many victories, so much fame, it took a cathedral to hold all the people who wanted to say how much they will miss Earnhardt, the man stock car racing fans call the Intimidator. Some 3,000 friends, family, stock car racing officials and corporate sponsors gathered in Calvary Church, a 6,000-seat cathedral, for a memorial service for one of history's most successful, respected and popular race car drivers.
The invitation-only crowd heard two presiding ministers tell them to lean on their faith in the aftermath of Earnhardt's fatal crash Sunday in the Daytona 500 on the final lap. They told his friends and family to share their stories of him, to keep him close and to help them heal. But the people who loved Earnhardt, 49, who loved to watch him race and take chances that sent chills down their spine, would have done that anyway. There is no danger, said people who follow stock car racing, of that world running out of stories about Dale Earnhardt. After the 25-minute ceremony, which was attended by some of Earnhardt's competitors, including Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Sterling Marlin, people who had followed his career stood in the church lobby and pondered just what it was that made Earnhardt so successful and endeared him so much to race fans. After a while, most people summed it up in one word: guts. Jim Freeman, executive director of the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala., recalled something that Bud Moore, a legendary car owner, once said about Earnhardt. Most drivers, Moore had told Freeman, would stick the nose of their car in harm's way, but after enough sheet-metal-tearing crashes, they would learn not to do that, or else they lost their stomach for it. According to Moore, Earnhardt never got bashful. "Earnhardt would stick it in there over and over again," Freeman said. Fans loved Earnhardt's bad guy with a heart of gold persona. But more than anything they just loved to see him race. "He was maybe the last of the real legends," Freeman said. That, he said, is why people cannot seem to stop talking about Earnhardt, why they keep trickling into unofficial memorials in North Carolina, at Daytona, at superspeedways in Talladega and Atlanta and at short tracks all across the country. The massive cathedral was not home to Earnhardt's funeral. That happened on Wednesday, in his home church in Kannapolis, N.C., where a tighter group of family and friends gathered. Today's service, larger in scope, was dignified and respectful. Two ministers prayed for his family and reminded them that God could help them in this time of heartbreak.
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For more articles, see: Index 1 - Links Tuesday April 10, 2001 1:59 AM ET ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Dale Earnhardt died when his head whipped violently forward in the seconds after his car hit a wall going 150 mph at the Daytona 500, an independent medical expert has concluded. Earnhardt didn't die from striking his head on a steering wheel because of a malfunctioning seat belt, as NASCAR officials have suggested, Dr. Barry Myers said in a report released to the Orlando Sentinel on Monday. ``As such,'' Myers wrote in the four-page report, ``the restraint failure does not appear to have played a role in Mr. Earnhardt's fatal injury.'' Barry, a professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University, reached his conclusion after reviewing autopsy images of Earnhardt two weeks ago. His report was the culmination of an agreement between the Sentinel and Dale Earnhardt's widow, Teresa. Teresa Earnhardt successfully sued to have the autopsy photos sealed four days after Earnhardt died at the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18. At the time, autopsy photos were public records in Florida, but Gov. Jeb Bush signed a measure late last month making it a felony for a medical examiner to make the photos public. The Sentinel and the Sun-Sentinel of South Florida challenged the constitutionality of the new law in a lawsuit filed late last month. The Sentinel protested the sealing of the Earnhardt photos in February, saying it wanted its own medical expert to view the photos for an investigative series the newspaper was writing on NASCAR safety. The Sentinel and Teresa Earnhardt reached a settlement that allowed Myers to view the images, which would then be sealed permanently. A University of Florida student newspaper, a Deland-based Web site and the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office, however, have challenged the legality of having the photos permanently sealed. A hearing is scheduled later this month that will also address the constitutionality of the new law on autopsy photos. Myers was asked to evaluate whether Earnhardt's skull fracture resulted from his head whipping forward, a blow on the top of the head, or, as NASCAR had suggested, a broken seat belt that allowed the driver to strike his head on the steering wheel. Speedway physician Steve Bohannon, one of the emergency-room doctors who worked on Earnhardt after the crash, said he thought the faulty belt allowed Earnhardt's head to strike the steering wheel of his Chevrolet. The force of the blow cracked the base of his skull and caused massive head injuries, said Bohannon, a NASCAR expert. In his findings, Myers sided with other racing and medical experts who told the Sentinel that Earnhardt likely died because his head and neck were not held securely in place. Earnhardt suffered eight broken ribs, a broken breastbone and abrasions over the left hip and left lower abdomen, indications that the seat belt functioned properly through much of the crash, holding back Earnhardt's body, Myers concluded. What killed Earnhardt, Myers concluded, was the weight of his unrestrained head whipping forward beyond the ability of his neck muscles to keep it from snapping away the base of the skull. The autopsy found that the underside of Earnhardt's chin struck and bent the steering wheel, a blow that could have been enough to cause a fatal skull injury. But the head whipping by itself would have killed Earnhardt, Myers said. Myers stopped short of saying that better head-and-neck protection would have saved Earnhardt. But he said such a device had the potential to prevent these injuries, which have claimed the lives of as many as five NASCAR drivers in the past 11 months.
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Mike
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