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Re: <sigh> Dale Earnhardt

To: autox mailing list <autox@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: <sigh> Dale Earnhardt
From: "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 20:38:30 -0500 (EST)
Howdy,

On Sun, 18 Feb 2001, Kevin & Deana Brown wrote:
> While watching the 24 hour race at Daytona a few weeks ago I noticed
> that Dale, who was codriving one of the Corvettes, was wearing an open
> face helmet.  Even one of the announcers commenting on it and on how
> much less protection it provided when compared to a full face one.  
> Plus he was not wearing one of the new neck restraint devices.  Since
> he died pretty much instantly in a head on collision with the wall it
> makes you wonder.

Lets not jump on that bandwagon too quick.  Everyone's saying either
"massive chest injuries" or "a blow to the back of the skull" as the cause
of death.  The doctor / emt at the press conference catagorically stated
that a closed face helmet wouldn't have matter and that a Hahn's device
(??  forgot the name) likely wouldn't have helped.

I'm much more interested in knowing what/how something got into the
passenger compartment.  The left side of the car looked fine, but you
couldn't really get a good look at the right side.  Like everyone, I
thought it wasn't a big deal, and was in some ways payback for how much
he'd been blocking.

> It is too bad, I guess that it can happen to anyone.  He will be in my
> thoughts tonight.

Yeah.  It really sucks a lot.  I'm not a big nascar fan, but it still blew
me away.  A bad deal all the way around.  Obviously for the Earnhardt's,
but its also gotta make M. Waltrip's first win, what should've been pretty
amazing, into one of his worst days.

Mark

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