Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Ripsnort on February 23, 2001, 09:46:00 AM
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Why haven't they developed some sort of 'High Impact" airbag, one that would only deploy at, say, 500 lbs of pressure, equivelent of a 100 MPH impact? They deflate rather quickly, wouldn't disrupt forward vision if careening off the track is a concern...
Also, a broken seatbelt was found in Dales car:
Dale Earnhardt's lap belt was found to be broken after the stock car
racing champion was fatally injured in a crash at the Daytona 500, NASCAR officials said Friday.
"A broken left lap seat belt came apart," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "We don't know
how, when or where, yet. We will continue our investigation."
Dr. Steve Bohannon, the head of emergency medical services at Daytona International Speedway,
speculated that with the broken belt, Earnhardt's body could have been thrown forward and to the
right, sending him flying into the steering wheel.
"I do support further neck and head restraints, but I'm not convinced the HANS device would have
made a difference in this case," Bohannon said.
The HANS device is a restraint system that fits around the neck and is attached by strap to the
helmet and frame of the car. It's intended to keep the neck from hyperextending when the body is
thrown forward or to the side during a violent crash.
Bohannon said Earnhardt might have hit his chin on the steering wheel, causing the major head
injury that killed him.
"Mr. Earnhardt more than likely contacted the steering wheel with his face," Bohannon said.
Richard Childress, Earnhardt's longtime car owner, said the seat belts were standard and were new
when the car was built last November.
Gary Nelson, the Winston Cup director, showed a similar lap belt, part of a five-point harness, and
described how the webbing near the lower left buckle, holding the lap belt atop the car frame, came
apart.
He would not say how the material came apart, whether it was cut, frayed or in any other way
damaged.
"All we know conclusively is the belt came apart," Nelson said. "We've never seen it, we've talked
to people in the business and they say they've never seen it in 52 years of NASCAR racing."
Helton said NASCAR was not contemplating any safety changes for Sunday's race at North
Carolina Speedway. He said Earnhardt's battered Chevrolet was still being looked at by experts
and that safety experts also will study the broken belt.
He said the most important thing about the information on the broken belt was that it be passed on
to all the crew chiefs in the Winston Cup and Busch series garages here and at a truck race next
week at Homestead, Fla.
Earnhardt, 49, died instantly in a last-lap crash last Sunday.
He was buried near his Kannapolis, N.C., home Wednesday,
Childress, who also fields a car for Mike Skinner, will have rookie Kevin Harvick in a second car
Sunday in the Dura Lube 400.
[This message has been edited by Ripsnort (edited 02-23-2001).]
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If the 5 point harness does its job, a frontal deploying bag probably wouldn't do any good. I just saw that on CNN about earnhardt's lap belt. It was latched but seperated in the strap somewhere? Somebody's gonna be feeling some extreme heat.
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What hblair said. Furthermore there are plenty of situations in racing where you can hit hard enough to trigger the bag, but there is still some driving to be done. If you've got that stupid balloon in your face it's going to be pretty hard to steer.
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Bohannon said Earnhardt might have hit his chin on the steering wheel, causing the major head injury that killed him.
Redundancy in back up safty equipment never killed anyone yet.
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Originally posted by funked:
What hblair said. Furthermore there are plenty of situations in racing where you can hit hard enough to trigger the bag, but there is still some driving to be done. If you've got that stupid balloon in your face it's going to be pretty hard to steer.
Just make it only deploy at a higher impact pressure, like I posted in first thread, 500lbs or 100 MPH.
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First, I'm not a race car fan so excuse my ignorance. That said, I saw something on tv yesterday called a "Soft Wall" I think. It showed some guy with a stuck throttle slam into it, head on, and get out and walk away. Looked like he hit a giant feather pillow. Why aren't these everywhere?
Eagler
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You can bet they will be soon, Eagler.
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If those guys were much interested in safety, would they be racing in the first place?
I am not an expert on auto-racing but I think if some kind of 100% safety system was introduced and Fear Of Death eliminated, it would affect the strategy of the races, just like in the MA.
miko
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Good point Miko, the safest approach is not to race! (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif) But, tell that to a race car driver.
I had a GF once that disliked me skydiving...so I did it even more to spite her!
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One word Rip- Weight.
These guys would never put an airbag into their car- most airbag systems, sensors etc etc would bring the car weight up and in a car where 20-30 lbs can make a difference in a race thats not gonna happen.
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Winston cup cars are heavy muthers anyway. They would just shift the weight around if airbags were introduced. In a modern passenger car, an entire airbag system probably weighs less than 5 lbs. Most of the weight is the actual airbag module itself. It weighs about 2 or 3 lbs...
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I'll bet most drivers would argue that they would rather not have an airbag as it may get in their way if they need to quickly get out of the car. Therefore their argument is that the airbag would become a safety hazzard.
Dale Earnhardt (if I'm not mistaken) did not use a standard "racing seat" in the first place. I remember reading a story on it after his big Talladega crash. This too may not have helped in the crash.
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Hm, making a sport amore dangerous than it has to be because of the "fear of death" element?
George Irvine III, the most controversial and succesfull cave diver in the world has penetrated caves to 18 000 feet - at an average depth of 300 feet. Ksince with air we can only go down to around 140 feet safely, this is quite an achievement.
This dude will go to *extreme* lengths to minimize risks. Indeed, he has developed a methodology his entire cave team, and a new training organisation has sprung from it.
Safety wise, it has a much better record than its competitors. Those that are in the sport because of the risk of death shouldn't be there.
That's true for every sport where death or serious injury is a risk.
I would't skydive without a spare just because it'd be more exciting. I also believe that racing drivers are just that - not suicidal lemmings. It's all about calculating and minimizing risks.
This added death risk thing - to keep it in for the thrill of the masses. It's the modern day equivalent of Roman theatres.
There's plenty of risk as it is. Eliminating as much of it as humanly possible is a good thing, regardless of whether the audience likes/dislikes it.
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9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
"All your base/are belong to us"
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Keep up the momentum!
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Originally posted by Sorrow[S=A]:
One word Rip- Weight.
These guys would never put an airbag into their car- most airbag systems, sensors etc etc would bring the car weight up and in a car where 20-30 lbs can make a difference in a race thats not gonna happen.
i dont know much about car raceing but i would have said the same thing,
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Originally posted by Sorrow[S=A]:
One word Rip- Weight.
These guys would never put an airbag into their car- most airbag systems, sensors etc etc would bring the car weight up and in a car where 20-30 lbs can make a difference in a race thats not gonna happen.
lets asume the whole airbag thing is abou 30 lbs,
the cars who dont want this airbag system
simply have to install a 30 lbs Box somehwere
inside the car, so there is no advantage.
This rule is used in Motorsport racing since years.
Like in F1, where some cars have onboard
cameras and others did not. The cars who dont have a onboard camera,
have a small box installed somewhere with
same weight as the camera.
Airbags for NASCAR, yes it sounds reasonably.
Gh0stFT
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I wanted to chime in here on air bags in Nascar. I saw a couple of things in this thread that could use some straightening. First off, an airbag won't work in a Winston Cup car, or most any other race car for that matter. First off, the driver's safety harness is designed to keep his/her body from moving ANYWHERE. No sliding, no shifting, nada. The whole purpose of an airbag is to cushion the blow of the body moving in a passenger car. In a Winston Cup car, the body is held stationary by the safety harness and seat while the car crumples to cushion the blow. The only part of the body that is left free roaming are the legs, arms and head. The head is what should be fixed by the HANS device. One other point is that even if the airbag is set to inflate in a heavy accident, that is still the precise moment that they driver really needs to be able to control the car. When an air bag inflates your hands are thrown off the wheel. That's exactly what you don't want to have happen just as your car is on the edge of sliding back into 180mph traffic.
Cougar68
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I had a GF once that disliked me skydiving...so I did it even more to spite her<<<<Q from ripsnort heheh (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif) wtg RIP WTG
>>>>>FORMER AIRBORN US ARMY ..978 JUMPS (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
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DRILL
CO 457TH
[This message has been edited by DRILL (edited 03-04-2001).]