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Seat-Belt Failure Did Not Kill Earnhardt
April 10, 2001 11:49 am EST
ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Seat-belt failure did not apparently cause the head injuries that killed racing legend Dale Earnhardt two months ago, according to a court-appointed medical expert who examined autopsy photos, the Orlando Sentinel reported on Tuesday.
The paper quoted Dr. Barry Myers, a Duke University expert on crash injuries, as saying the NASCAR driver died when his head whipped violently forward after his No. 3 Chevrolet struck a concrete wall. Earnhardt died on Feb. 18 when his car hit the wall at 180 mph during the final lap of the Daytona 500 race.
Medical officials say the man known by race fans as "The Intimidator" died instantly from head injuries. But precisely what caused the injuries has been the subject of investigation.
Myers was appointed by a court to look at the autopsy photos under the terms of a court-mediated agreement between the Orlando Sentinel, which wanted access to the photos as part of its investigation into NASCAR safety, and Earnhardt's widow Teresa, who had wanted to keep the photos private.
Myers was asked to evaluate whether Earnhardt's lower 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 chin on the steering wheel.
Myers said even assuming what he termed "a worst-case scenario," Earnhardt's head probably would have suffered the same damage even if his lap belt had not torn on impact.
"As such," Myers wrote, "the restraint failure does not appear to have played a role in Mr. Earnhardt's fatal injury."
Although Earnhardt's chin struck the steering wheel hard enough to bend it, Myers said he thought the racer succumbed to the sudden, wrenching forces that can kill anyone whose head is not restrained in a high-speed frontal crash.
"If Mr. Earnhardt did not hit his chin, he still could have suffered the same fatal injury in this crash," he wrote.
The Orlando Sentinel said that in his findings, Myers sided with other racing and medical experts who told the newspaper that Earnhardt likely died because his head and neck were not held securely in place.
Myers' report, which proposed further study of head protection for NASCAR drivers, came only hours after the racing organization announced it had commissioned its own experts to reconstruct Earnhardt's accident.
His report also said that a helmet with a full-face mask would not have saved Earnhardt. This finding ran contrary to speculation among NASCAR fans that Earnhardt's open-face helmet allowed his face and jaw to smash into the steering wheel.
"If Mr. Earnhardt had worn a full face helmet, he would still have experienced the same tragic outcome," Myers wrote.
