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The same racing drivers who have to wear top-line racing helmets connected to HANS devices, wear fire-resistant overalls, have medical teams on immediate standb

The same racing drivers who have to wear top-line racing helmets connected to HANS devices, wear fire-resistant overalls, have medical teams on immediate standby, and who are often strapped in by their mechanics before heading off? I think you may be overlooking an awful lot of what makes modern motor racing safer than it was in the past. (and that's ignoring the number of serious injuries and driver deaths that still occur thanks to freak accidents)

WalterBright 11y ago
I'm looking at the kind of accidents where an airbag is supposed to be effective. An airbag will do nothing for you if the car is burning. The first and foremost safety device in a race car is the racing belt. The belt means you slow down with the car, which is much less deceleration than if your body hits the dashboard. (The point of crumple zones in the car is to reduced peak deceleration. In order for that to work, you gotta be strapped in.)
- deleted 11y ago
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- snowwrestler 11y ago
  An airbag allows the driver's head to experience even lower deceleration than the car, because it gives the head an extra 1-2 feet in which to decelerate--the distance between the upright position and smashed into the deployed airbag. When wearing a 5-point harness without a helmet and head restraint, the deceleration delta between the car and the head will be entirely borne by the structure of the neck, which is how Dale Earnhardt died.
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- mzs 11y ago
  The fire suit and undergarments are what keeps you alive long enough to be extracted in the event of a fire. They are literally rated in terms of how long they protect you commonly listed as the "Time to 2nd Degree Burn" specification which is arrived at by taking the TPP rating per the SFI spec and halving it.
rplst8 11y ago
Before the HANS device was used in NASCAR, I witnessed some serious wrecks during auto-racing that drivers got out of the car under their own power and were fine. I wonder if the percentage of fatalities from wrecks in auto racing is better or worse that high speed accidents on public highways. It would be an interesting statistic to compare.
- gambiting 11y ago
  Nascar cars use roll cages, so as long as you are strapped into your seat safely you will survive most crashes, if the car doesn't catch fire. Most regular cars don't have roll cages.
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  - masklinn 11y ago
    > as long as you are strapped into your seat safely That's the important part. Most of the safety devices in a nascar car (or any racing car really) only make sense if you're tightly strapped in the first place. So the first thing is seatbelt, always. Then you can add more stuff protecting the driver under the assumption that the driver's body will move with the car rather than independently within it.

WalterBright 11y ago

I'm looking at the kind of accidents where an airbag is supposed to be effective. An airbag will do nothing for you if the car is burning. The first and foremost safety device in a race car is the racing belt. The belt means you slow down with the car, which is much less deceleration than if your body hits the dashboard. (The point of crumple zones in the car is to reduced peak deceleration. In order for that to work, you gotta be strapped in.)

deleted 11y ago
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snowwrestler 11y ago
An airbag allows the driver's head to experience even lower deceleration than the car, because it gives the head an extra 1-2 feet in which to decelerate--the distance between the upright position and smashed into the deployed airbag. When wearing a 5-point harness without a helmet and head restraint, the deceleration delta between the car and the head will be entirely borne by the structure of the neck, which is how Dale Earnhardt died.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
mzs 11y ago
The fire suit and undergarments are what keeps you alive long enough to be extracted in the event of a fire. They are literally rated in terms of how long they protect you commonly listed as the "Time to 2nd Degree Burn" specification which is arrived at by taking the TPP rating per the SFI spec and halving it.

rplst8 11y ago

Before the HANS device was used in NASCAR, I witnessed some serious wrecks during auto-racing that drivers got out of the car under their own power and were fine. I wonder if the percentage of fatalities from wrecks in auto racing is better or worse that high speed accidents on public highways. It would be an interesting statistic to compare.

gambiting 11y ago
Nascar cars use roll cages, so as long as you are strapped into your seat safely you will survive most crashes, if the car doesn't catch fire. Most regular cars don't have roll cages.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- masklinn 11y ago
  > as long as you are strapped into your seat safely That's the important part. Most of the safety devices in a nascar car (or any racing car really) only make sense if you're tightly strapped in the first place. So the first thing is seatbelt, always. Then you can add more stuff protecting the driver under the assumption that the driver's body will move with the car rather than independently within it.