Bonneville Crash Lessons

[Artist]

Although SCTA has since beefed up their rules regarding driver head and shoulder support, there are still two takeaways from this video of Danny Thompson's crash.

(1) When Thompson is sitting straightup, the only thing above his head is sheet metal.

(2) Egress can be improved with a longer steering column that allows the driver to sit farther back from the dashboard. This is standard practice in NASCAR.

[Artist]

At the 0:23 mark in this sequence of still photos of the Barry Bryant crash, Bryant's head is outside the rollcage.

[Dignlif]

That's some scary stuff. The head outside the cage is a huge concern.

The Tech guy at Sonoma Raceway (Sears Point/ Infineon) had me lower my seat because my helmet was too close to the roof/ halo. He said that besides belt stretch, a typical persons neck can/ will stretch 4" in a roll over which puts your noggin that much closer to the surface for impact.

[DanStokes]

It sounds sort of dramatic but it's true that the safety rules are written in blood. The current head restraint rules were written in response to John Beckett's fatal crash and, of course, some others. There's a reason behind every safety rule in the book.

Keeping someone's head, hands, feet, etc. inside the car is not as easy as it seems. The energy imparted in a crash is way past instinctive.

Dan

[studemax]

Holy cow. That Bryant crash was UGLY. Too bad, it was a nice car.

[YELLA BRICK]

You watch the incar vids of the drivers in NASCAR when the get to tumbling, they will get their hands OFF the steering wheel and 'restrain' them by grabbing onto the shoulder harness, left to right, right to left. You ain't steering anyway so save busting up hands/arms and let loose the wheel. I've done this several times on our local 1/4 mile bull ring and it does work.

In Barry's crash sequence at :17 his head is already outside. A VERY violent barrel roll such as this leaves very little margin for survival. The centrifugal forces are REALLY high as the spinning axis is so narrow. Long wheel base cars usually barrel roll, shorter will tumble all over the place.

Bryant died that day....it was a very well built car and YEARS of experience...even so you can still die...we strap these things on knowing full well the possibilities....

[Artist]

In Unlimited hydroplanes they require a minimum of five inches between the top of the driver's helmet and the canopy.