> 5 years ago, this guy would have been in a body bag. Praise jeebus for > soft > wall technology.
Twenty years ago, he still would have survived. The way NASCAR frames are designed and built, plus the massive strength of the roll cage encapsulating the driver, make these vehicles tough as nails. Even one of the older CanAm cars could have probably taken that crash without a fatality (most likely wouldn't have rolled, either, because the CG sits way down). You want to see what I mean, find some old footage of Peter Revson dying in South Africa in 74. During qualifying he broke stiction just after entering the corner, fishtailed, and crashed straight on into a solid wall at about 200 MPH. It looked like he let off the gas a bit as a knee-jerk reaction to sliding; it's a mistake mostly made by amateurs (like me!), but sometimes made by expert drivers as well. The car disintegrated into component assemblies, with Revson still securely strapped into the roll cage, the entire unit rolling over and over on the track until it came to rest. Revson was killed instantly on impact, which you could tell because his arms and legs flopped around like a limp rag doll, but his upper body was completely protected. This was a straight-forward-into-the-wall crash at 200 MPH, and the weakest link was Revson's body itself. These cars protect their drivers most of the time. I can imagine what kills the driver in a very high speed impact is either the brain slamming into the front of the skull (I'm guessing here) or the neck snapping (unless they're wearing "horse collar" restraints). Respectfully, Adam Phillip Churvis President Productivity Enhancement ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:258052 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
