Sports: Safety at the forefront again

Safety at the forefront again

It's unknown if HANS would have saved Dale Earnhardt but CART and Formula One have mandated the devices.

By KEVIN KELLY

DAYTONA BEACH -- Dr. Robert Hubbard says he is damned by his own innovation.

The Michigan State professor created the HANS -- Head and Neck Safety -- device, a system for race drivers, almost 20 years ago.

The HANS is designed to prevent basal skull fractures in crashes by securing the head. Doctors believe the injury caused Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s death during Sunday's Daytona 500 and three others in NASCAR last season.

"You can't be 100 percent sure it would've helped them (Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper) enough but I'm pretty sure that it would've kept them alive," Hubbard said last week.

Earnhardt, a stickler for the old-fashioned safety equipment like his open-face helmet, was not wearing the HANS. Only seven drivers were Sunday.

NASCAR does not require drivers to use it.

"I really don't know if that (HANS) would have (prevented his death) or not," said Dr. Steve Bohannon, emergency medical service director at Daytona International Speedway. "That would be pure speculation at this point, not knowing the exact cause of death.'

Bohannon said the seven-time Winston Cup driver had no facial injuries when pulled from his wrecked car, but he had blood in his airway and ears, indications of a basal skull fracture.

Until a year ago, after Petty and Irwin died in separate crashes, Hubbard said he had only sold about 150 devices.

"Since then we've probably sold two or three times that many," Hubbard said.

HANS is now required in Formula One racing and in oval races in CART.

Brett Bodine was one of the Winston Cup drivers who wore the device.

"We had two fatalities last year because of head and neck injuries that I feel could have been prevented if people were wearing the HANS device," Bodine said. "Enough said."

DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors encourage their Winston Cup drivers to use HANS and have offered to pay the $1,275 cost.

The manufacturers put on a safety seminar during January testing to show the advantages to wearing the HANS. Some drivers left the seminars shaken. Others still complain the device is too bulky and could prevent them from exiting the car in an emergency.