Precautions Didn’t Change Result

Shira Springer

Sunday, May 14, 2000 | 4:01 a.m.

LOUDON, N.H. - Moments before his Sprint PCS Chevrolet slammed into the concrete wall at Turn 3, Adam Petty stood on his brakes. He tried desperately to avoid a rapid deceleration. But tragically, the worst-case scenario occurred Friday afternoon as Petty died strapped into a car that went from approximately 150 miles per hour to 0 in a fraction of a second.

According to the New Hampshire state medical examiner's report, "The cause of death was blunt impact injuries to the head." Another medical source said the body showed no visible signs of injury, leading to the conclusion that all injuries were internal. Concord (N.H.) Hospital spokeswoman Eileen Male said, "The autopsy was done (Friday) evening and in deference to the family's wishes, (Petty's body) was returned to North Carolina."

The medical examiner's findings seemed to confirm what other drivers and crew members thought all along: the head trauma resulted from the force of a sudden stop being absorbed by Petty.

"He hit pretty hard. What happens when you have one of those kinds of accidents is the car stops, but your internal organs don't stop," said Dennis Chamberlain, a crew member for the Stanley Tools Chevrolet driven by Saturday's Busch 200 winner, Tim Fedewa. "Your body is taking all the force. You've got the seat belts holding your body in, but from your neck up is free. What will happen is it throws your head forward or stretches your neck like 18 inches because of the impact when you hit the wall."

Added Johnny Allen, car chief for the Bob Evans Chevrolet of Randy LaJoie: "It's just like someone hitting you in the head with a sledgehammer. If you've got a helmet on, it don't matter."

For many in the racing community who remember Ernie Irvan's near-fatal wreck in August 1994 that left him in a coma for three days with a cracked skull and brain contusions, the Petty crash was eerily familiar.

"What happened to Adam was a freak deal," said LaJoie, prior to crashing in Turn 3 in the Busch 200, "but we've seen it happen before. Ernie Irvan cracked his skull from the inside out when he hit. His body stopped and his brain continued and cracked his skull."

Drivers and crew members cited a long list of crashes as reference points, trying to reason through what Petty experienced. The few members of the racing community who talked about the fatal crash blamed the car, though it was believed a stuck throttle doomed Petty. Instead, drivers and crew members applauded the efforts of NASCAR to make cars as safe as possible.

Like many of his peers preparing for the Busch 200, Petty was surrounded by equipment designed to protect him.

In addition to helmets and fireproof suits, a cage of padded roll bars protects drivers. Thick netting covers the driver's side window, preventing the force of a crash from ejecting the driver. The driver's door is padded. Custom-made seats with a five-point harness ensure drivers don't slide around as they race. Panels on the right and left side of the seat help prevent legs from being snapped during crashes. A bar runs down the center of the windshield to prevent it from collapsing on the driver in an accident. And a fire extinguisher is always within reach.

"You can do everything humanly possible to make these things safe. The car did its job," said Allen. "With deals like (Petty's crash), the human body's not made to take those kind of licks. You could say maybe the car was built too sturdy, but what do you do then? You build a less-sturdy car, then it caves in on you and kills the driver. It's kind of a Catch-22."

Absence of abundant debris from Petty's crash indicated the car was sturdy and, upon hitting the wall, did not absorb much of the impact. According to crew members, cars are built sturdier for short tracks. Some speculated that the sideways angle at which Petty slammed into the wall also may have prevented the car from taking more of the blow.

"You kind of want the car to collapse and absorb some of the impact," said Keith Plaza, a crew member with the Baywatch Chevrolet of driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. "That way the body doesn't have to do all that, which is probably what happened. It was a freak kind of thing."