Never Safe Enough

By Jim Fitzgerald

While the auto-racing world is still in shock and mourning over the passing of Dan Wheldon from injuries sustained in last Sunday’s race at Las Vegas, those both in the know and otherwise about the sport question the safety of all forms of motorsports.

While Weldon’s crash was both horrific and tragic, there may not have been much that could have been done to prevent it. Our sport is a dangerous one, and right now the level of safety is being questioned. However, what has been left out of the complaints of many is that just one day before Wheldon’s fatal crash at Las Vegas, NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson walked away from, what, years ago, would have been most assuredly a serious injury, or worse.

I’ll say it again. Our sport is a dangerous sport. Our heroes perform at speeds approaching and sometimes exceeding 200 miles per hour. They perform on a closed course, often circular, sometimes high-banked track, with up to forty-two other heroes just like them. They stare death and serious injury in the face every day, yet they continue to perform as expected.

Unfortunately, Dan Wheldon was killed in a motorsports related crash on Sunday afternoon. Just as unfortunate was the police officer who was gunned down while trying to apprehend a robbery suspect last week. Just as unfortunate is the fire fighter who entered the building to save a life or extinguish a fire, but never came back out. Just as unfortunate is the construction worker just last month who fell from a three story building while installing a window. Just as unfortunate is the airline pilot, along with seventy-eight other passengers, who perished as the engines failed in an airplane not too long ago…and just as unfortunate is the child, who, even though wearing a seatbelt, was killed when the car he was traveling in was hit by a driver who was distracted, or driving impaired.

Just as the child who was wearing the seatbelt was protected, the police officer was wearing Kevlar. The fire fighter was wearing safety equipment and an oxygen tank, and the construction worker was wearing a harness. Nothing, however, is ever “safe enough.” The level of safety in our sport is unquestionably leaps and bounds above where it was fifty, twenty, ten, even five years ago.

The HANS devices, SAFER barriers, roof flaps and air dams, as well as reconfigured cars and seats protect the driver from front, rear, and side impact better than anything we have ever seen before. However, even with all of this protection, there is still no such thing as “perfectly safe.” Our sport is inherently dangerous, and will continue to be as such until it doesn’t exist. Yet, it will never “not exist”, because as it is now, as it has been since the advent of the simplest forms of competition, the drive is to go faster than someone else.

Motorsports is never given its due by a large part of the main stream media. Most often it is only when a tragedy occurs does the spotlight shine. There is a saying; “If it bleeds, it leads.” The media, and the bloodthirsty viewer, are those first in line to soak up the golden rays of a gory news story, and the first to exploit it. How many times have you seen Dan Wheldon’s wreck on television in the past three days? Why did we need to see it all of those times? Was it so we could determine the cause? No, it was to show an event and get people talking, and to get ratings.

These fans and media outlets will then talk out of the other side of their face. “Yes, this is tragic. It happens too often. You can only think about and pray for his family at a time like this. When is ‘fast’ fast enough? A terrible crash.” And then it is always followed up with, “Here is the footage again for those of you just joining us.”

The issue of safety will come up again, it will be debated for weeks to come, and then disappear. The only people that will still care about it are the actual fans of the sports. Johnny YouTube Poster and Dirty News Network will move onto something else, some other misfortune or catastrophe in the world, some new calamity or devastation, and once again, it will just be the true race fans that will care.

There will most likely, and sadly, never be a day when we do not lose a police officer, or a fire fighter, an airline pilot or his passengers, a construction worker, or a child because we were safe enough.

Our sport is safer now than ever, just as in most aspects of our lives.

Seatbelts, safety vests, harnesses, body armor, air bags, trigger guards and even those little plastic covers that go into the wall outlets, just as in motorsports there are things like soft walls, head and neck restraints, cocoon seating, hood and deck lid tethers, pit road speeds, and no more catch can man.

However, there will unfortunately again come days when track announcers and television broadcasters will speak in lowered tones. A day will regrettably come when we’re forced to deal with the loss of another one of our heroes. And because nothing in life is ever safe enough, the media will come. And the bloodthirsty viewer will come. And time will pass. And it will just be the race fans once again. And we will heal again.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.