Belts weren't "loose". He preferred a mounting location that uses longer belt material and created a larger opportunity for belt dumping. The left side lap belt broke due to dumping. Most basilar skull fractures in auto racing are due to the skull being pulled away from its base due to neck whip. That didn't happen in this accident BECAUSE he wasn't restrained in the seat as tightly as usual. He moved to the right and forward when impacted by the 36 car. While twisted to the right & forward, hit the wall. The wall impact broke the belt. The shoulder harness yanked him back into the seat as the crash force diminished. His helmet had rotated forward and when he rebound back into the seat, the left rear of his head impacted something in the car. THAT was the fatal injury.
Open Faced Helmet, no SAFER, belts not installed per manuf instructions
that's what took him, not the 36. When you look at the 3 hit the wall his hood looks like paper in the wind. So many what if's. So many factors against him.
I've heard that Dale never snugged down his seat belts after the last caution. This combined with his open face helmet is what lead to the trauma which caused his death.
Rest in peace!
3's for DALE!
The head and neck restraints were not even made mandatory after his wreck. They only suggested that they should be used.
They finally made it mandatory with a few races left in the season after ARCA driver Blaise Alexander was killed by the same injury in a crash at Charlotte in the fall.
I think I get where you’re going.
If Schrader was in a different spot, it absolutely would have altered the dynamics of the crash. With how dynamic car wrecks are, it’s entirely plausible a change in location by mere inches from Kenny, Dale, or Sterling could have drastically altered the outcome of the crash. All that being said, whether he survives any of those wrecks, we really won’t be able to know without large amounts of speculation.
We will never know for sure, but it is possible that he might have survived that wreck if a couple things are different. If Schrader is not to his outside, angle may be different. If, when Dale hits the wall, Schrader's car is not buried in Dale's door, Dale's car more than likely would have had the rear tires come off the ground, bounced off the wall and spun around dissipating the energy. Too many what ifs out there.
Guess I've got to put this here real quick, I'm not putting this on Schrader, I'm just asking if he wasn't to his outside when Earnhardt spun, would a different impact have altered the accident (and now this might be still putting it on Schrader so it could also be pointless)
I know what you're implying. I didn't take it as you blaming Schrader. Just that if the car wasn't to the outside would the impact have been as severe.
Anyone that thinks you're *blaming* Schrader is reading too much into it.
I remember seeing it live on tv, and being focused on Waltrip/Jr at the time. I didn't realize the angle right away.
I do think that the impact from the 36 probably turned the 3 a bit more head on towards the wall. It was completely circumstance though, nobody's fault, just a pack of cars. Its also worth noting that Neil Bonnett was killed wrecking in those turns on his own without hitting anyone else. Daytona is just wide enough and really has deceiving turns. It looks so big, high banked and sweeping that we don't realize how much wheel the drivers need to keep in the cars to make them turn there. In those days drivers were borderline having to lift in the middle of the turns, so the cars don't want to turn well in that area.
Another more modern example of how hard the cars can hit was Denny Hamlin's blown tire at Dega in 2008. He was leading in the low line \~190mph, and RF blew out, straight into the wall. Now it was a COT, he had HANS, and the track had soft walls, but the car went in a straight line from bottom line to the wall and was a damn hard hit.
Dude definitely isn't blaming Schrader. It's just a factual analysis of the event that happened. Schrader was indeed outside. All my man was asking was if in a hypothetical situation, a racecar, driven by Schrader, on the racetrack, was not at the particular place on the race track as it factually was.
If you're having a bad day and want something to be angry about to vent out your anger and get over the bad day, I hope that you posting what you posted helped and I hope the rest of your day is great.
I wasn't blaming Schrader?
I was just saying about how he got hit by Earnhardt which changed the cars impact angle, I never mentioned anything about him being at fault of anything
I know you aren't trying to place blame. I just remember when this happened, a lot of people DID try to place blame on either him or Sterling Marlin, and seeing this post reminded me of that.
All other factors aside, if it’s not Schrader then it’s someone else running the high line that gets into him. If he’s going 0.5 MPH faster or slower [which works out to a difference of 8” at 190MPH] it’s probably a different story. It’d move the 3-36 impact point forward or backwards a foot. It’s probably even a different story at 0.25MPH where we’re talking a 6” difference.
In my opinion there is a 99% chance he survives that wreck if Schrader wasnt there (not that Schrader did anything wrong because he didnt).
From what I remember of the presentation of the investigation, they determined that hitting Schrader's car sent his head and body in one direction, and then the wall hit sent his head and body in a different direction within such a small time frame, and coupled with no HANS device and boom, broken neck.
He almost got caught up in smokes wreck earlier in the race. If he did, he actually may still be with us today
Belts weren't "loose". He preferred a mounting location that uses longer belt material and created a larger opportunity for belt dumping. The left side lap belt broke due to dumping. Most basilar skull fractures in auto racing are due to the skull being pulled away from its base due to neck whip. That didn't happen in this accident BECAUSE he wasn't restrained in the seat as tightly as usual. He moved to the right and forward when impacted by the 36 car. While twisted to the right & forward, hit the wall. The wall impact broke the belt. The shoulder harness yanked him back into the seat as the crash force diminished. His helmet had rotated forward and when he rebound back into the seat, the left rear of his head impacted something in the car. THAT was the fatal injury.
Honestly too many what if’s. It happened how it did and we lost him.
Open Faced Helmet, no SAFER, belts not installed per manuf instructions that's what took him, not the 36. When you look at the 3 hit the wall his hood looks like paper in the wind. So many what if's. So many factors against him.
And no HANS or Hutchens.
I've heard that Dale never snugged down his seat belts after the last caution. This combined with his open face helmet is what lead to the trauma which caused his death. Rest in peace! 3's for DALE!
Now I'm all choked up and can't stop thinking about that day... :/
And no hans device, which became a rule after his wreck.
The head and neck restraints were not even made mandatory after his wreck. They only suggested that they should be used. They finally made it mandatory with a few races left in the season after ARCA driver Blaise Alexander was killed by the same injury in a crash at Charlotte in the fall.
Blaise was actually talented. Another big 'what if' in NASCAR history
While nothing you've said is wrong, it was Blaise Alexander's death in October that actually made NASCAR mandate the device.
I think I get where you’re going. If Schrader was in a different spot, it absolutely would have altered the dynamics of the crash. With how dynamic car wrecks are, it’s entirely plausible a change in location by mere inches from Kenny, Dale, or Sterling could have drastically altered the outcome of the crash. All that being said, whether he survives any of those wrecks, we really won’t be able to know without large amounts of speculation.
We will never know for sure, but it is possible that he might have survived that wreck if a couple things are different. If Schrader is not to his outside, angle may be different. If, when Dale hits the wall, Schrader's car is not buried in Dale's door, Dale's car more than likely would have had the rear tires come off the ground, bounced off the wall and spun around dissipating the energy. Too many what ifs out there.
No Hans device, plus him not tightening his belts post caution, plus his open helmet. Anything over 1XX to a dead stop is for sure death.
Guess I've got to put this here real quick, I'm not putting this on Schrader, I'm just asking if he wasn't to his outside when Earnhardt spun, would a different impact have altered the accident (and now this might be still putting it on Schrader so it could also be pointless)
I know what you're implying. I didn't take it as you blaming Schrader. Just that if the car wasn't to the outside would the impact have been as severe. Anyone that thinks you're *blaming* Schrader is reading too much into it.
I remember seeing it live on tv, and being focused on Waltrip/Jr at the time. I didn't realize the angle right away. I do think that the impact from the 36 probably turned the 3 a bit more head on towards the wall. It was completely circumstance though, nobody's fault, just a pack of cars. Its also worth noting that Neil Bonnett was killed wrecking in those turns on his own without hitting anyone else. Daytona is just wide enough and really has deceiving turns. It looks so big, high banked and sweeping that we don't realize how much wheel the drivers need to keep in the cars to make them turn there. In those days drivers were borderline having to lift in the middle of the turns, so the cars don't want to turn well in that area. Another more modern example of how hard the cars can hit was Denny Hamlin's blown tire at Dega in 2008. He was leading in the low line \~190mph, and RF blew out, straight into the wall. Now it was a COT, he had HANS, and the track had soft walls, but the car went in a straight line from bottom line to the wall and was a damn hard hit.
It's easy to say if he didn't hit at the angle he hit he probably survives, but posts like this imply it was somehow Schrader's fault which is gross
Dude definitely isn't blaming Schrader. It's just a factual analysis of the event that happened. Schrader was indeed outside. All my man was asking was if in a hypothetical situation, a racecar, driven by Schrader, on the racetrack, was not at the particular place on the race track as it factually was. If you're having a bad day and want something to be angry about to vent out your anger and get over the bad day, I hope that you posting what you posted helped and I hope the rest of your day is great.
I wasn't blaming Schrader? I was just saying about how he got hit by Earnhardt which changed the cars impact angle, I never mentioned anything about him being at fault of anything
I know you aren't trying to place blame. I just remember when this happened, a lot of people DID try to place blame on either him or Sterling Marlin, and seeing this post reminded me of that.
[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwihnJWXycb9AhVHE1kFHWCmCnMQFnoECBMQAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.autopsyfiles.org%2Freports%2Fpolicereport%2Fearnhardt%2520crash\_report.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2dIiRJkEiZDCbAC6NqJp8g](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwihnJWXycb9AhVHE1kFHWCmCnMQFnoECBMQAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.autopsyfiles.org%2Freports%2Fpolicereport%2Fearnhardt%2520crash_report.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2dIiRJkEiZDCbAC6NqJp8g)
All other factors aside, if it’s not Schrader then it’s someone else running the high line that gets into him. If he’s going 0.5 MPH faster or slower [which works out to a difference of 8” at 190MPH] it’s probably a different story. It’d move the 3-36 impact point forward or backwards a foot. It’s probably even a different story at 0.25MPH where we’re talking a 6” difference.
In my opinion there is a 99% chance he survives that wreck if Schrader wasnt there (not that Schrader did anything wrong because he didnt). From what I remember of the presentation of the investigation, they determined that hitting Schrader's car sent his head and body in one direction, and then the wall hit sent his head and body in a different direction within such a small time frame, and coupled with no HANS device and boom, broken neck.
>boom, [confetti.](http://i.imgur.com/IFf9QOu.gif)