NASCAR goes exclusively with HANS restraint
Author: Ed Hinton
Publication: Orlando Sentinel
Date: January 04, 2005
After nearly five years of controversy and experimentation with other head-restraint systems, NASCAR will require the HANS (head and neck support) device exclusively for drivers in the coming season.
The rival Hutchens restraint, allowed as an alternative since 2001, has been banned from all major NASCAR divisions and regional touring series because it failed to meet standards in testing last October, sanctioning body spokesman Mike Zizzo said Monday.
The tests were conducted by the California-based SFI Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization which issues and administers standards of performance for automotive and racing equipment, Zizzo said. They did a performance test, and it [the Hutchens] didn't pass.
The tests involved use of head restraints on crash dummies mounted on sleds, which were crashed at various angles to measure effectiveness in preventing violent movement of the head and neck.
The HANS, for years the consensus favorite of racing safety scientists, was already being worn by the overwhelming majority of NASCAR drivers. But a few -- most notably Rusty Wallace and Tony Stewart -- continued to use the Hutchens last season because they found it more comfortable.
The HANS' inventor, Dr. Robert Hubbard of Michigan State University, expressed more satisfaction with the new set of standards than the new specification of his device.
When I conceived of the device, I thought that everybody should wear one, Hubbard said in a telephone interview. That's been over 15 years ago, and I haven't thought of a better way to do it, and I don't think anybody else has either. Zizzo said NASCAR might reconsider the Hutchens if its developers make some changes to their current setup and it passes SFI.
A series of fatal accidents in NASCAR brought the HANS into the headlines. After the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr. of basilar skull fracture -- an injury caused by violent, unrestrained movement of the head and neck -- in 2000, engineers from Ford Motor Co. and General Motors pleaded with NASCAR drivers to begin wearing the HANS.
But the device met driver resistance until icon Dale Earnhardt died of the same type injury in the 2001 Daytona 500. Most drivers then rapidly donned head restraints, and NASCAR mandated them in October 2001. Since then, there have been no driver fatalities in NASCAR's major series.
Author: Ed Hinton
Publication: Orlando Sentinel
Date: January 04, 2005
After nearly five years of controversy and experimentation with other head-restraint systems, NASCAR will require the HANS (head and neck support) device exclusively for drivers in the coming season.
The rival Hutchens restraint, allowed as an alternative since 2001, has been banned from all major NASCAR divisions and regional touring series because it failed to meet standards in testing last October, sanctioning body spokesman Mike Zizzo said Monday.
The tests were conducted by the California-based SFI Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization which issues and administers standards of performance for automotive and racing equipment, Zizzo said. They did a performance test, and it [the Hutchens] didn't pass.
The tests involved use of head restraints on crash dummies mounted on sleds, which were crashed at various angles to measure effectiveness in preventing violent movement of the head and neck.
The HANS, for years the consensus favorite of racing safety scientists, was already being worn by the overwhelming majority of NASCAR drivers. But a few -- most notably Rusty Wallace and Tony Stewart -- continued to use the Hutchens last season because they found it more comfortable.
The HANS' inventor, Dr. Robert Hubbard of Michigan State University, expressed more satisfaction with the new set of standards than the new specification of his device.
When I conceived of the device, I thought that everybody should wear one, Hubbard said in a telephone interview. That's been over 15 years ago, and I haven't thought of a better way to do it, and I don't think anybody else has either. Zizzo said NASCAR might reconsider the Hutchens if its developers make some changes to their current setup and it passes SFI.
A series of fatal accidents in NASCAR brought the HANS into the headlines. After the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr. of basilar skull fracture -- an injury caused by violent, unrestrained movement of the head and neck -- in 2000, engineers from Ford Motor Co. and General Motors pleaded with NASCAR drivers to begin wearing the HANS.
But the device met driver resistance until icon Dale Earnhardt died of the same type injury in the 2001 Daytona 500. Most drivers then rapidly donned head restraints, and NASCAR mandated them in October 2001. Since then, there have been no driver fatalities in NASCAR's major series.