HANS - Would you wear it?

[AndyF]

The latest news is that all F1 drivers will have to wear the HANS neck safety device from Jan 1 2003. What do you as Club racers think? Would you wear it, and if so at what price?

[Lee Janotta]

Depends. On an oval, of course.... But F1 has no problem with basal skull fracture, which is what the HANS primarily prevents.... So what good is it? It's a cumbersome and restrictive device, which in my opinion, has no place on road courses. Not yet at least. If I see 1 road racer die from an injury the HANS would have prevented, I'll seriously reconsider my view, but there've been no such incidents.

[Mackmot]

Neil Shannahan died when a wheel hit his head knocking his helmet down into his chest and puncturing his lung, would the hans device have stopped that???

[Maisie]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the HANS system keep the head pretty much still in relation to the rest of the body? Even something like a "horse collar" is likely to prevent your head from moving so far down that it hits your chest.

[Lee Janotta]

Yeah, actually a "horse collar" might have been _more_ effective for Neil. The HANS is really designed to limit the movement of the head from side to side or forward. It's _not_ the greatest thing since sliced bread, as it's being touted, because it really only protects against a very rare form of injury, where the neck is stretched or bent to such a degree as to cause fracture of the spine or skull, or damage to the spinal chord. This would _not_ have saved the lives of Greg Moore or Gonzalo Rodriguez, which were traumatic compressive injuries. I didn't see Neil's accident, so I can't really comment on whether it would've helped or not, but getting hit in the head with a wheel is always worse-case scenario in single-seaters. It _would_ likely have saved the lives of Dale Earnhardt, Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty. It's because "stock" cars, in the NASCAR/ASCAR/etc sense, are basically 200mph bricks, which rather than deform in an impact like monocoque or production unibody cars, transfer _all_ the G-forces of massive decelleration to the driver, who's neck, unrestrained, is subject to massive stretching and tearing forces.

BECAUSE the _vast_ majority of incidents on road courses end in impact with deformable barriers such as gravel traps, tire barriers, water barrels, or other cars, and BECAUSE the cars are designed to deform in a crash, absorbing kinetic energy before the driver is brought to a halt, these drivers feel far, far less decellerative force than NASCAR drivers in a crash. Also, road racers do not tempt fate in the same way, reaching terminal velocity at most twice a lap, rather than at an almost constant clip like oval drivers.

I think in the case of F1, it's an ultimately meaningless way for the FIA to look like they're trying to make the sport even safer without really doing anything. In my opinion, the fact that Luciano Burti was not badly hurt in his crash at Spa last year, and that Takuma Sato and Nick Heidfeld were both unhurt after their massive shunt in Austria this year are testament to the fact that in terms of protecting the driver from injury in a crash, today's F1 cars are every bit as safe as they need to be.

Here's a good article on the HANS:

http://www.autoracing1.com/GoodBoys/001107HANS2.htm

[Mackmot]

what about kart style neck braces, surely they would do the job of restricting the amount the neck moves in an accident.

Oh yeah I have found out that neil was killed because he had one of those 'aerodynamic' attachments on the bottom of his helmet. Without that he could have survived.

[Lee Janotta]

Ah, the little lip? Yeah, those shouldn't be on helmets... Your head is _not_ a spoiler!

[RickP:Clio51]

Depends how the lips are done Lee,
If you check a Stand21 helmet for example the lip is designed to have virtually no strength when hit from beneath, (thus avoiding injury to the driver) but still provides a very real anti-buffeting effect.
Unfortunately, people still cut corners when it comes to race equipment, especially helmets and especially in the UK where the authorities positively encourage you to kill yourself by waiving the sales tax on British standards Institute helmets that are woefully inadequate in protecting the head but charging the VAT on Snell standard ones!
RickP

[Lee Janotta]

I was not aware of that, Rick. Sounds like an absolutely brainless policy.