New safety requirements for Pit Crews?

[KC]

I did not see the race and have no idea what or who caused the collision that sent Ward Burton's car into the RYR pit stall injuring three crewmen and a NASCAR official. I know a lot of other series have adopted safety helmet rules for the crew memebers. I think it could help. It won't protect a crewman from getting killed from the impact of a race car, but I think it is small price to pay in inconvenience to maybe save a life. Bell supplied special helmets to CART teams with oversize eye openings to provide the crewmen with as much peripheral vision as possible. I think NASCAR will make the right choice on this and quickly.

During the RPM2Night broadcast you could see how the drievrs, Jeff Gordon, Ward Burton, Jeff Burton, and Ricky Rudd, were struggling to deal with the fact and each urged their crew memebers to wear some sort of head protection.

I hope everyone comes out OK and is back at the track as soon as possible.

[Emfa]

Originally posted by KC
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I hope everyone comes out OK and is back at the track as soon as possible.

Agreed. I wish a speedy recovery for tire changer Bobby Burrell especially (the other 3 guys seem to be doing fine).

Interestingly, one of the reports of the incident cited Mark Martin's team as wearing helmets in 1999, but shed them last season, saying the helmets hampered their pit work. It would be good if the safety suppliers could work with the crews to provide suitable equipment - like Bell did for CART.

[Roselady3]

Yes- they need to design a lighter weight full head helmet, that won't slow them down. Maybe they could be made similar to bicycle helmets, with venting strips, only coming lower on the head.

I personally think that the drivers will be more aware & be a tad more careful. t I think that with the teams will be taking steps for the crew safty (like helmets) & that this type of thing won't happen again.

[Joe Fan]

Although I would wear a HANS-device as a driver, I don't think I would want to wear a helmet as a NASCAR pit crew member. Yes, I know hows serious a closed head injury can be, especially if someone got punted head-frist into the concrete retaining wall but I would rather take my chances for comfort reasons. The situation that occurred yesterday is pretty rare. About the worse you usually see is a tire changer having to belly flop on the hood of a car that has lost some of it brakes coming into the pits. Part of the reason why open wheel pit crews wear them is that they have more problems with fires in the pits.