Earnhardt's Seatbelt OK?

[MountaineerTom]

From http://jayski.thatsracin.com/

Earnhardt's Seatbelt OK? Dale Earnhardt’s seat belt did not break during his fatal crash at the Daytona 500, according to one of the first rescuers to come to his aid. Tommy Propst, a veteran Orange County firefighter and emergency medical technician, said he found the NASCAR legend strapped inside his crumpled car in the infield of Daytona International Speedway. Propst said the seat belt was tight enough that he had to pull the seat-belt buckle repeatedly before it popped open. "Somebody hollered, ‘I’ll cut it.’ I said, ‘No, let me try it.’ I reached over, pulled, and I had to really jerk. I pulled hard, and that’s when it come open," Propst told the Orlando Sentinel. "If it would have been broke, the whole thing would have come open because I was jerking. . . . It was in one piece at the time." Propst’s account breaks two months of silence by the men and women who tried to save Earnhardt. To this day, Propst said, he has never been questioned by anyone from NASCAR. NASCAR officials Saturday refused to respond to Propst’s statements. See full story at the Orlando Sentinel: Rescuer: Earnhardt seat belt was intact(4-29-2001)

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Today (29 April) would have been Dale Earnhardt's 50th Birthday.

 

(Edited by MountaineerTom 99Z71 at 9:26 pm on April 29, 2001)

[MountaineerTom]

UPDATE: The NASCAR Winston Cup series was racing in Fontana, Calif., where director Gary Nelson disagreed with Propst's account. NASCAR has refused to display the seat belt and hasn't said if the results of its own investigation by unidentified experts will be made public. The probe is expected to last throughout the summer. "I don't know of anybody that does a big investigation and tells the world their conclusions on a daily basis until the investigation is concluded," NASCAR chairman Bill France told the AP.(That's Racin'/AP)(4-29-2001)

[Guest Friz]

I think that we should let the man RIP. A racecar hits a concrete wall at 170mph. The driver dies. Why is this such a surprise?

Consider all the guys that lived through crashes like this lucky and move on!

[General Lee 01]

I totally agree with Friz.

It doesn't matter if his Seatbelt failed or not now. It's too late to do anything except go on and hope it doesn't happen again.

[MountaineerTom]

I'll stop posting info about this cause it does get kinda old.  I just find it odd that now, this long after the accident, we hear contidicting stories.  RIP Dale!

[Guest Friz]

Has anyone but me noticed how many Earnhardt fans are out there NOW?

I was never in his cheering section and I maintain that attitude after his death. I am sorry that he's gone, he was one of the greatest. I personally did not like him and still don't.

But my point here is that there seem to be gazillions of fans rooting for a dead man now. I hear people at work talking about his accomplishments that in in December never talked about racing at all.

I've been to races in his life and the only person to get more "boos" than Dale has been Jeff Gordon. Why is everyone in the stands now holding "RIP" and "We miss you" signs?

Please understand, I'm not bashing his accomplishments or his death or his popularity. I'm just trying to understand what I see.

Like I said, I was never an Earnhardt Fan. My biggest problem now is that I don't get to cuss at him on Sundays.

I don't understand why his death has generated this popularity. It's morbid.

[MountaineerTom]

There is alot of people jumping on his bandwagon, even though he's gone.  As for myself, I've been an Earnhardt fan for many, many years, since I was a kid.  So is my dad, so it sucks for both of us.

What gets me is all the people trying to make money off his death.  That's just wrong.  But that seems to happen with any big name sports figure or celebrity.