Leg injuries from a crash like that can happen simply because of the forces that toss the legs about, impacting the insides of the tub.
Leg injuries from a crash like that can happen simply because of the forces that toss the legs about, impacting the insides of the tub.
Charlie Warner
fatto gatto racing
'Cause there's bugger-all down here on earth!
I have no idea what caused his fractured spine, but we do know that he was sitting in a state of the art seat and the tub appeared to be intact. Now think about what may have happened without that seat. Steve Lathrop has repeatedly been an advocate for bead seats on this forum due to the forces exerted on the spine in a severe crash. If you don't have one, you might want to consider one.
I'd guess that the spine injury was a compression fracture, which is caused by excessive force in line with the spine. This is usually the result of a high G-load deceleration. The seat and safety harness limits movement of the tailbone/hip area, and the g-load causes the upper body to try to move forward and down. The weak link is usually a vertebra. Having a state-of the art seat will not prevent that, although it is good for general spine and body support in directions perpendicular to the spine.
Dave Weitzenhof
You can make the cars strong enough to survive crashes like Wickens' and Bourdais' last year, but that force is going somewhere. It seems to center around where the driver is anchored to his cell, lower back, pelvis, legs. I had an Elon Musk-type idea of, instead of belts, having a bead seat material cover clamping over the top of a driver to distribute a catastrophic accident load more evenly over a body. I know there's a host of problems assiciated with that idea of course, if it even kinda worked. It need a smarter person than I.
Dale V.
Lake Effect Motorsports
FM
Spartan VP-2/Mazda
You could always try a modified aircraft torso harness.
but this is getting further and further off thread.
Roland Johnson
San Diego, Ca
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