No formal IRL probe into Dana's death

[trauma1]

no investigation,f fools, :flame: :flame:

Report: No formal IRL probe into Dana's deathESPN.com news services


Indy Racing League spokesman Tom Savage told the Miami Herald that there was no formal investigation into the death of driver Paul Dana planned.

Paul Dana bio
Age: 30; born in St. Louis, Mo., on April 15, 1975.




"The only thing we will really do, is look at the race car and see if there are things we learn from a safety [standpoint], why it happened,'' Savage told the newspaper.

"But as far as an investigation, there probably won't be a report on it."

While streaking around the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval during a warmup session, Dana failed to notice that another car had spun to a stop, slamming into it at an estimated 175 miles per hour. Two hours after his shattered car came to a rest, the 30-year-old Dana was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Ed Carpenter, whose car Dana hit Sunday, was released from the hospital in good condition, Carpenter has a bruised lung as a result of the crash. Because he has not been cleared to drive by IRL doctors, Carpenter's car will be driven in testing Tuesday by Roberto Moreno.

Dana, who began his career in Formula Fords and worked his way up through the ranks, was known as a strong self promoter. He got his new ride by bringing the Ethanol sponsorship to the Rahal Letterman team over the winter.

"Paul was on Cloud Nine after getting the ninth spot [for Sunday's race]," Tom Slunecka, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, told the Chicago Tribune. "His spirits were at an all-time high."

Still, the wreck might have been the result of a rookie mistake by Dana, whose previous IRL experience included just three races last season. Moments into the 30-minute warmup, Carpenter, stepson of IRL founder Tony George, crashed in turn two and went spinning down the racetrack.

Yellow lights came on around the track, and several cars could be seen slowing, some of which avoided Carpenter's car. But Dana's car kept its speed, passing Buddy Lazier and Scott Sharp.

"He carried way too much speed in and wasn't aware of what was going on around him," Buddy Lazier said.

Seconds later, Dana's Honda-powered Panoz slammed into Carpenter's Dallara-Honda at nearly full speed -- about 200 mph.

Dana's car nearly split in half. The chassis flew about 6 feet off the ground and pieces were strewn down the track. It nearly turned over, but landed on its wheels before sliding to a halt.

Savage told The Herald that league engineers would inspect the remnants of Dana's car and that there didn't appear to be a malfunction with the yellow light in his car that would have warned him of Carpenter's crash.

The Rahal-Letterman team will not race the No. 17 car, which Dana drove, next week in the IndyCar race in St. Petersburg, Fla., ESPN's Klain reported Monday. The team does intend to have a driver for the car later in the season.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.


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[Ed_Severson]

Personally, I don't see much of a problem with this.

It clearly wasn't a safety problem from the perspective of compatibility of the cars and the track. It doesn't appear to be a problem born from an inherent design flaw in the cars. And they're already going to examine the car to see what could be done differently to avoid a repeat of this sort of thing.

Given all of that, I think an official investigation would probably look nothing more like a witch hunt, and an attempt to find somebody to blame, which doesn't really do anybody any good at this point.

[JoeBob]

There is always something to be learned from a full investigation.

Even if the only actionable item is, "We need to have yellow lights on more fence posts in the corners" it is a lesson learned.

[racer2c]

The man died. There should be a full investigation.

[NismoZ]

I was wondering if there are yellows on the fence, how many did he pass? If a yellow light is in the car, was it working properly, was it positioned to be clearly and unavoidably seen? If a spotter was on the radio did he shout a warning and could it be heard in the helmet? (recordings kept?) I could clearly see the Carpenter car from Sharp's (?) on-board, and if Dana couldn't he was probably checking his rightside mirror judging clearance as he passed low. :(

[Andrew Longman]

The man died. There should be a full investigation.

I imagine Dade County will conduct an investigation. Any death requires it legally. But it will look for criminal activity not technical and only ensure that it was indeed an accident.

The sport would not welcome a state investigation a la the Italian government investigation of the Senna crash, nor would I expect it from politician in FL.

But if I was running the sport I would have a standard debrief of every accident. They already routinely collect black box data for technical lessons learned on G forces, structural issues and such.

With any sort of injury it should prompt at a bit broader review of procedures and design, at least to make sure the data is collected and cataloged properly.

When someone is severely injured or killed, it should prompt another level of inquiry to examine a broader range of factors into both the causes and effects of the accident.

It good insurance for the sport and prompts what teams and drivers simply can't or won't do when faced with a death and that's talk about it.

Besides, otherwise this just gets played out in the press and public. Do you want RM and the internet crowd deciding is a driver was qualified or if his car was disabled by debris? Or would you like to know the truth and make sure everyone else does too.

[Fio1]

The man died. There should be a full investigation.

Why, it's not like they did one after Renna got killed. :shakehead

[Audi_A4]

An investigation? What are you nuts? It's the IRL we are talking about .... they dont give a rats a$$ about safety.

[Insomniac]

Someone should try to find out why he didn't slow in time and what can be done to prevent that from happening, even if it's nothing. The result of the investigation may be driver error, but not investigating, they will never know.

[Methanolandbrats]

Going 200 mph on a 1.5 mile oval in an openwheel car is stupid. The driver entering a turn cannot see what is going on at turn exit. By the time he sees it, it's too late to react.

There, now there is a formal probe.

[L1P1]

I think there will be plenty of investigations. But unofficial ones. Official investigations are only for the masses. Let's let the guys with the pocket protectors work on this.

[Racing Truth]

I think there will be plenty of investigations. But unofficial ones. Official investigations are only for the masses. Let's let the guys with the pocket protectors work on this.

That was my thought too.

[Winston Wolfe]

I hate to say this, but I just watched the "Spanish" version of the replay of the incident, and Dana CLEARLY runs over a relatively large piece of debris just prior to driving into the back of the disabled and almost stationary vehicle of Carpenter.
Did this prevent him from making a steering adjustment to avoid the spinning wreck that he thought was at the TOP OF THE TRACK ?
I belive you can see him lock up his brakes just prior to impact.
I also believe you can see his car veer slightly towards the OUTSIDE of the tracks, just prior to impact, which another poster here indicated may have also saved Carpenter's life, as well.
Regardless, Dana should have slowed, but I would have to say that based on what I just saw, I can see that his car was, in fact, compromised just prior to the impact with Carpenter.
Any way you look at it, its a sad day, sad time for both the racing community, and the Dana family.

[emjaya]

http://www.teamjuicyracing.com/vids/dana1.wmv

Here is a link to the spanish news story.I couldn't see if it had been posted already here.

It shows the crash from a few different views.


Did this prevent him from making a steering adjustment to avoid the spinning wreck that he thought was at the TOP OF THE TRACK ?

He was going to hit,debris or not.


I belive you can see him lock up his brakes just prior to impact.

I think that's when he hits the debris,not him braking. From the incar it seems to me Dana did not slow down at all as if he thought the carpenter car was still high.

Very sad.

[Stu]

the slow motion shot at the end showing him run over the debris shows that the debris had nothing to do with it.

he just ran right through it and nailed the car.

looks 100% driver/spotter error from the video.

[Sean O'Gorman]

If anything, it appears that the debris may have pushed him a bit towards the right, perhaps keeping him from making a direct hit with Carpenter.

[Insomniac]

What does the debris really matter. Why was he going that fast at that point?

[trauma1]

so what if anything is earl going to learn or do, my guess is nothing, they want this to go away fast

[Hard Driver]

That's the first time I saw the Scott Sharp in-car, looks from that angle that he must have been distracted. He is passing a car on the inside going through the corner. The passed car slows down and Dana keeps going. Dana hugs the inside because I guess the thought the wrecked car was at the top of the track.

My guess is that the spotter told him the car wrecked and was up high, and he decided to fly through the corner low and was checking the traffic around him and not looking ahead. Then he saw the wreck too late coming down the track in front of him. I think he may have seen the "days of thunder" too many times and thought that when a wreck happened, top cruise floored it through the smoke. I don't have any other explaination why he did not slow with the traffic around him.

As far as an investigation. I think one should be done after every fatality by every league. Sure this one SEEMS like driving into another car at 175 MPH is an unavoidable fatality, but there should still be an investigation, even if that is the conclusion.