Earnhardt's Seatbelt OK?
UPDATE 2: 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 and a 2nd
story: Firefighter wrestled over whether to come forward
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)
UPDATE 2: better explainations at NASCAR.com: NASCAR disagrees with seat
belt claim and That's Racin': Rescuer, NASCAR at odds on belt(4-30-2001)
UPDATE 3: The woman who climbed into Dale Earnhardt's car after his fatal
crash at the Daytona 500 said Monday that she was too busy trying to save
him to tell whether the seat belt was broken. But Patti Dobler, a member of
the rescue crew at Daytona International Speedway, said the man with the
best view was Orange County firefighter Tommy Propst, who continued to
insist Monday that Earnhardt's five-point safety harness was intact after
Earnhardt's Chevrolet hit the track wall(full story at the Orlando
Sentinel)(5-1-2001)
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