In the early Clarence Day of railroad car racing , even a minor car accident could be fateful . For instance , Patrick Jacquemart was kill atMid - Ohio in 1981after a promontory - on collision with a dirt banking concern . His car was pull up stakes comparatively unscathed , but Jacquemart ended up with a skull fracture that do wicked brainiac impairment . Lucky for other racers , two of Jacquemart ’s supporter mistreat in and created a safety gadget that changed the sport ofcar racingforever .
Those friends were Jim Downing and Jacquemart ’s brother - in - law Dr. Bob Hubbard . The two decided to combine Downing ’s knowledge of racing and Hubbard ’s expertness in engineering and skull anatomy to develop new safety gear to strain to prevent deaths like Jacquemart ’s from materialise again . The simple and effective invention they create became know as theHANS machine , short for " heading and cervix reinforcement . "
Car and Driverexplains the HANS machine like acar airbag . But instead of inflating a cushion to cease the gadget driver in the lawsuit of a collision , the HANS twist uses a raised collar and two tethers to procure the gadget driver ’s head . In other words , it ’s a shoulder collar that confiscate to both the railway car seat ’s safety harnesses and the driver ’s helmet . In the event of a clash , it keeps the automobile driver ’s head and neck properly align with the trunk , preventing the type of excess military force that would otherwise lead in serious or fatal neck opening and pass wound .
But it take year for the HANS twist to become a financial success , and regrettably it took the death of a high - visibility racer forNASCARto take placard . It was n’t until Dale Earnhardt Sr . was killed in 2001 in a clangor like to Jacquemart ’s at the Daytona International Speedway for the racing community , include NASCAR , to take the HANS equipment in earnest . Now , most racing organizations requirethe use of a HANS equipment for all equipment driver .
What the HANS gadget is design to forestall arebasilar skull fractures(like the type of injury that killed Earnhardt Sr . ) . Those injuries are cause when a car suddenly decelerates . In Earnhardt ’s fatal smash at Daytona , for instance , NASCAR determine he pip the wall at 160 miles per hour ( 257 kilometres per hour ) and forthwith slowed by 42 to 44 miles per hour ( 67 to 70 kph ) in just 80 milliseconds . This sudden deceleration is known as the Delta v ( literally " modification in speed " ) .
While it ’s difficult to render precise statistics on how many living have been keep open by the HANS gimmick , we do know this : NASCAR — where attest Han are mandatory — did not have one driver fatalityin the 10 year after Earnhardt ’s last because of its emphasis on safety , though there were 126 death from crashes on pull strip and scant cut where HANS gadget are not required . And HANS estimate that of those 126 deaths , as many as 27 per centum — or 34 driver deaths — could have been prevent by the using the certified HANS equipment . Andno driverin an Indy car or in any of NASCAR ’s major series has been killed by a basilar skull geological fault since it involve the use of the HANS equipment .
