Let's say there's a factory in your town. The plant has had a reasonably good safety record over the years.
In the past year, however, four workers (or, in this case, "independent contractors") have died at the factory, an unusually high number. Moreover, the causes of the deaths are suspiciously similar, although no one in plant management will say anything at all.
Management reassures everyone that the situation is under control, that it is taking all necessary steps to assure the safety of the workers and of the community. It will not say what steps it is taking.
Plant workers naturally are concerned, but are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs. Management has told them little about what's going on, so they begin to take steps to protect themselves, based on what they believe they know. Management, however, does not allow them to use certain pieces of protective equipment.
The local paper takes an interest in the matter and begins an investigation. Plant management refuses to return calls and attempts to block the investigation, for reasons not explained.
Management says that its business is private, and that it alone knows how the business works, how to administer it, and how to address its problems. Two months after the most recent fatality, nothing has changed.
The citizens of the community are libertarian, and scorn government interference. However, given the caveman intransigence of plant management, people begin to wonder whether some sort of oversight, even OSHA or the EPA, should have a look at the plant's operations.
This parable is brought to you by NASCAR, which continues to stonewall, falsify, obfuscate and double-talk after four deaths since last May.
Adam Petty died a year ago, Kenny Irwin last July, Tony Roper in October, and Dale Earnhardt in February. Were the cause factors the same in all four? NASCAR won't say, but autopsy reports show basal skull fractures in each case.
Are there measures available to prevent such injuries? We have heard of some, notably the HANS and similar devices, although I can't say that any of them would have been 100pct effective in every case.
NASCAR said nothing, and apparently did little, after young Petty died a year ago. It did little more, other than muff around with some "soft-wall" testing, after Irwin died. Roper, who died in a Craftsman Truck wreck at Texas, almost was off the radar screen. Then Earnhardt.
The point is, whatever could have been done should have been done after Petty's death, and certainly after Irwin's. Does it take a year of cumulative investigation to find a fail-safe, something that, NASCAR president Mike Helton tells us, would not cause more problems than it solves and would work for everyone?
What's happening now clearly isn't working, and a year later, NASCAR's largely-unchanged formula is still costing lives.
Given that NASCAR refuses to let the public, or even the competitors, in on their "investigations," and that it seldom requires safety improvements but simply recommends them, perhaps it is time for accountability, enforced from somewhere outside the cartel.
Let's compare NASCAR, and motor racing in general, to that other deadly game, boxing. From the 1940s on, boxing, in all states, came increasingly under the control of state commissions, which certified officials, regulated length of bouts, set specs for facilities and equipment, and dictated how long a fighter had to sit out after a knockout, usually 90 days.
Is it time for racing to be regulated by government, state or federal? Horrors, no, say racers and race fans, who embrace the personal liberty racing represents. Helmet laws suck.
There are systems in place, however. In two states, New Jersey and Connecticut, state police and/or state DMV officials have oversight over motor racing. In all other states, control of racing is left to the various sanctions, which become law unto themselves.
In Connecticut, for example, state officials routinely inspect racing facilities and can order improvements. They also may stop a race in case of a serious wreck, do a normal, 20min crash investigation, and impound the wrecked car for examination.
Last we looked, motor racing was alive and well in Connecticut.
Many resist such talk, and certainly such resistance is well-founded. Regulation often is arbitrary, or has unintended wrong consequences (see California's power crisis), and once in place it tends to become more and more entrenched and meddlesome.
Still, state commissions could set standards for facilities regarding spectator and competitor safety. They could compel private corporations such as NASCAR to operate under guidelines Ð to keep toxic waste out of the water, so to speak.
The federal government had to require Detroit to put seat belts on all cars in the 1960s. Left to themselves, the manufacturers likely would still offer them as an option. As one race team manager said, "If seat belts sold cars, we'd have had them in 1910."
Is regulation needed? That's a good question, and it's one we can debate for a while Ð while we're waiting for NASCAR to 'fess up.
Ben Blake, Senior Editor, RACER (Portrait: Ken Dallison)
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