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2021 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (April 16-18)
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Author:  gkmotorsport [ Tue Apr 20, 2021 9:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 2021 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (April 16-18)

electrodevo wrote:
JJ wrote:
I'm not saying halo hasn't saved anyone since its introduction, but certainly not as many as people claim. The only way to find out would be to re-enact all those accidents without halo and see what happens. And that's not possible.


I prefer to kind of look at it in reverse. In the last 22 years, there have been six fatalities in Indycar. It's impossible to 100% say, of course, but the aeroscreen might have helped prevent a fatality for any accident where the death was caused in part or wholly by a solid object hitting the driver's head (Wilson, Wheldon, Moore).

More to the point, it probably would have helped prevent non-fatal injuries due to head strikes, like that suffered by Hinchcliffe in the 2014 Indy Grand Prix. It might give extra protection in a crash like Johnny Rutherford in 1980 @ Phoenix, a case where the car flipped hard enough to snap the rollbar (the helmet saved Rutherford's life in this case). And it gives extra protection to crashes where no one was injured in the end, but might have been. EG:Dario Franchitti @ Michigan 2007 where his car flips and comes down on top of Scott Dixon's car, and AJ Foyt IV's helmet was reportedly also hit by a tire. Or Aleshin burying his car under Montoya at Toronto in 2014.

Yeah, "saved lives" for every crash where the aeroscreen deflects debris / cars / etc. is hyperbole, but that's what happens with any bit of safety technology. Hyperbole happened with the HANS and SAFER barrier too. It's hard to prove whether these "saved lives" at an individual crash level, to be honest. But at *minimum* these technologies prevented some serious injuries, probably even saving a life or two along the way. I look at the aeroscreen in the same way, so I kind of forgive the exaggerations.


I think the important point people forget is that it isn't a 'guaranteed fix' device. It's true that Brundle wasn't seriously hurt by taking a spinning wheel to the head, but nobody would say he was not incredibly lucky. The halo reduces the influence of dumb luck enormously.

Author:  gkmotorsport [ Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 2021 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (April 16-18)

codename_47 wrote:
Not Wheldon sadly, the entire top half of the car was ground off in that crash and cheese grated against the barrier

Not Moore either, the rotation of the car meant his head would still have impacted the concrete

Don't forget it's largely there to deflect Debris and tyres, there's only so much force it can handle, accidents like Wheldon's, Moore's and Bianchi's were just not survivable in open wheel cars, Halo or not.


The FIA did include Moore and Wheldon in their analysis for the halo, but they presented them as 'pending' in their video in 2017 and I don't think they ever released the results.

I think it's plausible that the halo would have deflected Wheldon's car had it hit the post first (it is rated for huge loads), but the variables involved are huge. I'm not sure it would have helped Moore given the sudden stop.

Author:  mclaren2008 [ Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 2021 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (April 16-18)

nothing would have saved Greg except for tarmac instead of grass

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