[simple simon]

found this at Jayski and figured some would find it interesting

NASCAR drivers who have been killed on tracks since 1952, including the setting, location and the date:
Larry Mann, race, Langhorne, Pa., Sept. 14, 1952
Frank Arford, qualifying, Langhorne, Pa., race, June 20, 1953
Lou Figaro, race, North Wilkesboro, N.C., Oct. 25, 1954
John McVitty, qualifying, Langhorne, Pa., April 21, 1956
Clint McHugh, qualifying, LeHi, Ark., June 9, 1956
Thomas "Cotton" Priddy, race, LeHi, Ark., June 10, 1956
Bobby Myers, race, Darlington, S.C., Sept. 2, 1957
Gwynn Staley, race, Richmond, Va., March 23, 1958
Joe Weatherly, race, Riverside, Jan. 19, 1964
Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, race, Charlotte, N.C., July 2, 1964
Jimmy Pardue, tire test, Daytona Beach, Fla., Sept. 22, 1964
Billy Wade, tire test, Daytona Beach, Fla., Jan. 5, 1965
Buren Skeen, race, Darlington, S.C., Sept. 13, 1965
Harold Kite, race, Charlotte, N.C., Oct. 17, 1965
Billy Foster, practice, Riverside, Calif., Jan. 20, 1967
Talmadge Prince, qualifying, Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 19, 1970
Friday Hassler, qualifying, Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 17, 1972
Larry Smith, race, Talladega, Ala., Aug. 12, 1973
Tiny Lund, race, Talladega, Ala., Aug. 17, 1975
Ricky Knotts, qualifying, Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 14, 1980
Terry Schoonover, race, Atlanta, Nov. 11, 1985
Rick Baldwin, qualifying (died in 1997), Michigan, June 16, 1986
Bruce Jacobi, qualifying (died four years after crash), Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 4, 1987
Grant Adcox, race, Atlanta, Nov. 19, 1989
J.D. McDuffie, race, Watkins Glen, N.Y., Aug. 11, 1991
Clifford Allison, BGN practice, Brooklyn, Mich., Aug. 13, 1992
Neil Bonnett, practice, Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 11, 1994
Rodney Orr, qualifying, Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 14, 1994
John Nemechek, truck race injuries, Homestead, Fla., March 21, 1997
Adam Petty, BGN practice, Loudon, N.H., May 12, 2000
Kenny Irwin, practice, Loudon, N.H., July 7, 2000
Tony Roper, truck race, Fort Worth, Texas, Oct. 14, 2000
Dale Earnhardt, Daytona 500, Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 18, 2001
http://www.jayski.com/pages/faqrace.htm#numbers

[oncea3fan]

wow I didn't realize how deadly our sport was especially in the 90's

[LSC9901]

Percentage wise it is actually pretty low. Figure in all the laps driven versus drivers lost and add in a pinch of danger and I think the safety record for NASCAR speaks for itself. Losing that many drivers in 55 years isn't bad. Of course if you are family to one of them it isn't good but just by the numbers ... not a bad record.

[oncea3fan]

YES NOT A BAD RECORD, BUT I just didn't realize there were that many.

33 deaths in 55 years is still in todays numbers about 1 death every 22 races.

if you back it down to the last 20 years it's still 1 driver about every 2 years. thank god we haven't had anysince 2001.


question is are we headed for some bad years around the corner or has safty improved enough the the record will continue to improve.

I hope so, feel free to check my math, I may be incorrect.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by oncea3fan

YES NOT A BAD RECORD, BUT I just didn't realize there were that many.

33 deaths in 55 years is still in todays numbers about 1 death every 22 races.

if you back it down to the last 20 years it's still 1 driver about every 2 years. thank god we haven't had anysince 2001.


question is are we headed for some bad years around the corner or has safty improved enough the the record will continue to improve.

I hope so, feel free to check my math, I may be incorrect.

like so many of these types of statistics, the raw numbers can be daunting.

what I think would be a better way to look at this is:

1. what exactly caused each death .. I bet there's several common denominators and a few freaks.
2. after NASCAR instituted safety procedures for a specific cause, how many deaths? we got a lot of exposure to the "brain sloshing around in the skull" cause from Earnhardt Sr.'s death. how many have been prevented by the Hans Device?

I think as time goes on, and as NASCAR does their due diligence in incorporating safety into the cars and driver's equipment, we'll see fewer and fewer injuries as well as deaths.

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by oncea3fan

YES NOT A BAD RECORD, BUT I just didn't realize there were that many.

33 deaths in 55 years is still in todays numbers about 1 death every 22 races.

if you back it down to the last 20 years it's still 1 driver about every 2 years. thank god we haven't had any since 2001.


question is are we headed for some bad years around the corner or has safety improved enough the the record will continue to improve.

I hope so, feel free to check my math, I may be incorrect.

While your computation is probably correct your equation isn't. Keep in mind that some of these deaths occurred during testing, qualifying and racing. Consequently one death every 22 races isn't actually correct. This would be very difficult to figure out but you'd need to find out how many times each driver was ever on the track in a race car and go from there. That is why I say that overall the number of deaths versus the number of drivers/times on the track is actually quite low.

[oncea3fan]

yeah I was trying come up with how many races per death, so I used 36 races a year over 55 and 20 years, but there were more races in the early years, but anyhow I came up with 1.67 death a seaon.

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by oncea3fan

yeah I was trying come up with how many races per death, so I used 36 races a year over 55 and 20 years, but there were more races in the early years, but anyhow I came up with 1.67 death a season.

So why would you lump the 33 deaths into a 20 year time frame when in fact it was 55 years ???

33 deaths over 55 years gives you 0.6 per year. Again that is a flawed number because you need to incorporate the number of races, practices and qualifying runs to give you a closer picture of deaths per run around the track. I suppose it could be computed but not without a lot of research. Even at 0.6 it is far better than what the average driver out on the open road does.

[Quality88]

Very interesting stat.

[vincesanity82]

The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury keeps tallies available online and calculates that from 1931 to 2003 there were 993 fatalities directly attributable to football. This includes High School, College and Pro Players..

[vincesanity82]

Originally Posted by oncea3fan

YES NOT A BAD RECORD, BUT I just didn't realize there were that many.

33 deaths in 55 years is still in todays numbers about 1 death every 22 races.

if you back it down to the last 20 years it's still 1 driver about every 2 years. thank god we haven't had anysince 2001.


question is are we headed for some bad years around the corner or has safty improved enough the the record will continue to improve.

I hope so, feel free to check my math, I may be incorrect.

How many of those drivers died because of no head restraint, no telling how many lives that has saved already and will save in future wrecks..

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by oncea3fan

yeah I was trying come up with how many races per death, so I used 36 races a year over 55 and 20 years, but there were more races in the early years, but anyhow I came up with 1.67 death a seaon.

what would that number be for the last 10 years compared to the previous 10 years? I think the difference would show the effect of NASCAR's stepped up safety actions.

[simple simon]

i think the soft walls have made a difference ...... id also like to see more of those water barrels