Driver safety in wake of Wilson’s death a complicated issue

Before the IndyCar community can have a philosophical discussion about covering the heads of drivers in competition, experts must determine if it can be done safely. As it stands, it can’t.

That was the message noted Indianapolis-based safety expert Dr. Terry Trammell delivered to IndyCar officials just hours after Justin Wilson took a fatal blow to the helmet in Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway.

In the back of IndyCar’s transporter, which serves as a conference room, Trammell displayed the latest information collected by the FIA, auto racing’s international governing body.

“They have a lot of data,” Trammell said Wednesday. “We’ve been aware of their efforts since (2009).”

Actually, Trammell said what-if scenarios started before the ’09 incidents of F-2 driver Henry Surtees (fatally struck by a loose wheel) and Formula One’s Felipe Massa (hit by a spring). In spite of the work that’s been done, Trammell said straightforward solutions are lacking.

Fundamentally, there are two scenarios in which a driver can be hit. The first, and more likely, is from the front, as Massa was in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The spring hit him in the upper left part of his visor. Dan Wheldon also took a frontal impact when he struck a fence post at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The second scenario, which appears to have happened in Wilson’s accident, is when the helmet is struck from above.

“You can see more solutions for that,” IndyCar president Derrick Walker said. “When things come straight at you, that’s more complicated.”

Trammell said the goal in each case is to deflect the debris because almost no material can take a full impact. He referenced government studies showing windshields of a fighter jet breaking when striking something even the size of a bird.

“A 10-pound goose will go right through it,” Trammell said.

In Wilson’s case, it’s likely to be determined that the nose cone from Sage Karam’s crashed car caused the severe head injury. Karam’s car had hit the Turn 1 wall slightly off front center, scattering those pieces.

Even a broken nose piece is estimated to weigh 8 pounds, and the force would increase with traveling rate and gravity. It seems reasonable to estimate Wilson’s car was going about 180 mph even under braking as he was the 12th car into Karam’s accident scene.

Trammell said that windshield data provided by NASCAR is interesting, but that a stock car’s advantage is additional cockpit room and fewer broken pieces bouncing through the playing field.

“It’s a different kettle of fish,” Trammell said. “(Stock cars) don’t shed pieces like an open-wheel car does.”

Even in debris deflection, Trammell said there’s dangerous unpredictability.

“There’s no way to guarantee it will go where you planned for it to go,” he said.

The FIA has produced several protection designs and tested a few. Trammell has reviewed all of them, and that’s what he showed IndyCar officials Sunday while the group was still in Pennsylvania.

One design involves a halo around the driver’s head, another has a front pillar with extending pieces. Visibility is an important consideration and completely covering the driver raises concern about entrapment, although Aerodine Composites Group, an Indianapolis-based company, has solved those issues for Top Fuel dragsters.

A dragster’s cover is hinged at the front and latches behind the driver’s head. Its lock can be released from the inside or the outside, and the enclosed compartment can be accessed by a fire hose.

“I won’t race without it,” seven-time NHRA champion Tony Schumacher said.

In an interview this week with Autosport, a European-based motor sports media outlet, F-1 race director Charlie Whiting predicted a day when open-wheel cars will have covers.

“I can definitely see the day when this will happen,” he said. “One day there will be something that will decrease a driver’s risk of injury.

“Whether it will be as good at protecting a driver from an object coming towards him as a fighter jet cockpit, I doubt that, but it will offer him protection.

“We have to persevere. We must make something, even if it’s not 100 percent in terms of protecting the driver under all circumstances.”

Vautier penalized for crash

IndyCar driver Tristan Vautier has been punished for his role in the crash that included championship contender Graham Rahal at Pocono.

Vautier hit Rahal on the inside as Rahal was alongside Wilson in the narrow Turn 3. Wilson was not involved in that crash.

IndyCar called it avoidable contact, and it docked Vautier three points, fined him $10,000 and will hold him out of the first two hours of Friday’s open test at Sonoma Raceway.

Follow Star reporter Curt Cavin on Facebook and on Twitter: @curtcavin.