Bill Simpson forced to resign

[KC]

Bill Simpson, owner and CEO of Simpson Safety Products, has resigned from his own company. He says that NASCAR maintains that his seat belt failed and brought about the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. even though the attending physician and coroner both have officially stated that his basal skull injuires would have happened regardless of the seat belt, and even though the EMT first on the scene says she cut the seat belt to get to the driver.

To this date NASCAR refuses to meet with Bill Simpson and and refuses to make any form of public statement to the press or the racing fans in this matter. Racer Ward Burton raced with a new product from Simpson that decelerates the head during a hard impact. Burton tested the device with a hard crash at Loudon and NASCAR subsequently confiscated the device and will not return it to Simpson for analysis.

Bill Simpson, his employees and his family have all received death threats over this issue. He states that this a big part of his resignation. He also states that work on his decelerator project will continue unabated.

I still fail to understand the foot dragging that NASCAR is employing on this matter. No amount of investigation, if that is what this is, should take this long. This is dragging the good name of Bill Simpson and Simpson Safety Products through the mud. I also do not understand how a governing body that requires the track owner to supply safety personnel and equipment and actively seeks to distance themselves from any issue concerning the safety of drivers can suddenly be the final word of safety and the investigation of Earnhardt's death. I think this is a tactic being used to scapegoat Mr. Simpson so that NASCAR cannot be held up to the light. Its the very same tactics that Bill Clinton employed in the Monica Lewinsky affair. Stall and stall some more until no one can remember what happened then make up whatever truth you need to cast blame elsewhere. It also seems the absolute power of NASCAR is also keeping the drivers quiet about this issue. In no other form of racing anywhere in the world would a driver's death be uniformly and categorically silenced as Earnhardt's has.

[floid2000]

Nascar has been totally irresponsible and RUDE since the Earnhart deal.They want to use Bill Simpson as a "bad guy" . The corroner did his bit and declared the death an accident that no equipment ,in use at the time, could have prevented.That's the only "real" investigation.The first paramedic at the scene said that he had cut the belt. Why would he lie ?
This is a shame and Mr Simpson sure got screwed on this deal after saving countless lives over the years.
Im still going to watch Nascar on free TV but,I will never buy another ticket or licenced product again. Nascar has really shown it's ugly side this year and ,just watch the fans .We're not stupid. Ive seen empty seats a couple of times this season during cup races.There will also be an empty seat at Homestead this year.

[Joe Fan]

Personally myself, the resignation of Bill Simpson this late in the game seems fishy to me and almost appears to be an admission of guilt over the reliabilty of his product. If I felt confident in my product and stood behind it, I sure wouldn't resign. Resigning is very bad PR for his products and is worse than anything NASCAR has done to date. NASCAR hasn't officially assigned blame to his product yet so this seems to be a copout on his part.

There have been other claims of his seatbelts breaking and the reason why NASCAR confiscated his "HANS" type device is that Ward suffered badly pulled neck muscles in crash and NASCAR felt that this device needed confiscated and reviewed.

[floid2000]

This argument will live on in racing circles for years.But, I WILL boycott NASCAR

[Emfa]

I'm not sure what to make of this. The timing does seem a bit odd - could it be that he is anticipating the release of Nascar's report and decided to get out while the going is still (relatively) good?

I feel a bit sorry for Simpson in some ways - he seems genuine enough, and he sure has taken a beating lately.

[FordPrefect]

No matter how NASCAR writes the report I will always believe that they hold the final responsiblity for Dale's death.

They avoid try to avoid responsiblity by letting the drivers, race in open face helmets, and decide if they should have head restraints or not. Componding this is the points system which forces cars to be built so they can withstand a crash so they can remove the sheet metal and still limp around the track. These cars remind me of the vehicles from the 50's the car survived the crash the driver didn't. They need a crumple zone up front so the car can crash but the driver can walk away.

Sorry this rant has gone on long enough but when I see Dale Jr. in that childish open faced helmet I just want to yell at him.

Grow up NASCAR, take some responsibilty.

As for Simpson, it's a real shame. His products have saved hundreds of lives over the years, it sure is nice to see how NASCAR stands by their suppliers.

..there, now I feel much bitter ... err better

[floid2000]

I agree Ford

[FordPrefect]

It's not all bad for Bill, I just found this at http://www.thatsracin.com/

Motorsports safety pioneer Bill Simpson will receive the Smokey Yunick Award recognizing lifetime achievement in auto racing during prerace ceremonies for the Oct. 7 UAW-GM Quality 500 Winston Cup event at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The award, instituted several years ago by legendary car owner and mechanic Smokey Yunick who passed away May 11 at age 77, annually recognizes an individual whose lifelong efforts have had a major impact on the motorsports industry.

"There certainly is no one more deserving of this honor than Bill Simpson," said H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I don't think we can ever measure how many drivers', and even crew members', lives have been saved or how many injuries have been prevented because of Bill's work."

The blue-ribbon panel that determines the Smokey Yunick Award recipient met on Thursday, July 26, and unanimously selected Simpson to receive the prestigious award. The selection came just five days before Simpson announced his resignation from Simpson Performance Products, the company he founded in 1959.

[floid2000]

Good for him. Maybe Nascar will get off of his back now. NOT !

[ma]

Simpson's device was tested extensively by the IRL, and found to be pretty useless in every way, with the exception of 45 drgree diagonal crashes, and even there it wasn't much better than no device at all.

Back to the drawing boards, Bill.

On the behalf of all designers who are safety conscious, I really wish that NASCAR would get their heads back to where the sun shines occasionally. Their vetoing of almost all modern safety measures rankles of gooberism at it's worst. There is absolutely no excuse for a driver to get anything more than a scratch in a car of that size.

[carbonpress]

Smokey talked a lot about NASCAR's stonewalling attitude towards safety in his book. In fact, that was the main reason he quit racing: Bill France would not overrule the inspector and allow him to use a much safer fuel cell rather in place of the stock tank and filler neck, which caused a fire everytime the rear bumper was tapped. This was the final straw.

Smokey likened France's and NASCAR's attitude toward safety to that of an ostrich sticking his head in the sand - if they ignore all safety issues and take no part in safety, then they cannot be held responsible. The only problem is that when your head is in the sand, something else is exposed for everyone to see and kick.

Some things never change and as long as the France's are NASCAR, safety will take a back seat to money and the shuck and jive.

[ginazimski]

The way Earnhardt was blocking he should of been black flagged. He died as he lived putting drivers into the wall.

Gina