1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,120
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

2
00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:10,160
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum here. In the early days of car racing,

3
00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:14,120
Speaker 1: even a minor accident could be fatal. For example, Patrick

4
00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:17,319
Speaker 1: jack Mart was killed at mid Ohio in one after

5
00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,119
Speaker 1: a head on collision with a dirt bank. His car

6
00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:23,079
Speaker 1: was left relatively unscathed, but Jack Bart ended up with

7
00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:26,520
Speaker 1: a skull fracture that caused severe brain damage. A lucky

8
00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:29,520
Speaker 1: for other racers, two of jack Bart's friends stepped in

9
00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:32,199
Speaker 1: and created a safety device that has changed the sport

10
00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,960
Speaker 1: of car racing forever. Those friends were Jim Downing and

11
00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,360
Speaker 1: jack Mart's brother in law, Dr Bob Hubbard. The two

12
00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,800
Speaker 1: decided to combine Downing's knowledge of racing and Hubbard's expertise

13
00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:45,840
Speaker 1: in engineering and skull anatomy to develop new safety gear

14
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,600
Speaker 1: to try to prevent deaths like jack Mart's from happening again.

15
00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:52,559
Speaker 1: The simple and effective invention they created became known as

16
00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:57,160
Speaker 1: the hands Device short forehead and neck support. The hands

17
00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:00,360
Speaker 1: device isn't like a car airbag, which inflates a cushion

18
00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:03,240
Speaker 1: to stop the driver in case of a collision. Instead,

19
00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:06,959
Speaker 1: the hands device proactively uses a raised collar and two

20
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,240
Speaker 1: tethers to secure the driver's head. In other words, it's

21
00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:12,759
Speaker 1: a shoulder collar that attaches to both the car seats

22
00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:16,520
Speaker 1: safety harness and the driver's helmet. In the event of

23
00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:18,960
Speaker 1: a crash, it keeps the racer's head and neck properly

24
00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,959
Speaker 1: aligned with the torso, preventing the type of excess force

25
00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:25,039
Speaker 1: that would otherwise result in serious or fatal neck and

26
00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:28,600
Speaker 1: head injuries. But it took years for the hands device

27
00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:31,959
Speaker 1: to become a financial success, and unfortunately, it took the

28
00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:34,920
Speaker 1: death of a high profile racer for NASCAR to take notice.

29
00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:38,520
Speaker 1: When Dale Earnhardt, Sr. Was killed in two thousand one

30
00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:40,680
Speaker 1: in a crash similar to Jack Marts at the Daytona

31
00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:45,440
Speaker 1: International Speedway, the racing community, including NASCAR, finally took the

32
00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:50,280
Speaker 1: hands device seriously. Now, most racing organizations require the use

33
00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:53,919
Speaker 1: of a hands device for all drivers. The hands device

34
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,840
Speaker 1: is specifically designed to prevent vassal or skull fractures. Those

35
00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:01,080
Speaker 1: injuries are caused when a car suddenly dec cceleerates. In

36
00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,760
Speaker 1: Earnhardt's fatal crash at Daytona, for instance, NASCAR determined that

37
00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:06,919
Speaker 1: he hit the wall going a hundred and sixty miles

38
00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:09,799
Speaker 1: per hour. That's two hundred and fifty seven kilometers per

39
00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,120
Speaker 1: hour and slowed by somewhere between forty two to forty

40
00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,440
Speaker 1: four miles per hour about sixty seven to seventy kilos

41
00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:21,640
Speaker 1: per hour in just eighty milliseconds. This sudden deceleration is

42
00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:25,920
Speaker 1: known as the delta V, literally the change in velocity.

43
00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:29,560
Speaker 1: While it's difficult to provide exact statistics on how many

44
00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,080
Speaker 1: lives have been saved by the hands device, we do

45
00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:36,480
Speaker 1: know this NASCAR, where certified hands are mandatory, did not

46
00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:40,400
Speaker 1: have one single driver fatality in the decade after Earnhardt's death,

47
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:43,040
Speaker 1: whereas there were a hundred and twenty six deaths from

48
00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:46,359
Speaker 1: crashes on drag strips and short tracks where hands devices

49
00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:50,280
Speaker 1: are not required, and Hands estimates that of those hundred

50
00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:54,240
Speaker 1: and six deaths as many, it's that's thirty four driver

51
00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,760
Speaker 1: deaths could have been prevented by using the device, and

52
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,280
Speaker 1: no driver in an Indie car or an any of

53
00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:03,200
Speaker 1: NASCAR's major series has been killed by a bachelor's skull

54
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:11,440
Speaker 1: fracture since it required the use of the device. Today's

55
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,760
Speaker 1: episode was written by Trees three Witt and produced by

56
00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,919
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang for iHeartMedia and How Stuff Works from around

57
00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:19,080
Speaker 1: this and lots of other topics, visit our home planet,

58
00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:31,680
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com.