Safety Equipment,Earnhardt, No Audi content

[jzwahlen at cerrejon.com]

Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 

Earnhardt Lap Belt Found Broken After NASCAR Crash 

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (Reuters) - Legendary stock car driver
Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s seat belt was found broken after the
crash that killed him on the final lap of Sunday's Daytona
500,NASCAR officials said on Friday.

Earnhardt, 49, was killed instantly on the final lap of
Sunday's Daytona 500 when his trademark black No. 3 Chevy
slammed into the wall on turn four as he raced ahead of a
pack of cars heading for the checkered flag.

NASCAR officials said the broken belt caused the driver to
slam onto the steering column, but did not give details of
how or why the belt broke.

"Our investigation indicates that a broken left lap seat
belt came apart," NASCAR president Mike Helton told a news
conference in Rockingham, North Carolina, site of NASCAR's
Dura-Lube 400 race on Sunday.

"We don't know why, we don't know how, we don't know when
it broke. We aren't going to speculate. We will continue our
investigation," he said.

Helton said the broken left seat belt was discovered during
an investigation of Earnhardt's wrecked car on Sunday night.

"This morning we're not going to speculate (on how it broke)
beyond the fact we know that the lap belt is in two pieces,"
Helton said. He declined to say who manufactured the belt.

The news of the broken belt was announced a day after an
emotional memorial service for Earnhardt attended by
thousands of people from the tight-knit NASCAR community,
which was left stunned by the driver's death.

Earnhardt, dubbed "Ironhead" by rival drivers for his
resilience in surviving other dramatic crashes, was buried
in a private ceremony in his hometown of Kannapolis, in the
heart of North Carolina racing country.