I'm always surprised by how some crashes that don't look too bad can be fatal and ones that look like no one could ever survive result in the driver only getting a few bumps and bruises.
Important to remeber that he hit a solid concrete wall broadside on the drivers side at over 180mph, with a fraction of the safety tech there is today.
@@travisburton2948 I don’t know if this is exactly fitting for this crash but they were talking about head injuries so i belive it is, i think he died because in those days of racing they didn’t have the HANS Safety device that is now common in all bigger championships, drivers like dale Ernhardt also died because of the absence of this device that holds the drivers head and neck in place in case of an accident
@@gehbehinderterWerkssoldat Just think, if Dale Earnhardt had his HANS safety system attached he might have survived the crash. No guaranteed and we'll never know.
A high school friend's brother-in-law was in a coma for 8 years after a crash at Phoenix in the 1988 Copper World Classic. Even though his car had the safety net, his head still hit the concrete when he spun into the wall, which was the same thing that happened to Baldwin. After Jim's Phoenix crash, NASCAR finally moved the window net further inside.
There was a guy that was in a coma for 10 years, woke up and reunited with his family. Then fell out of bed a few days later onto the hard hospital floor and died of his injuries.
Especially when you hear the stories from those who have woken who claim to have been living behind a vail of body paralysis while the inner mind remained lucid.
This is the one crash that still confuses me. I understand how it happened, his head probably smacked the wall. Yet he had lost so much speed before hitting the wall, and he didn't exactly have all the speed whipped out of the car from the impact. Even Dale Sr's crash looks worse then this.
a 30 mph impact is all it takes to kill someone technically. Think if your head smacked a wall at that speed. I'm impressed he lived even in a coma as long as he did.
Drivers side into a concrete wall, leaves no room for impact. At least, when going head on, you'll have the entire front end, to meet it. Remember, this is before HANS, and Safer Barriers. Also, the vehicles were full frame, heavy w/ lesser safety features. Carbon Fiber, reinforced frames, roll cages, and the above mentioned.
His head hit the wall. Window nets back then were designed to keep your flailing body inside the car, but when your helmet hit the net, there was still enough "slack" that your head would hit the wall at whatever speed your car was traveling. If the car was doing 100, that's how fast his helmeted head hit the wall.
Richard A. Baldwin (10 June 1955 - 12 June 1997) competed on the NASCAR circuit. He ran a few races each season during 1983-85 running his self owned Dodge Mirada and Chrysler Imperial. On June 14, 1986, during qualifying for the Miller American 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Baldwin spun and hit the turn three wall driver's side first. The protective window netting failed to prevent his head from striking the wall during the impact, resulting in massive head injuries.
It was a drive side impact. The protective window netting failed to prevent his head from striking the wall during the impact, resulting in massive head injuries.
11 years? Seriously. Sorry, but if my loved one didn't wake up in at least a year, I would have pulled the plug. With massive brain injury, the outcome would still be too much to bear. That is no life at all to live. 😢
Back in those days, they may have had window nets, but a lot of those guys didn't have any kind of neck protection. Headrests weren't used, and HANS-type devices weren't even thought of yet. They didn't even use neckrings. But in impacts such as that, is was common for a driver's head to stretch out of the car and hit the wall. It's a real shame, because he fought for 11 years...
Dale's crash seems somewhat reminiscent of this.. Sometimes the ones that look sorta benign from the TV set is much more traumatic after watching some of the more extreme wrecks where people walked away. RIP Sir....
Its hard to understand the speed theyre still traveling..even with the worlds best helmet on imagine how bad it would feel if you wer to run into a concrete wall that doesnt budge at jogging speed. Now imagine even at 30mph how bad it would hurt..def enough to kill you. Im sure he was still doing around 100 and with a helmet thats barley enough for a minor hit. And no matter how strong you are G-force is always going to control your bodies movements after a certain speed..and thats not much.
Yes, he was Mike Baldwins cousinand he used to deliver the jeans that Mike Baldwins factory used to produce back in the early 80's, just prior to his racing career. Shrewd of you to make the connection.
It shocking that a failed Net ended his life. I guess its a deeply unfortunate sign of how a life can so easily be lost on a track regardless of a Drivers Ability. R.I.P Rick.
Nowadays a crash like this would see the pilot exiting the car brushing his suit. After reading about the fatal kind of accident and before realising it was 1986, i expected another car to smash full throttle into Baldwin's car. It is sad to think how little pilots' life was considered back then.
concrete wall, the driving position wasn't toward center, no HANS device, thin window netting and lesser seatbelts... his head hit the wall. Much like Scott Brayton at Indy in 1996 I believe the year was...
I think we are speculating there...we are 35 years late to know what, if anything was done specifically in this crash. Unclear what seat he had, if he had any sort of head braces on the side of the seat, whether the seat broke, etc., etc... Any of those things, and multiple others, can contribute to this type of tragedy. To look back decades and try to figure out whether or not X safety improvement happened as a result of this may be futile. One thing is sure: Safety is light years ahead of where it was then. Much of it has to do with keeping the head in place, full containment seats, HANS devices, better lighter helmets are all here today and they weren't then.
Here's the thing with this crash, and John Nemacheck's, and Ashley Cooper's in the V8 Supercars in Australia: They were all impacts where the car hit flush on the side at a relatively high angle of impact. That does two bad things: 1) When a car hits the wall at an angle to the direction it's travelling, the speed into the wall is the sine of the angle of impact-so if you're going 150 mph and hit the wall at an angle of 30 degrees to the direction you're travelling, it's the same force as hitting the wall straight on at 75 mph. So there's a ton of force there. 2) When a car hits on the side, normally either the front or rear of the car hits first, the car rotates, and then the other end hits. That means the "crash impulse" is spread over two hits and a longer period of time. When a car hits flush, it's just one impact, and all of the force of the crash gets dumped into the car almost instantaneously.. Those two things are a bad combination.
the hit, of itself, might not have been that hard. but once you look at how much the driver side has been crushed in you realize that the whole left side of Rick's body probably made contact with the wall. and his head would have been whipped into it as they wouldn't have had the side bolsters on the seat that they have now. . and you have to remember that back then they were pushing the driver's seat to left as far as possible in order to gain a left side weight advantage, so there was no available crush area. Dale Jr and Ricky Craven got some of their concussions this way, check Jrs podcast.
Had a cousin who is a firefighter and of course asked him about accidents. He said the strangest ones are when the victim simply looks like they are sleeping with absolutely no visible damage. The death comes from sudden stop, all organs continue to move- displacing yet still contained in skeleton.
That accident looks very minor. Just recently a rookie driver flipped his car about 20 times and he got out and walked away. Times have changed since the 80s. It's sad what happened to Baldwin.
Rick Baldwin didn't die because of the force of the impact with the wall. He died because his window netting failed and his head hit the wall. Had the window netting not failed he most likely would have walked away uninjured from this crash.
Brain Injuries are no joke and this crash proves it. The crash didnt look to bad and he didnt have any broken bones but he hit his head and 11 years later passed away. Safety is key in racin' today.
Yeah. You see Rusty's flips, Tony Stewart's Daytona 500 flip, and you would think they got seriously messed up in the crash, and yet they walk away, and with crashes like this, the driver ends up dead (or in Baldwin's case, an 11 year coma before death)
If I'm not mistaken, didn't he begin to show signs in the year or so before his death, then gradually receding back into the coma before ultimately expiring?
why would u let some1 stay in a coma for 11 years??? why is it when animals get hurt we put them down but when ppl get hurt we make them suffer? 11 years is way too long. do the man a favor and send him to a better place other than his 11 year nightmare
@Jesant13 any Nascar crash where you hit the wall on the driver's side can be a VERY serious crash, just look at Jerry Nadeau's accident in '03. see how Rick Baldwin's car kind of snaps as it hits the wall? That's like the force of getting t-boned, drivers side, only without the noticable damage to the car
I would have to imagine that when it backed into the wall, his seat broke and he either suffered severe whip lash and even internal whip lash or his helmet his the roll cage very hard.
im not in any way trying to be mean but keeping someone alive for that long in a coma is so unfair ,, if it was me in that position i would want someone to pull the plug,, no disrespect
@Redslayer86 HANs device truly is a life saver... Even though they had that before Dale's wreck, it has saved a lot of lives since.. Sadly in racing (any type) there will always be that risk even with all of the state of the art safety devices... It doesn't matter if it's local track or pros.
@Jesant13 yeah when they drive at such a high speed on a smooth track the accident looks so slow, but he probably hit that wall doing 120mph+ which would have ruined his neck or head if it bounced off anything. Now they have all these neck restraints and safer harnesses. Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s fatal crash was similar.
@XzxSTorMxzX Ever notice that this is the usual process considering EVERYTHING in this world? If nothing happens, there is no strong need to change anything, because everyone assumpts things are okay... Now to argue about whether that's good or bad.
Dale Earnhardt died in what 2001. This was 1986... the head and neck death was well known.... thankfully they finely got the Hans device.... he would have walked away from that.... Dale Earnhardt would have lived as well.
yes it was. back in those days (if you dont know already)they didnt have near as much saftey needed. when he hit the wall, his head snapped sideways, which probably broke his neck, or he could have hit something in the car with his head, putting him in the comma. now they use haans devices, which keep the head and neck in a better position for crashes.
He struggled silently fo 11 years and gave up. I can't believe he was in coma for 11 years.
Me too
unbelievable, Rest in Peace Brother 🏁🏁
You mean being tortured for 11 years?
@@fmbbeachbum8163How many comas have you been in shag?
I'm always surprised by how some crashes that don't look too bad can be fatal and ones that look like no one could ever survive result in the driver only getting a few bumps and bruises.
Important to remeber that he hit a solid concrete wall broadside on the drivers side at over 180mph, with a fraction of the safety tech there is today.
Human body so tough & so fragile at the same time.
@@travisburton2948 I don’t know if this is exactly fitting for this crash but they were talking about head injuries so i belive it is, i think he died because in those days of racing they didn’t have the HANS Safety device that is now common in all bigger championships, drivers like dale Ernhardt also died because of the absence of this device that holds the drivers head and neck in place in case of an accident
@@gehbehinderterWerkssoldat Hans doesn’t do anything in this crash really. Side head support is all this is
@@gehbehinderterWerkssoldat Just think, if Dale Earnhardt had his HANS safety system attached he might have survived the crash. No guaranteed and we'll never know.
A high school friend's brother-in-law was in a coma for 8 years after a crash at Phoenix in the 1988 Copper World Classic. Even though his car had the safety net, his head still hit the concrete when he spun into the wall, which was the same thing that happened to Baldwin. After Jim's Phoenix crash, NASCAR finally moved the window net further inside.
i'd rather die instantly than be in a coma for 11 years
not really much of a difference when you arent conscious but yeah I agree
There was a guy that was in a coma for 10 years, woke up and reunited with his family. Then fell out of bed a few days later onto the hard hospital floor and died of his injuries.
Especially when you hear the stories from those who have woken who claim to have been living behind a vail of body paralysis while the inner mind remained lucid.
@@cdc194 wait... What. Lol. I'll be pissed in heaven if that happened to me.
Agreed. That's just insane. He could have spent those 11 years in an internal hell from which his family refused to release him.
I couldnt imagine being trapped in my body for 11 years.
bruh you be trapped in your body for your entire life what you mean
11 year coma and this video was uploaded 11 years ago
ctrlshiftqq 1986 was the accident.....Time goes by so fast. 1986 seems like yesterday for me
and 11 likes. creeeepy
@@petergunner8666 meeeeee toooooo
brother,I was cruzin strip and good times at 18 young years old.
an 11 year coma? holly crap that has to be the longest coma that I have heard of or seen
Then you haven't heard much about comas... There have been cases of people in coma for over 2 decades!
***** dang, they must have been hungry after they woke up :P
GraveDigger35 They fed them through stuff like IVs, damn it :-P
***** oh right, brain fart on my part :P
Edwarda O'bara was in a coma for over 42 years.
This is the one crash that still confuses me. I understand how it happened, his head probably smacked the wall. Yet he had lost so much speed before hitting the wall, and he didn't exactly have all the speed whipped out of the car from the impact.
Even Dale Sr's crash looks worse then this.
Falling Pictures Productions 1986 cars weren't that solid with carbon! That's the only logical decleration I think.....
a 30 mph impact is all it takes to kill someone technically. Think if your head smacked a wall at that speed. I'm impressed he lived even in a coma as long as he did.
I don’t think we are seeing the initial impact.
Drivers side into a concrete wall, leaves no room for impact. At least, when going head on, you'll have the entire front end, to meet it. Remember, this is before HANS, and Safer Barriers. Also, the vehicles were full frame, heavy w/ lesser safety features. Carbon Fiber, reinforced frames, roll cages, and the above mentioned.
His head hit the wall. Window nets back then were designed to keep your flailing body inside the car, but when your helmet hit the net, there was still enough "slack" that your head would hit the wall at whatever speed your car was traveling. If the car was doing 100, that's how fast his helmeted head hit the wall.
11 year coma? My step father lost all brain activity after three days in a coma, 11 years would be almost physically impossible one would think
A coma is not losing al brain activity. That is called being Brain Dead.
Richard A. Baldwin (10 June 1955 - 12 June 1997) competed on the NASCAR circuit. He ran a few races each season during 1983-85 running his self owned Dodge Mirada and Chrysler Imperial.
On June 14, 1986, during qualifying for the Miller American 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Baldwin spun and hit the turn three wall driver's side first. The protective window netting failed to prevent his head from striking the wall during the impact, resulting in massive head injuries.
11 years?! He really fought for his life! It’s really sad that he passed away
Some people have misconceptions about car accidents. Even getting rear-ended at 5mph can give you a spinal injury if you're unlucky.
Wow, i've never heared about that. He was in coma for 11 years, unbelievable.
My condolences & prayers for his family
It was a drive side impact. The protective window netting failed to prevent his head from striking the wall during the impact, resulting in massive head injuries.
That's sad but in 1986 NASCAR didn't have the Hans Helmet device mandatory are he might have been saved.
11 coma man that crazy and he family still in he side what a respect to he family
Imagine how much money that hospital bill was after 11 years.
That sudden Stop, is the silent killer. You pancake a wall at 100 plus, that's WAY more force than most people can fathom.
11 years? Seriously. Sorry, but if my loved one didn't wake up in at least a year, I would have pulled the plug. With massive brain injury, the outcome would still be too much to bear. That is no life at all to live. 😢
Back in those days, they may have had window nets, but a lot of those guys didn't have any kind of neck protection. Headrests weren't used, and HANS-type devices weren't even thought of yet. They didn't even use neckrings. But in impacts such as that, is was common for a driver's head to stretch out of the car and hit the wall. It's a real shame, because he fought for 11 years...
Dale's crash seems somewhat reminiscent of this.. Sometimes the ones that look sorta benign from the TV set is much more traumatic after watching some of the more extreme wrecks where people walked away. RIP Sir....
Imagine being conscious on some level, but unable to respond.
omg his official death was on the day I was born, scary :(
Hence, the Hans device that is saving lives now...
A hans device wouldnt have saved a sideways impact, it only prevents head-on impacts.
Very sad, the impact looked so innocuous.
So sad. May he RIP. There were wayyyy too many accidents like this before Dale that should have changed all of auto racing.
You would think that the anchor's toupee would dampen the acoustics of that room.
The porno moustache cancels it out.
If he had that same crash 30 years later, he wouldn't have been in a coma, let alone lost his life. Wow
Adam Petty died the same way
Pre Hans Device...RIP
Its hard to understand the speed theyre still traveling..even with the worlds best helmet on imagine how bad it would feel if you wer to run into a concrete wall that doesnt budge at jogging speed. Now imagine even at 30mph how bad it would hurt..def enough to kill you. Im sure he was still doing around 100 and with a helmet thats barley enough for a minor hit. And no matter how strong you are G-force is always going to control your bodies movements after a certain speed..and thats not much.
Yes, he was Mike Baldwins cousinand he used to deliver the jeans that Mike Baldwins factory used to produce back in the early 80's, just prior to his racing career. Shrewd of you to make the connection.
It shocking that a failed Net ended his life. I guess its a deeply unfortunate sign of how a life can so easily be lost on a track regardless of a Drivers Ability. R.I.P Rick.
Agreed...I was referring to your comment about "stopping treatment." Sorry I didn't make that clear.
Merry Christmas to you, also!
he died on my birthday. R.I.P
Nowadays a crash like this would see the pilot exiting the car brushing his suit. After reading about the fatal kind of accident and before realising it was 1986, i expected another car to smash full throttle into Baldwin's car. It is sad to think how little pilots' life was considered back then.
concrete wall, the driving position wasn't toward center, no HANS device, thin window netting and lesser seatbelts... his head hit the wall. Much like Scott Brayton at Indy in 1996 I believe the year was...
Same as dales crash in 2001. Doesn’t look that bad but that sudden stop into the wall always proves fatal. Can’t believe he was in a coma for 11 years
Did the organization make enhancements in safety after this and because of this crash?
Unfortunately, no.
Jessa Bell Did any changes whatsoever come from this fatality?
After the Earnhardt crash they introduced the HANS system which would have probably been lifesaving here and there.
Thomas Stroble yes, countless changes
I think we are speculating there...we are 35 years late to know what, if anything was done specifically in this crash. Unclear what seat he had, if he had any sort of head braces on the side of the seat, whether the seat broke, etc., etc... Any of those things, and multiple others, can contribute to this type of tragedy. To look back decades and try to figure out whether or not X safety improvement happened as a result of this may be futile. One thing is sure: Safety is light years ahead of where it was then. Much of it has to do with keeping the head in place, full containment seats, HANS devices, better lighter helmets are all here today and they weren't then.
Wow that was Larry Nuber? He looked really young. The crash did not look that bad. I feel bad for the family. Larry died young too.
Here's the thing with this crash, and John Nemacheck's, and Ashley Cooper's in the V8 Supercars in Australia: They were all impacts where the car hit flush on the side at a relatively high angle of impact. That does two bad things:
1) When a car hits the wall at an angle to the direction it's travelling, the speed into the wall is the sine of the angle of impact-so if you're going 150 mph and hit the wall at an angle of 30 degrees to the direction you're travelling, it's the same force as hitting the wall straight on at 75 mph. So there's a ton of force there.
2) When a car hits on the side, normally either the front or rear of the car hits first, the car rotates, and then the other end hits. That means the "crash impulse" is spread over two hits and a longer period of time. When a car hits flush, it's just one impact, and all of the force of the crash gets dumped into the car almost instantaneously..
Those two things are a bad combination.
11 years in a coma? Damn...
the hit, of itself, might not have been that hard. but once you look at how much the driver side has been crushed in you realize that the whole left side of Rick's body probably made contact with the wall. and his head would have been whipped into it as they wouldn't have had the side bolsters on the seat that they have now.
.
and you have to remember that back then they were pushing the driver's seat to left as far as possible in order to gain a left side weight advantage, so there was no available crush area. Dale Jr and Ricky Craven got some of their concussions this way, check Jrs podcast.
incredible... 11 years in a coma..
What a terrible way to go. An 11 year coma then died );
11 years in coma, whats up with that?
Had a cousin who is a firefighter and of course asked him about accidents.
He said the strangest ones are when the victim simply looks like they are sleeping with absolutely no visible damage.
The death comes from sudden stop, all organs continue to move- displacing yet still contained in skeleton.
He was a fighter for 11 years, until his death
That accident looks very minor. Just recently a rookie driver flipped his car about 20 times and he got out and walked away. Times have changed since the 80s.
It's sad what happened to Baldwin.
I know how late I am but he actually HIT his head off the wall
Rick Baldwin didn't die because of the force of the impact with the wall. He died because his window netting failed and his head hit the wall. Had the window netting not failed he most likely would have walked away uninjured from this crash.
OMG!!! That did not look like such a serious crash. But, in NASCAR, ANYTHING can happen. 11 years!! Holy SHIT!!! :( :(
So very sad :(
Explain the car rolling down the embankment and coming to a dead stop before reaching the bottom.
...that reporter's mustache is beyond fatal.
Brain Injuries are no joke and this crash proves it. The crash didnt look to bad and he didnt have any broken bones but he hit his head and 11 years later passed away. Safety is key in racin' today.
Wikipedia states the the window net failed and that was the reason of the head truma.
Originally survives the crash but coma for 11 years then dies
Absolutely brutal.
Yeah. You see Rusty's flips, Tony Stewart's Daytona 500 flip, and you would think they got seriously messed up in the crash, and yet they walk away, and with crashes like this, the driver ends up dead (or in Baldwin's case, an 11 year coma before death)
safer barriers really helped this sport. along with car development. fastest full bodied cars on earth, its a loaded gun,
If I'm not mistaken, didn't he begin to show signs in the year or so before his death, then gradually receding back into the coma before ultimately expiring?
I've seen a few Av8 races, and yeah, those are usually excellent races. Wish it was a little easier to see them on TV though.
Why did they let him linger for 11 years? Disgusting.
The drivers are further inboard now and head is surrounded by like an aluminum cage w/thick padding.
In a coma for 11 years? Holy sh*t!! What would he see or hear?
11 YEARS IN A COMA! OMG IM GOING TO FAINT
coma for 11 years? even if he did wake up.. i dont think he can move because for 11 years his not moving o.0
Wow 11 years
why would u let some1 stay in a coma for 11 years??? why is it when animals get hurt we put them down but when ppl get hurt we make them suffer? 11 years is way too long. do the man a favor and send him to a better place other than his 11 year nightmare
That's a long time in a coma. RIP
So. I'm not a Doctor. Can someone please explain to me what a coma is, and how it works?
Any relation to Tommy Baldwin? 11 years in a coma? Thats rough, he is a better place now.
@Jesant13 any Nascar crash where you hit the wall on the driver's side can be a VERY serious crash, just look at Jerry Nadeau's accident in '03. see how Rick Baldwin's car kind of snaps as it hits the wall? That's like the force of getting t-boned, drivers side, only without the noticable damage to the car
I would have to imagine that when it backed into the wall, his seat broke and he either suffered severe whip lash and even internal whip lash or his helmet his the roll cage very hard.
In the report, his windownet failed and his head struck the wall and door at full speed. No helmet even today could withstand trauma like that
@@thephenomenalgarage6707 you are wrong. twice
i've always wondered.. what if he woke up after all that time..? and what would he think?
11 years.. dang
RIP
Culture shock.
@@buddywilliams5650 that's like me going to sleep when I posted that comment and then waking up when you replied. woah.
yeah, but back then their safety setups were very inefficient
im not in any way trying to be mean but keeping someone alive for that long in a coma is so unfair ,, if it was me in that position i would want someone to pull the plug,, no disrespect
Omg.. What a pity... :(
@Sherpaful well since he wasn't awake during the coma, it probably didn't feel like 11 years. ive had 10 hrs of sleep feel like 30 seconds before.
to each his own. i think its wrong to say he couldve done something different,
R.I.P.
That was Buddy Arrington’s #67
@Redslayer86 HANs device truly is a life saver... Even though they had that before Dale's wreck, it has saved a lot of lives since.. Sadly in racing (any type) there will always be that risk even with all of the state of the art safety devices... It doesn't matter if it's local track or pros.
No Rick get injury because Windows hes car fail so hes head hi wall so Hans not really safe he
@corky7ca I agree. I was in a regular vehicle crash myself last year. 1 vehicle into pole...me the driver. doing 35 MPH I broke my back!
wow it looked like such a 'standard' crash!
The accident didn't look that bad, but wow, that's sad.
Back then, that was worse than hitting the catchfence
@Jesant13 yeah when they drive at such a high speed on a smooth track the accident looks so slow, but he probably hit that wall doing 120mph+ which would have ruined his neck or head if it bounced off anything. Now they have all these neck restraints and safer harnesses. Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s fatal crash was similar.
The problem was the window net failed and his head directly hit the wall. :-/
NASCAR today is almost safe compared to 1980's safety rules.
The crash didn't look that bad to be honest. Terrible shame.
Never will be. No way to go 200 mph completely safe.
@XzxSTorMxzX
Ever notice that this is the usual process considering EVERYTHING in this world? If nothing happens, there is no strong need to change anything, because everyone assumpts things are okay... Now to argue about whether that's good or bad.
them softwalls and hans have saved many lives i mean many lives.
yeah didn't look that bad from the clip - was there a bigger impact prior?
Earnhardt's crash in 2001 didn't look that bad either. Hopefully with the new cars, we will never have to see this type of thing happen again.
Dale Earnhardt died in what 2001. This was 1986... the head and neck death was well known.... thankfully they finely got the Hans device.... he would have walked away from that.... Dale Earnhardt would have lived as well.
gmcjetpilot they had the HANS device in 2001. Just not mandatory like it is now
yes it was. back in those days (if you dont know already)they didnt have near as much saftey needed. when he hit the wall, his head snapped sideways, which probably broke his neck, or he could have hit something in the car with his head, putting him in the comma. now they use haans devices, which keep the head and neck in a better position for crashes.
but then again back then they had nowhere near the protection there is in the cars today.
Can you imagine waking up from an 11 year coma today in 2021?
Clifford Allison died there during practice