Quote: Well with full respect....being in industrial engineering for 30 years and being flown 1/2 around the world to seek my opinions for FMEA (Failure Modes and Effect analysis) studies I think I have at least a "clue"...any safety system designed by man gets improved upon and upgraded as soon as something that was "NOT supposed to Happen" happens, Darrel Russell is a very good example of something that everyone knew could happen (a tire breaking apart and tail-whipping) but was not addressed until a low probability occurence quite tragicly took his life.
Fatalities happen in racing and in industry, it all comes down to "acceptable risk" and hoping the safety measures enacted are adequate to mitigate that risk.....upgrading those measures are often expensive (except DR's accident seems not so expensive and in a tragic irony now almost seems "common sense"....quite unfortunately from time to time the bar must be raised and there are always those who resist because of the expense of the redesign. :
Sadly, this is a factor in a LOT of industry today and yesterday. Look at Ford's decision not to spend $50 per car on a redesign of the Pinto gas tank...the airlines have an expression for this, not trying to be glib, but they call it 'tombstone technology'.....
