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Old 09-04-2004
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John Greist John Greist is offline
Testing Mid-Corner Speed / Advanced Member (500+ Posts)
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Age: 84
Posts: 608
Re: An Open Letter to Skip Barber Regarding HANS devices - Please Vote & Give Feedback

Coming late to Team Juicy Website - great going and thanks for setting it up - I write from a physician's vantage and also that of a too frequent crasher. The data are clear: the device will save lives - not ALL lives because stars do get misaligned. Having crashed head-on into the tire barrier outside turn 2 at Mt. Tremblant at about 100 mph crossing wet grass on slicks after taking my hands off the wheel and then thinking "I'm really going fast, I better get my head forward in the HANS," I had the hardest hit I've had. Forgot to tense my arms so they shot forward and the spinning wheel broke my left index finger which was pinned after I got home. Amazingly, no head, neck or back pain. Fingers are one thing, heads another, so I was able to run the rest of the weekend wearing a big left glove to cover the splint. Not to be outdone, Revere did the same crash a day later, was duly impressed by the HANS effect, and entirely uninjured.

How to get from gradually increasing use to accelerating use without people feeling coerced? If all the testers wore HANS all the time, their example would be most influential. At present, their example gives misguided encouragment to rationalizations of many kinds.

John Greist
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