Before the HANS device was used in NASCAR, I witnessed some serious wrecks during auto-racing that drivers got out of the car under their own power and were fine.
I wonder if the percentage of fatalities from wrecks in auto racing is better or worse that high speed accidents on public highways. It would be an interesting statistic to compare.
Nascar cars use roll cages, so as long as you are strapped into your seat safely you will survive most crashes, if the car doesn't catch fire. Most regular cars don't have roll cages.
> as long as you are strapped into your seat safely
That's the important part. Most of the safety devices in a nascar car (or any racing car really) only make sense if you're tightly strapped in the first place. So the first thing is seatbelt, always. Then you can add more stuff protecting the driver under the assumption that the driver's body will move with the car rather than independently within it.
I wonder if the percentage of fatalities from wrecks in auto racing is better or worse that high speed accidents on public highways. It would be an interesting statistic to compare.