Allan Simonsen had to die because Le Mans had no safety barrier in place where he lost control and crashed his car. If the accident had happened on an F1 track he would have lived because the TecPro or tyre barrier would have decelerated his car less violently. Would you ask F1 to go back to Le Mans standards of safety and not save the driver's life? I'm sure you would not want that. Accidents like Simonsen's are absolutely likely as a consequence of safety component failures. The only way to fight driver death by this cause is to have run offs and better deceleration barriers where run offs are not feasible.Race car driver deaths due to sudden deceleration injuries to the aorta.
Allan Simonsen. Although we do not know the actual cause of death of Alan Simonson at yesterday’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, reports are that he was conscious and talking when rescue workers first tended to him, only to have him become unconscious a few moments later, to be pronounced dead a short time later. He was driving in one of the most modern sedan-type cars (not open-cockpit) and his factory sponsored Aston Martin had every possible modern piece of safety equipment. This in car video from the car behind shows the likely cause (our opinion) of Allan’s crash was acceleration of the car while the left rear tire was on the painted (and very slick in the wet) blue line. There was no evidence of penetrating injuries, and no evidence of blunt force trauma. Thus the likely cause of this terrible tragedy is almost certainly to be related to a sudden deceleration injury, either to the brain, or to the aorta.
Taking safety components very serious is appropriate for F1. I remember when rear wings failed on the Sauber cars. Peter Sauber stopped the other car until the safety investigation was fully conducted and the problem solved. That is the proper attitude for problems with safety components. I wish Pirelli had the same attitude. If we had lost Kimi or Fernando in an accident by being hit in the helmet by a flying tyre tread people would immediately agree that it was too dangerous. Why does it has to happen before we agree to do something?
