The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • C5

INDY STAR E1 2017 5C trol. The second truck was there 50 seconds after the crash. Soon five trucks surrounded him. Eventually, Bourdais was strapped to afoot-wide board and placed in an ambulance. Straps wrapped around him in what he later called very pleasant and the safety workers cut off his fire suit and soon Bourdais was naked and feeling very small.

But he was alive. His car, the response teams and the SAFER barriers around the track kept Bourdais alive. That might not have been the case 20 years ago. pretty straightforward simple that be eee When Terry Trammell heard Bourdais had fractured his pelvis and hip, he stormed into the engineering office livid. Jeff Horton, director of engineering and the calmer of the two, was confused.

The car and SAFER barrier did exactly what they were designed to do. Why was Trammell so upset? got to go talk to Sebastien and say kind of let you Trammell said. you let him Horton said. be Trammell known as Dr. is In- safety consultant.

That title downplays his significance a bit. one of the founding fathers of the safety initiatives implemented in racing across the past few decades. He was one of the most renowned orthopedic surgeons in racing in the 1970s and but eventually pivoted from what he called the repair business to the prevention business. He had a hand in the development of the Head and Neck Support system (HANS), the Holmatro Safety Teams, crash data tracking, impact foams in the cars, the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barriers and so on. Trammell takes it personally when a driver gets hurt.

So does Mike Yates, the IndyCar manager of track safety operations. They become friends with the drivers. They see each other every day. Yates almost walked away after seeing one too many friends die in the car. Trammell married a racer.

Back in his surgeon days, the drivers would stay at his home while they rehabbed. a responsibility involved in keeping these drivers safe, and a weight. Trammell and Yates and so many others have done plenty to lessen the dangers drivers face, but there will always be risk. They keep fighting to reduce that risk. you get Trammell says to the drivers during an annual talk about safety, take it very personally, because I should have thought about how this could happen and taken measures to prevent it.

On the other hand, if something we tell you that you can do to make your car safer, and you choose not to do it and get hurt, I take that equally personally, and I will be in your eee Trammell felt like the grim reaper walking down the pits when he first started out in racing. The seas would part as he passed through. No driver wanted to talk to the doctor. Somebody might think something was wrong with him. When Yates started with the safety teams in 1985 after years as a firefighter, his team would jump in the back of a pickup with no seats.

Their equipment lay unsecured in the bed of the truck. Team members held on to what they could. There was no real plan, there were no set roles for each person. got to the scene and just did what we had to Yates said. Now they have a system down.

Three primary trucks, four seats in each, each seat holding a crew member with a specific role. If safety team members in a rush ever have to jump into the wrong seats, they take on that responsibility. Seatbelts used in IndyCar until 1922. Helmets required until the 1930s. Fire suits came in the 1960s.

Safety really become a science until the 1980s and Trammell and his medical partner Steve Olvey started cataloging every racing injury they could find. Drivers would come in for their physicals and the two played 20 questions with them. Have you ever been seriously injured? No. What about that time we operated on you? That serious? No. Drivers had their own ways of looking at injuries.

Trammell and Olvey went back to the drawing board. They brought in printouts of a skeleton and had drivers circle every broken bone they had suffered for any reason. It looked as if the skeletons had chicken pox. eee Then came the 1992 month of May at the Speedway when 12 drivers were injured and Jovy Marcelo died. Trammell and John Melvin of General Motors went out to the track a few days after the 500 and measured every inch of the track to begin collecting crash records.

They took that data to General Motors and it played a large part in engineer Robert Hubbard and driver Jim development of the HANS, which restricts the head and neck from whipping around excessively in a crash. Drivers were slow to embrace the HANS until the 1999 death of Gonzalo Rodriguez from a basilar skull fracture. An analysis found the HANS likely would have saved his life. Soon the HANS became mandatory in CART and Formula One. The moment Trammell remembers as asort of breakthrough was a mandatory Formula One driver meeting to introduce the HANS in Sao Paolo, Brazil, in the early 2000s.

The meeting starting, so Trammell went up to the podium and asked why. start when Mr. Schumacher gets a man said bluntly. Trammell sat back down and eventually Formula One surgeon Sid Watkins came in dragging driver Michael Schumacher by the ear. may Watkins said.

After the presentation, Schumacher stood and asked a few questions. take he said before walking out. All the other drivers lined up. If Schumacher was wearing it, they wanted one, too. eee Mike Yates know whether he could keep going after Dan Wheldon died in a 2011 crash.

been doing the job so long, and seen so many drivers die, he thought it was time to walk away. He and Wheldon were good friends. want to see another buddy go through Yates said. Afew weeks later he was in Sebring, talking to drivers. He told them he was thinking about leaving.

need one said. you walk away now, you get that So Yates stayed on, and maybe he truly got that closure when James life was saved during 500 practice in 2015. Hinchcliffe went into a wall and a was called, meaning a seriously injured driver. Hinchcliffe was stuck, and they struggled to get him out. Then they noticed the pool of blood between his legs.

Apiece of the suspension had broken through the chasis and impaled his leg. Hinchcliffe was hemorrhaging. They had to move quickly. They pulled him out and got him in the ambulance. The blood kept coming.

They tried packing the holes, wrapping a compression diaper around his stomach to limit the bleeding. Yates said they lost pulse at one point. Luckily the surgeons were able to hop in the ambulance, evaluate the situation and create a game plan for the moment they reached the hospital. Hinchcliffe is still racing two years later. Hinchcliffe told Yates he was glad the track safety director had stayed on after death.

Maybe if Yates been there, things would have gone differently for him. Hinchcliffe later took the Holmatro Safety Team to dinner in St. Petersburg as a thank you. He brought his parents along, as well. They talked about life and discussed beer.

It was a reminder of why the safety team fights to save lives. Yates is retiring this year. eee When Scott Dixon went into the air and his car shattered into pieces at the 500 this year, Trammell said it looked far worse than it was. The chassis held up pretty well with only a little break on the bottom. crash was as bad it looked.

He smashed into the SAFER barrier at 114 three times as much force as crash. Bourdais pushed 40 feet of the wall back 9 inches at the apex, five layers into the foam. Cars have foam side panels in the door to protect drivers as well, but they can become a danger themselves when too much force. The foam panel can absorb up to 2,000 pounds of pressure before it becomes activated. In the Bourdais crash, the forces were so high, the foam fractured his pelvis.

Safety work is constantly evolving. The 2012 chassis, which Trammell calls the safest race car ever made, has front and side foam protections. The head surrounds can withstand 70 of impact to the point drivers genuinely know they hit their head after taking on 50 But more can always be done. Trammell said the biggest issue right now is protecting spines in frontal impacts. an epidemic, he said, of spinal fractures in Europe.

Indy- Car has lessened the risk for rear and vertical impacts, but frontal impacts are still a concern. They are still working to prevent the kind of contact from a loose part that killed Justin Wilson in 2015. They are trying to tether parts to the car so the nose, wheels, wings, nose cones, fly off. Trammell said they have reduced the risk but eliminate it. of the issues all over the world about open cockpit cars is, should they Trammell said.

they have a total IndyCar is set to take delivery of a prototype windscreen in July. He said the pre-testing is done; now time for ballistic testing. The windscreens are remarkably simple and look like Indy-car windshields. The other large issue is fencing. It costs a fortune to replace but is needed to make sure cars stay on the track and spectators stay safe.

Dario Franchitti suffered a career- ending injury in Houston in 2013 when his car hit a fence post and the webbing was torn off the post, exposing fans to the damage and adding flying pieces of the fence to the danger. a much bigger project going to require a lot of time, effort and Trammell said. eee Bourdais went swimming last week. Scott Dixon raced at Le Mans. The worst can still happen to these drivers, but they are emerging from crashes safely more and more often.

The 2017 Indianapolis 500 was last. After working more than 30 Indy 500s in his career, it was time. Six years after almost walking away on painful terms, he is walking away for reasons that sit better with him. At the 500, the team got Yates a Hol- matro helmet and had everybody sign it. He admits that caused a little catch in his throat.

He took in the straightaway one last time. Then he watched Dixon do his flying and it reminded him it was time to go. was he said. Yates said the Holmatro Safety Team is in better hands with guys such as Jim Norman, Matt Stewart, Tim Baughman and others. He loves the changes they are already making.

Trammell appear to be going anywhere. What makes him happy is how the culture of safety has changed in his decades at tracks. No longer is he the grim reaper walking the pits. Now, he has people approaching him looking for help. Like in Sao Paolo in 2012, when Kanaan came up to him displaying his phone.

Kanaan was showing photos of how the steering wheels were breaking fingers and hurting their thumbs. Within 10 minutes, nine drivers were at his breakfast table saying their fingers were hurt. The problem was fixed by 2014. TOM THE STAR Sebastien Bourdais struck a wall during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 this year. He suffered a broken pelvis, but acknowledges that without numerous safety improvements over the years, such a crash could have been fatal.

PROVIDED BY ORTHOINDY Dr. Terry Trammell (center) is safety consultant and one of the founding fathers of the safety initiatives implemented in racing across the past few decades. Bourdais Continued from 1C can score, which he showed last season in leading the Tar Heels to the national championship. Jackson benefits from a high basketball IQ. As a lanky defender, possible that Jackson could be able to guard multiple positions as he develops in the NBA.

organization is run the right Jackson said last week after he participated in a workout with the Pacers. got some good guys and I can just tell that, so if I get drafted by them, it would definitely be a blessing. looking forward to seeing what Harry Giles, 7-0 center from Duke Two years ago, Giles projected to be a mid-first round pick. But Giles, who was considered by many to be one of the best high school players in his class, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the first game of his senior year. He also underwent arthroscopic surgery the next year before his debut at Duke.

Even with all the injuries, Giles might be a good gamble for the Pacers to take. still considered one of the most athletic centers in the draft and his interior defense last season was impressive. Giles could be a dynamic player if he continues to improve his mid-range jumper. Pacers are a team right outside the lottery, so you never know what might Giles said Saturday after his workout with the team. just going with teams I think might be in my range and teams that are interested in me as well.

This was a team that was just in the playoffs and in the Eastern Conference finals not too long Terrance Ferguson, 6-7 shooting guard in Australia This could be a wild-card selection. Ferguson, unlike the previous five prospects, decided to not play in college last season. He instead choose to play professionally in Australia with the Adelaide 36ers. Ferguson, who is from Dallas, could, in some ways, be more ready for the NBA next season than his rookie peers since he has played against professional competition overseas. The Pacers have a history of selecting prospects who have played overseas, yet Ferguson could fill a need for the team by being a possible rotational player next season.

Call IndyStar reporter Nate Taylor at (317) 444-6484. Follow him on Twitter: Pacers Continued from 4C.