Derek Daly is a name that was synonymous with Formula-1 and Indy Car racing in the 1980s ... that is until he crashed his F1 car into a wall at roughly 330 km/h at the Michigan International Speedway in 1984.
Although he wasn't expected to survive the crash, he did.
On Wednesday, Daly was a keynote speaker at the Workplace Safety North annual mining conference in Sudbury where he talked about how it sometimes takes a bizarre critical incident to inspire change for good as far as safety is concerned.
Along with a history of racing cars, the young Irishman also had a brief history as a miner in Australia before he embarked on international racing.
It took three years of surgeries and therapy after the crash, but Daly said he returned to auto racing because he wanted to have a legacy that wasn't all about his horrific crash.
"I suddenly thought I would never want this accident to be the legacy I would leave in the sport that I dedicated my life to,” Daly said. “And when I realized that, I had to recover. I had to go to physical therapy. I had to get back race fit. I had to get mentally prepared. I had to find a new sponsor. I had to find a new team. I had to push myself to the outer limits to get back into a racing car.”
He continued racing for several more years and in 1990 he won the 12-hour Sebring motor endurance race.
Back on top of his game, Daly eventually moved into race broadcasting, enjoying a solid career with several national broadcasters. He even spent time rubbing elbows with some of the rich and famous auto racing crowd that included names like Mario Andretti, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Jay Leno, Dave Letterman and even spent a day at the home of Muhammad Ali.
Daly also worked with Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone, training the “Rocky” star to drive a real racing car for the 2001 film “Driven”.
Daly told his audience that everyone in the room has at one time or another hit a wall of their own that has affected their ability to perform, to carry on.
"I bet everybody here has hit the wall at some stage. How did you respond, or how might you respond in the future?" said Daly.
"Because when something bad happens, it doesn't have to be inherently negative. It can be a time of learning or growth or transition, transformation depending on the mindset that you approach it with," Daly continued.
Daly said the safety attitude in racing has evolved for the better over the years. In one case, an American surgeon — Dr. Terry Tramell — noticed that race car drivers such as Daly suffered serious ankle crushing injuries because their feet were slamming into the brake and accelerator assembly mounted on the floor of racing cars.
Daly said the Indianapolis-based surgeon took his concern to the race car designers and convinced them that if the pedals were mounted from above instead of being bolted to the floor, it would stop the crushing injuries.
"That was when the first big shift came,” Daly said. “Suddenly, we began to think safe. And when you think safe, you be safe. The sport was beginning to change."
Daly said auto racing safety has improved significantly over the years, with things such as a consolidated fuel tank located behind the driver; extra bulkheads built into the front of the race car to reduce the chance of direct impact on the driver; the use of Kevlar tethers to ensure that wheels don't fly off the car in a crash, stronger helmet visors, higher rollbars and higher sidewalls for the racing cockpit.
Daly's presentation showed several videos of racing crashes where drivers now routinely survive and walk away. Daly said he was pleased to see that and said with the right attitude, positive safety changes can occur in any sport or line of work.
"And this type of accident is evidence that we are now in the safest, high-performance work environment our sport has ever seen."
Workplace Safety North’s 27th annual Mining Health and Safety Conference is taking place April 30 and May 1 at Science North in Sudbury.
The theme of this year’s event is the ‘Foundation of Mining Safety’. The conference features presentations focused on the essentials of health and safety, while emphasizing the importance of legal requirements, risk management, and workplace culture, ensuring safe and healthy work environments.
Len Gillis covers mining and health care for Sudbury.com.
