Photos: The Dean Lester Collection - Part 1

[Ray Bell]

Yes, Ken, soon after Niel Allen's crash at Lakeside (July 1968) the fitment and use of harnesses was mandated all around the world...

Hence Hill had them in the 49 at Watkins Glen in '69. Mind you, I don't accept anyone's rash statements that 'such-and-such would have been killed if he'd had belts on' because I have seen so many 'unsurviveable accidents from which the driver has stepped out and shaken his head before examining the bits of wreckage around him.

Mind you, I did see the Niel Allen crash and we did expect that he was at least badly injured, but though he was unconscious he only suffered injury to one finger.

So while I have seen many crashes in which the belt has saved the driver, and I know it can't always do so, I've seen very few in which the driver died with his belts on.

Thanks for that letter from Jochen Rindt, by the way, very telling. And it's also widely believed (and confirmed?) that he didn't have his crotch straps done up. Whether he would have survived or not is a question for other times and places, but it's also possible he could have bled to death anyway after the brake shaft ripped through his leg.