Ken Etter injured in an accident at Fontana

[Ken Etter]

pics of car. look at how much the seat moved and the roolbarmoved forward 8 to 10 inches. Im a big guy 6'3 280. not sure how I still fit in there.

[Ed Fernandez]

Looking at those pictures all I have to say is you should be right behind Lou Gehrig with the line about being the luckiest man alive.That's one of the worst front end foldups I've ever seen on a drag racing car.God was in the other seat that day.
Glad to hear you're feeling better.

[Kevin Love]

Any idea what caused the crash ?

[Ken Etter]

The brake rod came out of the master cylinder. The safety braket came out or slipped allowing it to pop out. I down shifted the car to low and shut off the fuel pump, then I tried to veer to the left and scrub speed off the wall. After viewing the pictures and limited memory, I don't know how I survived the accident. I have a unique persperctive on some safety practices and policy's. The stock seat did a good job of holding me but could have been better if it had been a actual racing seat. The roll bar also came forward 8 to 10 inches allowing the straps to loosen up moving me forward at impact. When I feel better I will expand on my thoughts so no one should ever have to go through the pain and suffering I am going through now. I have a couple of tough months ahead of me but hope to be out there soon to visit with all of you. Thank you for your support.

[Rick Bailey]

Hang tough there Ken !

[Jim Storms]

Originally Posted by Ken Etter

The brake rod came out of the master cylinder. The safety braket came out or slipped allowing it to pop out. I down shifted the car to low and shut off the fuel pump, then I tried to veer to the left and scrub speed off the wall. After viewing the pictures and limited memory, I don't know how I survived the accident. I have a unique persperctive on some safety practices and policy's. The stock seat did a good job of holding me but could have been better if it had been a actual racing seat. The roll bar also came forward 8 to 10 inches allowing the straps to loosen up moving me forward at impact. When I feel better I will expand on my thoughts so no one should ever have to go through the pain and suffering I am going through now. I have a couple of tough months ahead of me but hope to be out there soon to visit with all of you. Thank you for your support.

The bottom line is!!! someone was looking out for you that day..and your still here, that looks pretty bad in the car pics....

[W J]

Ken, without a doubt, the Big Guy upstairs was in the passenger seat along for the ride with you on that pass....Don't know if you're a religious man or not, but he sure was looking out for you.....Hope you heal up fast and best wishes to you and your family.

Warren Lederer. WJ

[joe176]

Ken...get well soon !!!!!

[CycloneFE]

Ken,

I spent 20 years as a volunteer FF and spent many hours dedicated to extrication. In your first photo it appears to have what we called a "dash roll-up". The roof appears to have been cut by the book. My question was do you know if they rolled the dash? That is very excessive for a race car, but fairly common out on the roadway in accidents. I am personally interested because I left the Fire service because it took too much of my time I want to dedicate to my racing.

You do appear to be lucky and I hope you continue your recovery as it is needed.

Steve

[BBF67]

Forget about a racing seat, looks like an issue here would be the steering column. There are probably some who have replaced the guts of the factory collapsable steering column with a lighter one piece shaft. The factory piece is designed to collapse in this type of a crash. A one piece shaft could have........well you see what I'm getting at.