EARNHARDT AUTOPSY BILL DESERVES DEFEAT

By: Staff Reports E&P Editorial: Compassion Must Not Cloud Clarity


A horrific crash on the track of the Daytona 500 takes the life of an
experienced stock car racer. Much to the irritation of NASCAR, the
Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel butts in, asking a lot of uncomfortable
questions. In so many words, the racing organization and many of its fans tell
the paper to mind its own business, show more empathy for the driver's family,
and stop trying to sell papers with appeals to morbid curiosity.

In this clash between the paper and the racing authority, one legendary driver
breaks ranks with NASCAR: Dale Earnhardt.

The year was 1994, and the driver who died during practice for the Daytona 500
was Neil Bonnett. After a speedy investigation, NASCAR announced that driver
error caused the fatal crash. The Sentinel's own four-month reporting
project documented the shortcomings of NASCAR crash investigations in general
and strongly suggested this crash was caused not by anything Bonnett did -
but by the failure of a $3 shock-absorber fitting. While NASCAR balked at first,
the combined weight of the newspaper's reporting and pressure from Earnhardt and
Bonnett's family eventually convinced it to retract the finding of driver's
error.

That's why it's all the more heartbreaking to witness the anger directed against
the Sentinel by Teresa Earnhardt, the racer's widow. The Sentinel
is not a clueless newsroom jumping on the Earnhardt tragedy for a quick payoff
- much less the "sick" or "ghoulish" paper portrayed in the deluge of e-
mail Teresa Earnhardt unleashed when she urged racing fans to protest the
newspaper's request to let a head-trauma expert examine autopsy photos from her
husband's fatal crash. A Sentinel series, published before the racing
season began, on the potentially fatal head trauma NASCAR drivers risk proved
only too prescient Feb. 18 when Dale Earnhardt died in a crash on the final lap
of the Daytona 500.

Who is not moved by a widow's tears? But compassion must not cloud our clarity
- and that, unfortunately, is what is happening in all three branches of
Florida's government.

First - with no discernible legal justification that we can see -
Volusia County Circuit Judge Joseph Will delayed until today (March 19) his
hearing on the Sentinel's modest assertion of its absolute right of
access to the Earnhardt autopsy photos. This judicial delaying action
accommodated the Legislature's rush to pass the "Earnhardt Family Protection
Act," which would make releasing autopsy photos in Florida a felony with the
same penalties as grand theft auto. For good measure, Gov. Jeb Bush quickly
climbed aboard the pace car for this hasty and ill-considered measure.

When they are viewed by independent experts, police working on cold files, and,
yes, even investigative journalists, autopsy reports and photos have frequently
revealed long-buried truth and brought murderers to justice. Keeping autopsies
secret will not "protect" the Earnhardts or any other Florida family any more
than NASCAR's quick and quiet investigation helped find the truth in Neil
Bonnett's fatal crash.



For a dissenting opinion, see SENTINEL IS WRONG ON EARNHARDT PHOTOS.



Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.