SAFETY Sicking's research makes impact, saves racing lives

He led the development of SAFER barriers installed at tracks across the nation.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Dean Sicking may not be able to list all the past winners of the Indianapolis 500, but his expertise in auto safety has made him a welcome addition to the racing community.
Sicking, director of the University of Nebraska's Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, led the team of engineers who developed the widely acclaimed SAFER barriers being installed at racetracks across the nation.
"The thing I enjoy the most is seeing one of these really, really high-energy impacts on one of our safety devices," Sicking says, "and seeing the guy walk away."
Getting involved
Sicking entered the racing world in 1998 when the Indy Racing League approached him about developing walls that would diminish the danger of crashes. NASCAR joined the project in 2000.
At the time, said Gary Nelson, NASCAR's managing director of research and development, the belief was that the front bumper of a car was the key to crash survival.
But Sicking redirected racing's effort to the walls.
After numerous computer-simulated crashes and 20 live crash tests, Sicking and his staff came up with the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction barriers -- or so-called soft walls to absorb impact and reduce G-forces to the drivers in a crash.
Phil Casey, senior technical director of the Indy Racing League, calls them "the greatest achievement for safety in automobile racing that's been made."
The energy-absorbing system consists of four steel tubes welded in 20-foot sections and bolted to concrete walls. Pads of hard foam are placed 10 feet apart between the steel and concrete.
The system dissipates the impact energy and distributes it over a longer distance of the wall without propelling the car back into the high-speed traffic.
Awarded
Since the first walls were installed at Indianapolis in May 2002, Sicking has become known as one of the most influential figures in racing. In December, he was given the Bill France Award of Excellence, which is presented to people who have made significant accomplishments in NASCAR racing.
And he's not even a race fan.
"Everyone likes to be noticed, and to experience that once in my life ... I never dreamed I'd have so much notoriety," Sicking said.
Sicking, who has researched the consequences of crashes on roadways for almost 25 years, hopes to have the SAFER barriers in place at all major tracks in the nation by sometime next year.
At that point, Sicking said, he might be able to go back to his comfortable anonymity as a researcher who's dedicated to making the nation's highways safer.
The 46-year-old Texas native is described by friends and associates as a professor who submerges himself in his work as a designer of highway and racetrack safety devices.
"I don't think I'd categorize him as a fan that has the adrenaline rush that most racing fans get," Nelson said.
"He's not putting on any driver's hat or T-shirt."
Nor has he ever been in a race car (he drives a Chevrolet Suburban SUV -- "long, heavy and wide," he says) and says he has never committed a moving violation worse than going 40 mph in a 30-mph zone.
Sicking preferred football to auto racing as a youngster, but he casually followed four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt in the 1960s and '70s.
"I had totally lost track of the sport before the Indy Racing League approached us," he said.
Academic focus
Sicking was a champion miler in high school, and he also played some football, but academics were his forte.
He went to Texas A & amp;M for his undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
After working at the Texas Transportation Institute for 12 years, Sicking took over as director of the fledgling highway safety program at Nebraska.
Under Sicking, the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility has grown from a staff of three to 30 with ongoing funding from 11 states. IRL and NASCAR have paid $1.8 million to the university for research and development the last six years.
Before the soft walls, Sicking may have been best known in the highway safety community for his work in the area of guardrail safety.
Most drivers probably don't notice the boxes, or terminals, located at the ends of guardrails on most roads. When a driver hits the box, it is pushed down the rail, causing the rail to curl out to the side rather than directly ram the vehicle.
While Sicking acknowledges that he enjoys the publicity he has received because of the SAFER barriers, he said his greatest source of satisfaction comes from knowing that his lower-profile work has saved countless lives.