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American Morning
Questions Still Remain in Dale Earnhardt Death
Aired May 01, 2001 - 10:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, a closer look at the death of NASA racing legend Dale Earnhardt. One of the first people to reach the crash scene says that what he saw in the wreckage does not match the version being given by NASCAR.
We get that story now from Kelly Teague. She is with our CNN affiliate Central Florida News.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY TEAGUE, CFN REPORTER (voice-over): Tommy Propst still has a tough time watching replays of Dale Earnhardt's final lap at the Daytona 500.
TOMMY PROPST, FIREFIGHTER: As they come around, we seen him hit. We were sitting right back there.
TEAGUE: As a firefighter and EMT, Propst was one of the first people on the scene.
PROPST: I mean you could just see his eyes and we knew right then, you know, that it wasn't good.
TEAGUE: Propst says it's easy to see in this video, taken by track cameras, what happened just after emergency crews arrived.
PROPST: I'm reaching in right now undoing the seat belt. You can see me reaching through.
TEAGUE: But that's where Propst and NASCAR officials don't see eye to eye. Just a few days after the accident, NASCAR came forward with their version of how Dale Earnhardt died, saying a lap belt malfunctioned.
UNIDENTIFIED NASCAR OFFICIAL: So the webbing itself had separated.
TEAGUE (on camera): This is a five point harness similar to what Earnhardt was wearing at the time of the crash. Now, NASCAR says the belt came apart somewhere between the buckle and the adjustment strap.
PROPST: Why are they doing this? And to do, does the Earnhardt family know the truth?
TEAGUE (voice-over): Propst says he knows the truth, but no one from NASCAR is interested in hearing his side of the story.
PROPST: I have never been contacted by NASCAR at all, nor Daytona.
TEAGUE: NASCAR officials say they're heading up their own investigation, leaving Tommy Propst to wonder if he'll ever be a part of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And that was Kelly Teague of our CNN affiliate, Central Florida News.
Let's turn now to our Laura Okmin of CNN Sports Illustrated -- Laura?
LAURA OKMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, joining us to help sort through this controversy is Jim Leusner of the "Orlando Sentinel." Jim has been investigating this story from the beginning.
Jim, let me ask you, we heard from Tommy just now, we saw him in the car, yet NASCAR is refusing to respond to his statements. Help him understand and help us understand why NASCAR hasn't spoken with him yet.
JIM LEUSNER, "ORLANDO SENTINEL": Laura, that's the million dollar question here. The tape clearly shows that Tommy was next to the car reaching into the car and if you really examine the film closely, you can see a hand and an arm reaching in across Dale Earnhardt's body. The comments from NASCAR over the last few days make it sound like they dispute that Tommy was even that close to the car or the seat belt to have a good view of what it looked like.
OKMIN: Boy, well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. We see him right there. Let me ask you, the worker NASCAR says was there, Patti Dobler, has admitted she was in the car with Tommy. She says he was there. I'm quoting her now. She says, "I know the truth and I'm not allowed to talk." She now says she didn't say that, but since she was quoting that to you, help us there. Did she say that to you?
LEUSNER: Absolutely. On the day, I think it was about April 18, Patti Dobler told me and my partner, Hank Curtis (ph), while she was standing in front of her home that exact quote. She was quoted verbatim by two separate reporters that day.
OKMIN: I know you can't speculate but why would she change her story? Where is the pressure coming from? Is there pressure coming from somewhere that she has to watch what she's saying?
LEUSNER: Well, I don't know. Yesterday Patty spoke with several TV stations in the Orlando area and she spoke with another reporter affiliated with our newspaper and she contradicted herself as to, at some points in time she said that the seat belt on Dale Earnhardt, on his left side, that it was, that the seat belt held. At other times she said that it was loose and there was play in it but that she said even in that account, that the belt did not fall apart when she was pulling on it trying to get it undone on Dale when she was inside the car.
CBS, when they interviewed her yesterday, they said she changed her story and went to the vaguer version after a speedway spokesman appeared to watch her interview. So your guess is as good as mine why Patty is saying what she's saying.
OKMIN: Well, it sounds like a Tom Clancy novel right now, Jim. Why would NASCAR be involved in any kind of cover-up?
LEUSNER: I don't know, Laura. I can't speculate on that. You'll have to ask NASCAR that. All I can tell you is NASCAR has repeatedly changed their story about the facts in the case surrounding the seat belt, whether it was broken, whether it caused the death. They said they found the seat belt the night of the crash. Now this week they're saying after Tommy came forward that they found it Monday morning. And then there are compelling witnesses like Tommy Propst and Daytona Beach police homicide detective Robert Walker.
Robert Walker said that the night of the crash he was told by superiors don't look in the car, don't photograph the car, don't go to the autopsy. And he said he was never told there was a broken seat belt. He found out about it via television news conferences five days later.
So there are a lot of questions, I think, that NASCAR has to answer here and we're sure interested in hearing 'em.
OKMIN: As we are, too. Jim, thank you. Almost three months after the fact, after the death of Dale Earnhardt, there seems to be just as many questions as there are answers.
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