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Monday, May 7
Earnhardt, EMT were former classmates
By Tom Farrey
ESPN.com
Tommy Propst always will be linked in the public mind with Dale Earnhardt, as the emergency rescue technician who disputed the NASCAR party line that the seat belt in the car of the late racing king was broken. But the Daytona 500 was not the first time their paths crossed.
|  | | Rescue workers surround Dale Earnhardt's crashed car during the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18. EMT Tommy Propst said Earnhardt's seat belt was intact when he arrived. |
In the days after the crash, Propst learned he had met Earnhardt before. It was in first grade, at Royal Oaks Elementary in Kannapolis, N.C., where they shared the same room and teacher. His sister, Cindy, found the connection by dusting off an old yearbook.
"I always knew we went to the same school but I didn't know we were in the same class," Propst said.
The revelation is just another strange twist that in the past three months has left Propst shaking his head. At first, he found it hard to believe that NASCAR's official position was that the belt was broken, when in fact, he says, the seat belt he found after arriving on the crash scene was completely intact.
Now he's slightly dazed by the overwhelming reaction that his moment of conscience has provoked. He gets calls from reporters on Sunday nights at his fire station in Orlando, where he has worked for 24 years. He gets letters and faxes at home, some angry, many -- to his surprise -- supportive.
He hasn't heard whether Daytona International Speedway officials want him back. But he isn't sure he wants to return given the events of the past three months, either.
"I do it because I like it, not for the money," said Propst, who said he was paid $9 an hour by Daytona officials.
A spokesman with Daytona International Speedway said the statement by Probst would not cost him his job. "I would not think that would be an issue with that at this time," Glyn Johnston said. "If you're asking me whether he will be fired for making comment, the answer is absolutely not."
Rescuing drivers is no more than a diversion for Propst, a way to stay close to a sport he loves. He got into the activity about nine years ago through a friend who owns three ambulances that Daytona rents for its races. He has worked about five races a year since then, including the past nine Daytona 500s.
Propst puts food on his table through his real job, as an emergency medical technician and driver of a fire truck. Robert Vegas, an Orlando firefighter in the same station, described Propst as a leader among colleagues who respected him enough to make him secretary and treasurer of the Orange County Firefighters Union Local 2057, an 800-member body.
"He's got some responsibilities around here," Vegas said. "He's a guy with a level head on his shoulders, a guy who gets along with everybody."
Propst said he certainly didn't mean to pick a fight with NASCAR. For weeks, he didn't come forward with his account. He lost sleep, wondering why NASCAR investigators never bothered to interview him, feeling bad for the maker of the seat belt, and puzzling over how the Earnhardt family deserved to know what he saw. He balanced those issues against the potential ramifications to family and friends if he blew the whistle.
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I was worried about friends at NASCAR being fired. But then I figured, if I come forward maybe others will, too. All that just played on me. I told my wife that 'I'm not going to go tell someone, but if someone calls me, I'll tell the truth.' ” |
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— EMT Tommy Propst, who disputes NASCAR's account that Earnhardt's seat belt was broken |
"Friends would say, 'You know how powerful NASCAR is,' " he said. "I was worried about friends at NASCAR being fired. But then I figured, if I come forward maybe others will, too. All that just played on me. I told my wife that 'I'm not going to go tell someone, but if someone calls me, I'll tell the truth.' "
After Propst's account was reported in the Orlando Sentinel, another member of the rescue crew said she was too busy trying to save Earnhardt to tell whether the seat belt was broken. CBS News reported that Patti Dobler, among the first EMTs to arrive after Eanhardt's crash, waffled in her account. She first told their reporter over the phone that the seat belt held, but later, when a Speedway spokesman arrived at her home to observe the TV interview, claimed that she wasn't sure.
Dobler did say she had no reason to doubt Propst, the CBS correspondent reported.
NASCAR, which has never made the seat belts available for public inspection, is now looking into Propst's account. Propst said he met on Thursday with two lawyers and one investigator representing NASCAR and that they planned to follow up with him this week. He said the lawyers asked him to keep the contents of last week's meeting private. Propst, who had his own lawyer present, says he stood by his story.
NASCAR spokesperson Danielle Humphrey confirmed the meeting with Propst, but said she had no information about what was said in that meeting.
"I've got nothing to gain from this," he said. "All I have is the truth."
That, and the eeriest of sensations. In his day job as a firefighter, he said he has gone into smoke-filled homes and come out carrying dead bodies. He once was called to a scene where a man was buried in gravel, and Propst dug him out with his bare hands. At Daytona, he's handled several big wrecks, including one several years ago in which Mark Martin got his bell rung so hard that on the way hospital he was still asking what lap they were on.
But this one -- this crash of a former first-grade classmate who improbably went on to become a racing legend -- emotionally threw Propst like no situation he's ever had to deal with in his career, he said.
"My partner and I at Daytona always argued because he didn't like (Earnhardt) and I do," he said. "When he crashed, my partner didn't want to go out there because he knew Dale would be mad -- cussing at everyone. I said, 'Oh, he's a nice guy.' Then we got out there and saw those eyes."
Lifeless eyes. And a seat belt that may or may not have anything to do with his death.
Tom Farrey is a senior staff writer with ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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