Over the years there have been dramatic and extreme advancement in safety for the driver being built into racing cars, especially open-wheel machines.
If I remember correctly the circumstances of Walther's crash at Indy and the injury to his legs directly led to design changes to specifically protect the legs more including making it so they would not be physically exposed like in Walther's case.
Now death and extreme critical injuries are rare. Deaths mostly occur only with high speed head on crashes.
I think to fuel tanks as well. But it took another crash in the 80's that exposed the legs of a driver (as the car broke up against the fence) to get the front end redesigned again. Can't remember the name of the driver though. -- Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain
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