Harry Hurt

Harry Hurt, 81, one of the world's foremost authorities on motorcycle crashes and their causes, died Sunday, November 29, 2009, in a California hospital, days after undergoing back surgery. Graveside funeral services will be at 2:oo P.M., Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at the at Mt. Olive Memorial Park Chapel in Big Spring.Mr. Hurt was the principal investigator of the Hurt Report, an on-scene investigation of 900 motorcycle accidents in Los Angeles conducted from 1976 to 1977. Published in 1981, his research continues to form the basis of many US motorcycle safety programs and is credited with saving countless lives.Mr. Hurt was a professor of safety science at the University of Southern California in the school's Traffic Safety Center in the early 1970s, when roughly 10 percent of US highway traffic fatalities were because of motorcycle accidents. In 1975, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reached out to Mr. Hurt and the university to develop an accident investigation methodology and study that would determine the causes of motorcycle crashes and injuries.Among the study's major findings were that speed was not a factor in most crashes; that helmets were effective in preventing brain injuries and deaths; and that two-thirds of motorcycle crashes involved cars and that two-thirds of those accidents occurred when a car driver failed to see the motorcycle and violated the motorcyclist's right of way."Harry was the acknowledged giant in motorcycle accident research,'' said Jim Ouellet, one of the accident investigators for the Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures study, better known as the Hurt Report."Similar studies since 1990 reflect his influence and have largely confirmed his findings. He was a bulldog at finding the facts and making them public, even if some people were unhappy when the facts he reported didn't support their pet theories.''Mr. Hurt was a lifelong motorcyclist and never had a crash, said his wife, Joan.He rode "a garage full of things. Hondas, Triumphs, Nortons, dirt bikes, street bikes, all kinds of stuff,'' said his son, Harry III. However, about a decade ago he gave up motorcycles because he felt he was no longer able to ride.The only child of a banker, Hugh Harrison Hurt Jr. was born in Big Spring, Texas, where he grew up building and flying model airplanes. He joined the Navy toward the end of World War II, learned to fly, and became a commissioned officer, but by that time the war was over and he never flew in combat.He met his wife, Joan Beene, while serving in the Navy, and they married in 1950, the same year he graduated from the Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University) with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering. After a short stint analyzing airplane designs for the Texas aerophysics lab North American Aviation, he moved west to attend USC and received his master's degree in aeronautical engineering.As a graduate student, Mr. Hurt was involved with a project to develop a crash helmet that forms the basis for helmets used today: a hard exterior shell lined with an energy-absorbing material and soft inner padding.Mr. Hurt wrote "Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators,'' a flight-training textbook that continues to be standard reading for aviators and is still in print, 44 years after its initial publication.It was after joining the USC faculty and heading the engineering section of its safety division that he branched into motor vehicle safety research, developing and teaching courses in accident investigation and analysis and accident reconstruction."I don't think Harry Hurt's contributions to motorcycle safety can be overstated,'' said Art Friedman, former editor of Motorcyclist magazine who, in 1990, wrote a column naming him Motorcyclist of the Decade.Along with his wife and son, Mr. Hurt leaves another son, John; daughters Julie, Vivien, and Vera; and 10 grandchildren.Arrangements under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home & Crematory of Big Spring. Online condolences can be made at: www.npwelch.com,