Inspirational Parker Back To Work After Life-Altering Crash

This is the true definition of inspiration, here.

On March 30 of this year, Dan Parker, an esteeemed chassis builder and a well-liked and accomplished driver in own right, experienced what many witnesses called the most horrifying crash they’d ever seen — one they couldn’t believe any driver could have survived. Thankfully, Parker did survive.

The incident occurred during the 8th annual “The Quick And the Scared Outlaws” event at the Alabama Dragway in the town of Steele, where the Columbus, Ga. native was driving a nitrous-fed ’63 Corvette for car owner Billy George. On a planned shutoff run, things went terribly wrong just beyond the finish line when the car became airborne and took a head-on shot into the concrete retaining wall. The force of the impact was so strong that everything from the firewall forward was ripped away and strewn about the shutdown area.

Parker was taken by ambulance — rather than by helicopter due to severe weather in the area — to a hospital in Birmingham, where he remained in a medically-induced coma for nearly two weeks. Initially believed to have only suffered a number of broken bones, it was later discovered as he began to wake from the coma that he’d lost his eyesight. Further testing revealed that the optic nerves were undamaged, leaving some chance that his eyesight could eventually be restored.

While such an injury would be debilitating to millions of others, Parker, a self-employed fabricator that earns his keep using his eyes and his hands each and every day, was determined not to let the loss of his valuable eyesight keep him from continuing the work he loves so dearly.

Less than four months after the devastating crash that early spring afternoon in Alabama, Dan is back at work in his Parker Chassis race shop, making the most of his situation by finding new ways to do old tricks, despite the loss of his vision. As you can see in the video, Dan is actually preparing and machining parts just as he has in the past, with the help of new technology that audibly returns information needed to operate the mills, lathes, and other machines.

Dan’s never-quit attitude is inspirational beyond words, and like so many countless others in the racing community, we offer our prayers that one day Dan will regain his vision and be able to see and read the thousands of get-well wishes that have poured in from around the world.