Crash survivor returns to derby

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By Kay Luna | Saturday, July 22, 2006 8:17 AM CDT | () comments

John Schultz/QUAD-CITY TIMES Bevan Paarmann of Clinton, Iowa, sits on the trailer carrying his new demolition derby car, a Chevrolet Sprint. He hopes to enter this year’s demolition derby at the Clinton County Fair in DeWitt, the same place six years ago he was severely burned when his car caught fire. The number on the side of the car is the anniversary of the accident.

CLINTON, Iowa — He stands tall, a strapping 25-year-old with wispy blond hair and bright blue eyes. That’s what people probably notice first about Bevan Paarmann, long before they see the burn scars that stretch like webs around his mouth and nose and crimp the skin on his hands and arms.

A lot has changed since the DeWitt native, now living in Clinton, was trapped inside his demolition derby car in a fiery explosion six years ago at the Clinton County Fair in DeWitt.

“I’ve changed more here than anything else,” he said, pointing at his heart.

Since then, his life has rebounded. He’s feeling great, working at a Clinton factory — and his urge for thrill-seeking has returned in full force. After getting severely burned over 64 percent of his body during the Aug. 2, 2000, demolition derby in DeWitt, and suing the event promoter and the fair over the incident, Paarmann is ready to climb back into a demolition derby car.

And he wants to do it at 7 p.m. Sunday, at the same fair and with the same promoter — Wisconsin-based Action Auto Promotions — that ran the derby where his accident happened.

Even though he already has an old orange-and-green Chevy Sprint car prepared for the derby, Paarmann said he doesn’t know if the fair or the promoter will let him participate. He expects a wide variety of reactions to his request.

“There are going to be people who think I’m an idiot, and some people are going to say, ‘You know, that takes guts,’” Paarmann said. “I say, if you get bucked off a horse, you’ve got to get right back on.”

Repeated attempts to reach Jerry Paulus, founder and president of Action Auto Promotions, and other company officials were unsuccessful. A woman who answered the phone at Paulus’ home said he was traveling to demolition derby events this week.

Meanwhile, Gala Reed, president of the fair board, said she means “nothing derogatory against” Paarmann, but would rather not comment about the issue.

“I wish him nothing but the best in his life,” Reed said.

If he can’t participate Sunday, Paarmann said he planned to take the derby car to another event at the Whiteside County Fair in Morrison, Ill.

No matter what, he will race in a demolition derby again, he said. It’s a vow he made right after the fire, while lying in a hospital bed at University Hospitals in Iowa City.

Over the years, the process of healing his wounds and then trying to get his life back in order, left little time to worry about preparing a derby car. This year, he made the time.

“That’s been bugging me for six years,” Paarmann said. “I figured I’d better stick to my words.”

Flames that changed his life

Paarmann was barely 20 years old when he decided to run his Blues-Clues-painted Ford Escort in the compact car division of the derby in August 2000. He was close to winning, one of two cars left running on the track.

Then, his opponent’s car began to spark, first spitting and then hurling fireballs from underneath. The sparks connected with leaking fuel from Paarmann’s car, which suddenly exploded into an inferno inside the driver’s compartment.

His opponent escaped from the fire, but Paarmann was trapped inside the blaze until firefighters pulled him out of the vehicle and summoned medical help.

He spent several months in the hospital and underwent painful skin graft surgeries as he recovered. He had open wounds on his back, and his fingers curled inward from the blaze, before surgery helped him gain back most of the movement in his hands.

Years later, Paarmann still doesn’t know if the fuel tank positioned behind his driver’s seat tipped over, or if a fuel hose came loose, releasing the gasoline that sparked the fire.

“I don’t know what happened,” he said.

In November 2003, a lawsuit Paarmann and his parents filed over the fire was settled out of court, and attorneys involved said only his parents — Craig and Monica Paarmann — were awarded money for their emotional and financial suffering.

The $25,000 settlement was made on behalf of the Clinton County Club Show and the fairgrounds owner, while an undisclosed settlement agreed upon earlier with Action Auto Promotions came from insurance companies.

Attorneys explained there was no insurance coverage for Paarmann’s injuries. Another hurdle: Paarmann’s signature on a release waiver. Paarmann and his parents would have had to prove gross negligence, a legal threshold to show that the fair and derby promoter acted recklessly, which is difficult, attorneys said.

However, the lawsuit did question whether the promoter’s failure to take action to stop the event before the explosion was a reckless disregard for safety. It also questioned whether the promoter and fair officials were prepared for an emergency at the derby.

Other points claimed the defendants failed to establish applicable safety precautions or specifications and modifications of derby cars, particularly on gas tanks; failed to perform pre-derby inspections or train officials properly; and failed to extricate Paarmann quickly enough.

No fear

Paarmann still vividly remembers the horrible fire — every minute of the inferno, and his painful recovery — but, somehow, he isn’t afraid to jump back into the action. And he isn’t afraid to do so at the same fair, under Action Auto’s watchful eyes.

He believes the accident led officials to change the safety rules for the better.

During the 2000 event, Action Auto’s rules required factory gas tanks be removed, replaced by steel tanks securely fastened behind the driver’s seat and covered with metal or carpet.

The promoter’s latest rules for demolition derbies involving 1977 models and newer — which are the models allowed in the DeWitt event — say factory gas tanks must be removed completely. Drivers must use small steel tanks or approved fuel cells enclosed in a steel case, which the rules say is “strictly enforced.”

“That wasn’t the case before,” Paarmann said. “I would assume that a lot has changed.”

About two years ago, Paarmann ventured out to watch another demolition derby — the first one since his car’s explosion — at the Mississippi Valley Fair in Davenport. During that derby, one of the cars started leaking some kind of fluid, and derby officials didn’t hesitate to stop the action right away.

Someone then announced to the crowd they were being so cautious “because a kid in DeWitt got burned in a derby,” Paarmann said. His friend slapped his leg, saying, “That’s you.”

He didn’t want that kind of attention, he said, but is happy if his accident has made people more cautious.

“Someone said, ‘do you know how many lives you might have saved?’ ” Paarmann said. “At least I got something out of it. I’d gladly take a knife in the back for my friend.”

Paarmann’s roommate, 25-year-old Adam Bearce, has known Paarmann about seven years and remembers watching the fiery explosion at the 2000 demolition derby. The explosion was hard to believe, but Paarmann’s eagerness to get back into a derby event isn’t, he said.

“I knew he would eventually,” Bearce said. “He’s unstoppable.”

Paarmann has been working on his new derby car two or three weeks after buying it for $40 from someone who thought it was junk. The only thing wrong with it was the fuel pump was out, he said.

He took the fuel tank out of the engine compartment and into the driver’s compartment, behind the driver’s seat and encased in steel, as the rules require for safety reasons. He also moved the fuel lines, removed the car’s windows and windshield.

His car number is 8-2-00, commemorating the date of his accident. On top of the car, Paarmann has written “God Bless the DWVFD,” which he said stands for the DeWitt Volunteer Fire Department.

Paarmann plans to wear a helmet, jeans and leather gloves, but no fire-protective suit at the derby this weekend.

The only new safeguard Paarmann is taking is that he plans to add a fire extinguisher to his derby car, to put out any small fires that might spark inside the compartment. Even a fire extinguisher wouldn’t have helped when his car exploded, he said.

“We’re not required to have them,” he said.

The derby won’t be the end of his thrill-seeking.

A week after the DeWitt event, Paarmann plans to go skydiving for the first time since his accident at the Quad-City Skydiving Center in Geneseo, Ill. He did it once eight years ago, before his demolition derby fire, and decided to try it again July 30.

“My life’s too boring, I think,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Sometime, I want to ride a bull, too, just to say I did it.”

Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com.

Derby details

The Clinton County Fair’s final grandstand event will be the annual demolition derby, scheduled for 7 p.m. Sunday at the Clinton County Fairgrounds in DeWitt, Iowa.

For more information or to view the fair’s schedule, visit the Clinton County Extension Service Web site at www.extension.iastate.edu/clinton. Then, scroll down and click on “Clinton County Fair has something for everyone.”