The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

GWEN IFILL: Good evening. I'm Gwen Ifill. Jim Lehrer is off today. On the NewsHour tonight: Margaret Warner looks at the Navy's decision to hold a public inquiry into last week's submarine collision with a Japanese fishing trawler; Betty Ann Bowser reports on a new challenge for the deaf community; Terence Smith examines the world of Nascar champion Dale Earnhardt, who was killed during the Daytona 500 yesterday; and Jeffrey Brown talks with a master violin maker. It all follows our summary of the news this Monday.

NEWS SUMMARY

GWEN IFILL: President Bush today dedicated a museum to victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. It stands next to what was once the site of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building. An outdoor memorial was dedicated there last year. A powerful truck bomb shattered the building in April 1995, killing 168 people. Mr. Bush said it's now become a place of peace and remembrance.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The truth of Oklahoma City is the courage and comfort you found in one another. It began with the rescue. It continues with this memorial. It is recorded in this museum. Together, you endured. You chose to live out the words of St. Paul: "Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good."

GWEN IFILL: The bombing was the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Timothy McVeigh was convicted of carrying out the attack. He is scheduled to be executed May 16. Terry Nichols was given life in prison for helping to plan the bombing. He still faces murder charges. In the submarine collision story today, Japan's government said it wants to send the captain of a sunken trawler to a U.S. Navy court of inquiry. The top officers of the U.S.S. "Greeneville" face the court Thursday at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Their submarine rammed and sank the trawler February 9, leaving nine people missing and presumed dead. Over the weekend, a submersible robot found the trawler approximately 2,000 feet down. The Japanese want it raised, and the missing bodies recovered. Among the questions raised so far: Whether the presence of civilians onboard the submarine contributed to the accident. We'll have more on the navy investigation right after this News Summary. The Marine Corps curtailed tests that might have shed light on rapid descent problems with the V-22 Osprey. A General Accounting Office study detailed in today's "Washington Post" found the tests were omitted to save time and money. Rapid descent was implicated in an Osprey crash last April that killed 19 Marines. Investigators believe a hydraulics problem helped cause a December crash that killed four Marines. The GAO Report says there had been warnings about the hydraulics system. In Brazil today, riot troops ended the biggest prison uprising in that country's history. Earlier, the last of more than 7,000 hostages were released. The riots began yesterday, and at their peak involved 28 prisons. At least 12 inmates were killed. We have a report from Dan Rivers of Independent Television News.

DAN RIVERS: The unrest started at the state's biggest jail, Carandiru, which houses 10,000 convicts. They're angry at the crowded conditions and that ten members of a drug gang were moved to another jail after a fight, which left five dead. A trail of blood from one of the blocks is a reminder that in Brazil, prison riots often lead to many deaths. The last time there was trouble here, 111 inmates died. Last night a pall of smoke hung over Belham Prison in the southern Brazilian city of Sao Paolo. The police have managed to recapture some inmates. Here inmates are herded naked against the wall and threatened by guards brandishing batons. The guards in this jail at least reasserting their authority after almost 24 hours of chaos and bloodshed.

GWEN IFILL: Human rights activists said today prison conditions and what they described as torturing of inmates helped fuel the riots. A United Nations report warned today that global warming may cause irreversible changes in climate. Some 700 scientists conducted the research. They said half the world's Alpine glaciers could melt within a century. And that could trigger more flooding and droughts, and potentially enormous loss of life. An initial UN report last month warned that global temperatures could rise by more than ten degrees this century. Nascar champion Dale Earnhardt was killed Sunday at the Daytona 500. His black Chevy, Number Three, slammed into a wall in the final lap. Doctors said he died instantly of head injuries. Earnhardt had been a key figure in the growth of Nascar in the last 20 years. He was 49 years old. We'll have more on this story later in the program tonight. Also coming up: The Navy's submarine accident inquiry, a new challenge for the deaf, and a master violin maker.

FOCUS - GOING DEEPER

GWEN IFILL: Margaret Warner has the submarine story.

MARGARET WARNER: On Saturday, Admiral Thomas Fargo, commander of the Pacific Fleet, concluded his preliminary investigation into the sinking of a Japanese trawler by the USS submarine "Greeneville." The next step, he decided, was to convene a formal, open court of inquiry this week, focusing on the commander of the sub and two other officers. Joining us to explain this development are George Wilson, military columnist for "National Journal"; Mark Thompson, national security correspondent for "Time" Magazine; and Eugene Fidell, a former Coast Guard lawyer, and founder and president of the National Institute of Military Justice. Welcome, gentlemen.

Gene Fidell, beginning with you: How big a deal is this? How significant is it that the admiral decided to go to this court of inquiry?

EUGENE FIDELL: It's quite a big deal, and it indicates an understanding of the high stakes that are involved both in terms of the Navy's operating procedures and in terms of the potential implications for U.S. relations with Japan. Courts of inquiry, which are not courts at all, of course, they're boards of investigation of quite a formal nature, are convened in the case of major casualties of one kind or another. It's an appropriate decision to take at this time.

MARGARET WARNER: Because there were -- he mentioned there were a couple of lesser steps he could have taken.

EUGENE FIDELL: Yes, a simple board of investigation or an informal investigation could have been taken, but I think one of the factors that weighed on people's minds here was that only a court of inquiry can compel testimony from civilians. I think that... since there were civilians in the control room on the submarine, I think that was an important consideration.

MARGARET WARNER: Why do you think, George Wilson, that Admiral... or what you know about why Admiral Fargo decided to go this route, why the Navy did?

GEORGE WILSON: I think their position became indefensible. I mean, the whole world is wired up together. It was page one in Japan, and relations with Japan were in serious jeopardy. And it seemed to me that bad news doesn't get better with age, and they decided to get it out finally.

MARGARET WARNER: So you're saying because this is an open proceeding, that's why the Navy decided to go for it?

GEORGE WILSON: I think they thought that there was too many questions and that they had kind of lost the credibility contest. And this was the best way to cure the problem: To take the band-aid off all at once rather than a hair at a time.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you see, it Mark?

MARK THOMPSON: Yeah. I see it that whatever decision is reached by this board or this court of inquiry, the public will be able to reach the same decision, having witnessed much of the same evidence that the court will hear. Therefore, the darkness and the surprises that have plagued this case from the beginning, hopefully, will be a little bit disinfected by the sunshine that this proceeding will have.

MARGARET WARNER: Eugene Fidell, we actually called out to Pearl Harbor to find out if it will be televised. And we're told at this point that there is no plan to televise it. Why is that?

EUGENE FIDELL: Well, I think that basically because they're analogizing it for better or worse to a trial in a civilian court, a criminal court. The analogy is -- there's something to the analogy but it's not entirely perfect because it's not a criminal trial.

MARGARET WARNER:. But is that because in federal courts they're not televised?

EUGENE FIDELL: Yes. You cannot have a television camera in a federal courtroom. There is an irony, however, because the highest court of the military, the court of appeals to the armed forces itself has had its oral arguments televised.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, you've said a couple of times what a court of inquiry isn't. What is it in terms of what its purpose is?

EUGENE FIDELL: It has three purposes historically. One is simply to find the facts in a complicated or important matter. Another is to make a preliminary assessment as to whether the disciplinary procedures of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which regulates courts martial should be brought into play. And a third factor -- a third purpose traditionally has been possibly to vindicate reputations.

MARGARET WARNER: So, in other words, it doesn't assign guilt or innocence, but it would suggest that someone might be tried?

EUGENE FIDELL: That is correct. It can be analogized again imperfectly to a grand jury in state or federal proceedings.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, Mark, Admiral Fargo said he wanted this inquiry to look at the totality of circumstances or everything that contributed to the collision. Obviously they want to know why the two boats collided, but what are the particular areas that they're likely to focus on?

MARK THOMPSON: Well, basically how did they miss the boat? I mean, the key things they're going to look at three officers who were in charge on the boat. There were sonar men and people working the periscope lower, but the officers are the ones who are in charge and have to vet what the sailors do. So they'll want to look at that. They will also want to know if having these civilians on board in any way distracted the crew from their regular jobs. So it won't simply be the narrow case of what they saw or what they didn't see but rather what was the whole atmosphere in the control room and in some way did something fall through the cracks?

MARGARET WARNER: So they want to know just in terms of the procedures why neither the periscope nor the sonar picked up this fishing trawler?

MARK THOMPSON: Right. And the question becomes when you have got more than one person testifying, maybe somebody did detect something. And for some reason it wasn't brought up. So there could be high drama in this proceeding if some, you know, E-4 had knowledge that he didn't bring forward.

MARGARET WARNER: There have also been questions raised, George, about or criticism from the Japanese and the commander or the captain of that trawler that the sub didn't do enough to rescue people off of it. Is that also a subject of this inquiry?

GEORGE WILSON: That will have to be looked into at some length. And the Navy's line is that, well, a submarine is not a good rescue platform. Counter to that is well there were swimmers aboard, you could put out a ladder. So why didn't they do more? The other rebuttal from the Navy is the Coast Guard was on the way and they were all equipped to do it. That will certainly be gone into at great length, and one difference in this proceeding than in a grand jury is that you can call witnesses to defend your position. So I suspect you'll hear a lot from sailors and sonar men and rescue swimmers. This could be a long inquiry.

MARGARET WARNER: Explain now, Gene Fidell, the status of these parties to the inquiry is the phrase they use. They don't call them defendants -- the commanding officer, the executive officer and the lieutenant who was the officer of the deck. How are they treated? Are they treated at defendants? Do they have the same rights as defendants? How does it actually work?

EUGENE FIDELL: Well, for one thing, nobody has to give a statement. In other words, anyone who is suspected of an offense in the military is protected by the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination as well as a statute that has the same effect. So if they chose not to testify, that would be fine and that would be the end of it. They will have attorneys representing them, certainly military; they may also have civilian attorneys. And there are probably going to be moments that will be shoot 'em up trial scenes in this hearing.

MARGARET WARNER: How adversarial is this kind of an inquiry?

EUGENE FIDELL: It can be quite add adversarial. A lot of it will depend on the nature of the testimony - of conflicts that emerge - also a lot of it will depend upon the tone that is set by the President who is the senior member, the three-star admiral, who is the head of the court of inquiry, and the other two admirals on the panel with him. They can set a tone that really discourages what, let's call trial tactics, or they can set a more tolerant atmosphere that permits people to do the kinds of energetic representation that we're accustomed to seeing.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, is there a prosecutor and then can the judges also ask questions?

EUGENE FIDELL: There is a-- prosecutor is not quite the right concept. But there is an attorney who would represent -- who would be the counsel for the court. That's like the government's representative. In addition, I would think that the members of the court itself would ask questions. This is not... they're not sort of potted plants. They are likely to take quite an active role. One of them, as you may know, or as viewers may know, is a submariner himself; another is an aviator; a third is a surface operations type.

MARGARET WARNER: All admirals.

EUGENE FIDELL: All admirals. One three-star, two one-stars and they are likely to have technical questions. They're likely to get into it quite heavily as opposed to playing a passive role and letting the lawyers do the driving here.

MARGARET WARNER:: Now, George, you covered one of the most famous courts of inquiry into the Pueblo incident back in '68. Whatwas the atmosphere like there? What was the sort of courtroom tension like?

GEORGE WILSON: That was probably the most dramatic story I ever covered because the emotions were so raw. And you had all these sailors who were just released from prison camp. And you had a skipper --

MARGARET WARNER: In North Korea.

GEORGE WILSON: In North Korea. The skipper - Lloyd Bucher -- was very emotional. He had been tortured. He was thin. Every day was a dramatic revelation. The Navy was very embarrassed because the ship was in such terrible shape. The controls had been designed by an elevator company; and the ship was broken and the guns were frozen and it was a very embarrassing time in the beginning of the trial. I call it an inquiry but they were calling it a trial for the Navy. And the defense brought out all these shortcomings of the mission and of the chain of command and of the equipment. So, the defendant, so to speak, the skipper-- and this will be true in both cases-- can wield as many guns to his defense as he can find. In that way it's a very dramatic confrontation. He is fighting for his reputation.

MARGARET WARNER: Mark, explain Japan's or the Japanese special role in this. They, of course, as we've discussed, have been very unhappy at the secrecy that they feel the Navy has handled this and so on. They have a special role in this.

MARK THOMPSON: Well, before Admiral Fargo made his announcement Saturday night, the Japanese government was informed of what he was going to do. They are trying to bring Tokyo more into what's happening here because the last ten days has just been another disaster. A flag officer of the Japan self-defense force has been invited as an interested party basically to sit up with the American admirals and listen and ask questions and talk to those admirals and give them his insights. So, they are trying to bring the Japanese along because they really are the place where the squeaking is coming from now. It's not so much here in America but overseas.

MARGARET WARNER: So what does it mean that this Japanese military officer, Gene Fidell, will be an advisor? I mean, is that a normal thing? Is this unprecedented?

EUGENE FIDELL: To my knowledge, it's unprecedented. And I think it has to be looked at very carefully because, on the one hand, the Japanese have a strong interest in the thoroughness of this investigation. On the other hand, we often hear the term "illegal command influence" or unlawful command influence. And there has to be at least some concern that a novel arrangement like this could permit factors to weigh on the decision-making process that we might not be comfortable with in terms of the fair administration of military justice.

MARGARET WARNER: Now what about the civilians, George? A lot of attention to the 16 civilians on board -- what is their role here?

GEORGE WILSON: Well, they'll be questioned as to what they did when. Did they interfere with the operation of the submarine at the crucial moment of collision? Now, the Navy has already confirmed that the one civilian was in the helmsman chair at the point of impact. Well, did he push the lever forward and cause the planes to go in a different direction or was the upward surge so powerful that it didn't matter what he did? That will have to be determined. And this will be another bit of dramatic testimony, exactly what were you doing at the time of impact and why were you in the helmsman's position? And the Navy's rebuttal will be, well, he couldn't have done anything one way or the other so there was no risk. But that will have to be examined and cross-examined.

MARGARET WARNER: Is this unusual?

MARK THOMPSON: Well, I mean, the problem here is that the periscope had the capability to have taped what it was seeing but it wasn't turned on. So we're never going to really know what happened. I think these admirals are going to have to deduce. That's going to be the problem because if everybody says X is what happened, they're not going to have many options for being able to counter that because there won't be much physical evidence.

MARGARET WARNER: But there were all these monitors so that a lot of people in the control room could see what the periscope was seeing, correct?

EUGENE FIDELL: That's exactly right. I think there's a point here that's worth mentioning. Here we have a very high-tech work environment. The Cold War may be over. We're told that. But we're still in a very high- tech Naval environment. And yet the framework that we're dealing in, this court of inquiry dates to 1786. The statute itself, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, is turning 50 this year. This case might test some of the premises underlying the military justice system: What is the role of command? How does accountability work in this kind of high-tech environment? So I think there's going to be much for people to be pondering here as the case moves forward.

MARGARET WARNER: Final question for you, back to the role of the civilians, a re they there making this imperfect analogy, are they there just as witnesses? Are they also in any way subjects of this inquiry?

EUGENE FIDELL: No, they're not subjects of the inquiry because they're not subject to military law. They are there as witnesses, and I'm sure that they will... Their cover has been blown in a sense that now their identities are known. I'm sure they have an interest in helping the country and the Japanese public as well get to the bottom of the case.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, thank you all three very much.

GWEN IFILL: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight: Coping with change in the deaf community, the world of Dale Earnhardt, and making violin masterpieces.

FOCUS - NEW CHALLENGE

GWEN IFILL: Betty Ann Bowser reports on the deaf community's new challenge.

TEACHER: More bubbles? Yay!

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Dylan Craig was born deaf, but eight months ago, he underwent an operation and received a cochlear implant, an electronic device that stimulates the hearing nerve, enabling a deaf person to perceive sound.

TEACHER: You want to figure out how it works.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Today, at age two, Dylan has hearing. He is also doing something his parents never dreamed would be possible. He's learning to talk.

TEACHER: Big or little?

DYLAN: Big?

TEACHER: Big?

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Doctors think Dylan's chances to use spoken language and function someday in the hearing world are excellent, and his parents are thrilled.

DOUG CRAIG: It's phenomenal, what technology can do. And to this day, when I tell people who find out that Dylan is deaf what we've done, they're just, "that's incredible." And I haven't been able to get over that.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Three generations of the Bahan family of Gaithersburg, Maryland, are deaf: Father, Ben; mother, Sue; David, who is almost three years old; 14-month-old old Juliana; and Ben's mother, Eleanor. The voice you will hear is an interpreter translating the signs that the family make to each other.

INTERPRETER: Sue says, "what animals do we have here?" David says, "deer." Sue says, "remember when we saw the deer licking the water?" David: "You have to be careful." Ben says, "were you afraid of the deer?" David: "I was scared, so I ran away."

BETTY ANN BOWSER: The Bahans use American sign language, or ASL, to communicate. Even Baby Juliana signs, here asking for her bottle. They say they function as well as any hearing family, and have as much fun. Here, David watches his favorite movie, "A Bug's Life."

INTERPRETER: Then they hear this loud noise, somebody flying. Yes! It's the bad grasshopper.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Neither Ben nor Sue are interested in hearing, for themselves or their children. That may sound shocking to people who can hear, but it is a sentiment shared by many of the deaf people we spoke to. Here at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, an entire deaf culture has developed around American Sign Language. It's a world in which deaf people not only feel comfortable, but thrive. Now, with the advent of cochlear implants and other technologies, some observers say that very culture is threatened. More than 12,000 babies are born deaf every year in the United States. That's more than for any other birth defect. But cochlear implants are making it possible for increasing numbers of them not to grow up to be deaf adults. The implants work like a miniature computer that is surgically implanted in the head behind the ear. The device transmits electrical signals to the auditory nerve, which the brain interprets as sound in the cochlear, thus producing hearing. In 1995, about 9,000 people had received cochlear implants. Today that number has doubled and is growing, so fast that experts say it won't be long before they could reduce the number of deaf people from nearly two million to under 100,000. Dr. John Niparko is director of Otology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, one of the leading implant centers in the world. It's also where Dylan Craig got his implant.

DR. JOHN NIPARKO: There is no question that in the year 2000, we can provide that sensitive level of hearing to a lot of deaf individuals. We expect that implants with get smaller, faster, smarter. They will simulate more naturally the coding, the translation of sound vibrations into electrical energy that the normal ear provides.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: The major caveat for cochlear implants is this: They must be done early, usually in the first three years of life, to be successful. John Wheeler is president of the Deafness Research Foundation.

JOHN WHEELER: When the baby is actually born, that brain is already looking for auditory data, and if it hasn't been getting it, it will be... a process begins where after 18 months or 20 months, somewhere around that length of time, the brain says, "okay, I'm not going to be a hearing brain," and it starts reallocating memory just like a computer program. And at some point, it's not reversible. That's why if a child is five years old and gets a cochlear implant, statistically it won't benefit as much as an infant who gets them.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Wheeler's nonprofit organization will shortly launch a national awareness program, letting parents know about implant technology, and urging that all newborns be screened for deafness. All of this seems unnecessary to many students at Gallaudet, the only college for deaf and hard- of-hearing students in the world. At Gallaudet, the volleyball team is deaf, the captain of the football team is deaf, even King Jordan, the president of the university, has been deaf since he was 21. And he says the deaf culture offered at Gallaudet enriches the lives of students.

KING JORDAN: I'm different when I go out in the hearing world. When I check into a hotel or go to an airline desk or ride a bus, then I stand out. I'm different, I'm a deaf guy. When I'm here I can put that aside, and I'm not a deaf guy. I'm president; I'm a PhD; I'm an athlete; I'm all the things that other people are, and we don't have to be concerned about the deafness when we're here.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Many of these students like student council president Chris Soukup have been death since birth. Soukup signs and after years of speech therapy, has learned to talk. He is also an excellent lip reader. He says he's not unhappy being deaf, and he resents the notion that hearing society thinks it needs to fix deaf people with things like cochlear implants.

CHRIS SOUKUP: They feel sorry for us. They say, "oh, these poor people, we have to do something to help them." And what they don't realize is we are fully capable of helping ourselves. We're fully capable of living the lives that we want to lead without anyone's help, and I think that's something that people really need to wake up to.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: And for many of these students, if there was a cochlear implant that worked on large numbers of older people, they would reject it. Jason Lamberton is a 20-year-old junior.

JASON LAMBERTON: (speaking through interpreter) Would it be easier? Yeah. I'm not going to lie, it would. But if I were able to hear and speak, I wouldn't be deaf anymore. That means my identity would be gone, and I'd be a completely different person, and I don't want that.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Reporter: Jane Fernandez is the provost of Gallaudet. She's been deaf since birth. She speaks, signs, and also lip reads, and like many of her students, she is proud of her deafness.

JANE FERNANDEZ: I wish hearing people would understand that I am very happy to be deaf. My deafness is not an issue. I don't think about it every day. I just go on with my life the same way hearing people do. I'm successful. I'm educated. I work. I have a family. I have a home. It just happens that I sign and I have some equipment that helps me to get access to information. What's all the fuss about?

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Ben Bahan is the dean of deaf studies at Gallaudet, and even though medically his two young children might be prime candidates for a cochlear implants, he would never consider such a thing.

BEN BAHAN: (speaking through interpreter) If I gave them the cochlear implant and it was great and everything, then my environment would be hard. I don't talk. I wouldn't be able to give the English and the speaking to it, so what would be the point? She gets to an age where she can make that decision if she wants it, it's up to her. I won't stop her.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But the doctors say it will be too late then, that it has to be done in the first three years of life.

BEN BAHAN: (speaking through interpreter) It's not too late for her, because she already has language. She already signs. She already has that. Really, at one year old, she's already able to sign several signs. She can tell me... tell me how many children who are ones who have a cochlear implant can speak that clearly?

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Many of the students at Gallaudet will eventually go out into the hearing world to have careers, but they want to keep their deaf culture and all that it symbolizes.

CHRIS SOUKUP: It involves an acceptance and a celebration of who we are as people, and it's also a celebration of all of the accomplishments that we've made since the beginning of time. We have done so much for ourselves in terms of progressing and advancing as a community, and also asserting, you know, the culture that we believe very strongly in to the outside world.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But does technology have the potential to wipe out deaf culture, to perhaps destroy American sign language, as more and more children get hearing and speech with cochlear implants? Gallaudet's Fernandez doesn't think so.

JANE FERNANDEZ: Again and again we've seen social influences that try to fix deaf people. And again and again we've seen deaf people as a group have taken those influences into them and adapted to include them. So I believe technology is going to change the deaf culture just as technology is changing the whole society. No one is going to escape the influence of technology. But the culture itself will stay.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But Johns Hopkins' Dr. Niparko isn't so sure.

DR. JOHN NIPARKO: In the case of the deaf culture, in many cases it is based in the signing form of communication. I have been accused of providing cochlear implants as a way of doing away with sign language. And again, that...

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Does that bother you?

DR. JOHN NIPARKO: Of course it bothers me. That's not our goal. Our goal is to provide access to spoken language. Now, can we... can we provide that access to spoken language and not crowd out the ability to use sign language? Well, there may be an issue there, and there's an issue for all of us to deal with.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Dylan's parents provide a clue. On the day the NewsHour met them at Dylan's hearing therapy, Doug and Karen Craig were excited about the success of the little boy's implant, and Mother Karen, "it's great. We don't have to sign so much anymore."

TEACHER: That was a nice bubble!

FOCUS - DEATH OF A CHAMPION

GWEN IFILL: Now, the death of a racing champion. Terence Smith has that.

SPORTSCASTER: Right behind them.

TERENCE SMITH: The deadly crash came yesterday afternoon at the premiere event for America's fastest-growing sport. Dale Earnhardt, stock car racing's most famous driver, was fighting for position in his signature black number three Goodwrench Chevrolet. In the final turn of the final lap, he lost control and swerved, crashing into the high-banked wall at a speed approaching 170 miles per hour.

SPORTSCASTER: And you see the ambulance transporting him directly to Halifax Medical Center.

TERENCE SMITH: Earnhardt was pronounced dead from head injuries at a nearby hospital. The 49-year-old driver was nicknamed "The Intimidator" for his aggressive driving demeanor and fierce sense of competition. His father, Ralph Earnhardt, was also a sports car champion, and pioneer of Nascar in the 1950s. Dale Earnhardt ran his first race in 1975, and earned his first victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway in 1979. During his career, he finished first 76 times and won seven Winston Cup championships. Although the winningest driver in the history of the Daytona speedway, he won the Daytona 500 only once, in his 20th try, in 1998. (Cheers)

DALE EARNHARDT: This is the greatest time I've ever had in the victory lane right here. This is it.

TERENCE SMITH: Earnhardt's 24 year- old-son, Dale, Jr., was ahead of him in yesterday's race. He finished second to winner Michael Waltrip. Both drivers steered cars owned by Dale, Sr. More than 200,000 fans watched yesterday's race at the Daytona international speedway, and more than one million saw it on television. Stock cars weigh about 3,500 pounds, and are modified versions of ordinary production cars. The safety of stock car racing has been questioned recently. Three other drivers-- Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, and Tony Roper-- have been killed in speedway accidents in the last ten months. At a press conference today, the winning driver, Michael Waltrip, said the accident was just that-- an accident.

MICHAEL WALTRIP: You know, he was just doing his job, and close racing sometimes makes contact happen. When contact happens, you hit the wall, and Shrader hit it and Shrader walked away, and Dale didn't. But I don't think anyone could have done anything differently in that situation to help Dale.

TERENCE SMITH: Outside the entrance to Daytona USA, fans of all ages placed flowers at a makeshift memorial...

FAN: I'm really sad because he was my best driver.

FAN: It was such a shock last night. I couldn't sleep at all. I woke up this morning thinking that we I thought we'd wake up and hear something different.

TERENCE SMITH: ...And flags flew at half-staff outside the speedway.

TERENCE SMITH: For more on Dale Earnhardt, we're joined by Csaba Csere, editor in chief of "Car and Driver" Magazine.

Welcome. Let me ask you: Tell us a little about Dale Earnhardt, the man, what he was like and what his loss represents to the sport.

CSABA CSERE: Well, Earnhardt was the absolute personification of Nascar. He was a southern boy from a blue-collar background. He was an incredibly fierce competitor on the track but a fun-loving guy off the track. He was an incredibly successful as a race driver. He was a money driver. With his 76 victories, he won seven Winston Cup championships. That's as many Winston Cup championships as Richard Petty won with 200 victories, so he could smell that checkered flag when it came up. He knew what he had to do to get the victory. That's what people loved about him.

TERENCE SMITH: And the nickname, "The Intimidator?"

CSABA CSERE: That nickname came from the fierce determination to win. You can win a race just by driving faster than the other guy or having the faster car, or you can kind of bull your way forward. The issue with Earnhardt was he wanted to see that checkered flag first. And when you saw Earnhardt in your mirrors, you knew that, (a), he just might pass you. But b, he might bump you or trade paint with you as they say in Nascar or push you aside. He wouldn't going to be kept behind you. That's why he was known as "The Intimidator."

TERENCE SMITH: And intimidated you were I guess. His was the fourth fatality in the last ten months in this sport, all head injuries. What does that say to you in terms of safety? Is there a safety issue here?

CSABA CSERE: Four of types of injuries in 12 months has to get Nascar's attention. I'm sure they're going to be looking at some possible safety devices that could possibly help out in this circumstance. But keep in mind some of this is just statistics. Nascar will have a number of fatalities like this -- and then they'll go years and years without any kind of fatality, and this may simply be a bad stretch in Nascar. But if I were running the organization, I would be looking at some safety devices now.

TERENCE SMITH: There was debate during the news conference this afternoon, in fact, about the so-called HANS devices, these Head And Neck Support devices. They really lock the driver in. Even though the doctor was not sure it would have saved Dale Earnhardt, is that something whose time has come?

CSABA CSERE: Well, it depends. It's very easy to look at this crash and say that that HANS device would have been helpful. In certain other crashes it may not help you. Keep in mind these cars really bear very little resemblance to the standard production car. For example, they don't have functioning doors. You crawl in - you kind of slither in through the driver's window. When you've got this thing that is locking your neck in place that's going to reduce your flexibility and if you crash and the car catches fire, it may make it more difficult for you to get out of the car and get away from the flames. So in certain circumstances, that may not be the best thing for you.

TERENCE SMITH: Other drivers were quoted today as saying that Nascar has changed some rules lately in order to make the... making the cars more stable, permitting even closer racing, permitting three cars abreast in some situations. Has this -- inadvertently I'm sure -- made it more dangerous?

CSABA CSERE: It's hard to say. Nascar has a history of dithering with the rules. They do it for three reasons. One is they do it to control speeds. In fact, these cars could go a lot faster than they were going, but the rules artificially slow them down for reasons of safety. In fact, this was the slowest Daytona 500 in 20 years.

TERENCE SMITH: The notion is if they went faster it would simply be too dangerous?

CSABA CSERE: Well, of course. The faster they go, the harder the impact if a driver loses control. Also keep in mind these cars are going at speeds above the take-off speed of a 747. You start going pretty fast and a car gets sideways and it just starts flying through the air. That's very dangerous. But the other aspect also is that they want there to be a lot of passing during the race because that's one of the key aspects of Nascar. These races don't turn into processions where the guy who starts the race in front leads the entire race like happens in Formula 1 all the time. In Nascar there's a lot of lead changes, and the rules are designed to keep the cars very close so there's opportunities for lead change. Finally, the rules are also moved around to keep the various car brands competitive. And all three of those probably factored into these rule changes but it's hard to see where they really had an adverse impact on safety.

TERENCE SMITH: Although close racing sounds ipso facto like dangerous racing.

CSABA CSERE: Well, it is but that's also where the skill comes in. Keep in mind these drivers are running around this bank circuit. They are going 185 miles per hour right at the knife edge of control. They're doing this in some cases inches apart from another car and they're also jockeying for position at the same time. That's where the skill comes in. That's what a guy like Earnhardt did so well. But when you do that, sometimes the cars are going to contact each other. And then you're going to have some pile-ups. In this very race about 25 laps from the end there was an enormous pile-up. One car got side ways in front of the big pack -- and ultimately 18 cars crashed on this. And there wasn't a serious injury in the bunch. So ordinarily these sorts of crashes occur but the drivers walk away from them.

TERENCE SMITH: What do you think will be the impact of his loss, Dale Earnhardt's loss, on the sport? For example when Michael Jordan retired from basketball, you know, the NBA came on some hard times, and they felt a really negative impact. Is that likely here?

CSABA CSERE: It's going to be interesting to see. Certainly he is the biggest name in Nascar, and his death is not going to help Nascar at all. In particular, Nascar's right on the cusp now of becoming a major national sport competing on an equal footing with the various ball-and-stick sports. TV ratings, however, were down a little bit last year even before this. And thisis kind of a make-or- break year for Nascar. On the other hand, car racing has seen tragedies like this in all forms of it. A few years ago Ayrton Senna, who was the best Formula 1 driver of his generation died in a crash. It didn't get F-1 racing. Race fans, much as they may hate to admit, are somewhat used to this happening in their sport. It's a part of motor racing.

TERENCE SMITH: Right but this was, as you say, a moment where a sport was on the threshold of moving into the mainstream. I wonder what you think -- if this will derail that.

CSABA CSERE: Well, it's very hard to say if it will or not. As I say it certainly doesn't help but there's an awful lot of other popular drivers in Nascar. The series is very, very strong now. They have a terrific schedule. They have factory participation from Dodge, from Ford, from Chevrolet. So, Nascar has everything going for it. I think it would be very premature to write off Nascar because of this tragedy.

TERENCE SMITH: I guess the interest is just tremendous. We said earlier the fastest growing sport in this country.

CSABA CSERE: Well, it is. It's because people's love affair with cars has been rekindled in the '90s. Part of it is the good economy. Fuel crises are beyond us. This is an interesting sport where the drivers and the stars are very accessible. That's one of the parts of Nascar and one of the reasons why a guy like Earnhardt was so popular that when these guys become the super stars of the sport, they don't isolate themselves from the fans. They make themselves accessible. They shake hands. They talk to them. They sign autographs. And the people love that.

TERENCE SMITH: So is there another Dale Earnhardt in the wings?

CSABA CSERE: Well, there's a number of drivers who could perhaps step forward, but it takes a certain amount of time. Earnhardt has been at the top of his game for 20 years and you don't build his kind of reputation overnight. I think we're going to have to wait certainly a couple of seasons to see if there's anyone who can come close to filling his shoes.

TERENCE SMITH: Csaba Csere, thank you very, very much.

FINALLY - MAKING MASTERPIECES

GWEN IFILL: Finally tonight, the art and craft of a violin maker. Senior producer Jeffrey Brown reports.

JEFFREY BROWN: Sam Zygmuntowicz has a thing for wood.

SAMUEL ZYGMUNTOWICZ: In a way, this is the most enjoyable part of the whole process, like playing... like playing with your toys.

JEFFREY BROWN: He scrapes it, gouges it, and sands it. He bends it, carves it, and colors it. Above all, he listens to it. (Violins playing) At 43, Zygmuntowicz is a leading maker of violins, violas, and cellos, part of what some see as a modern renaissance in a very old craft. After studies in Salt Lake City and work under master teachers in Chicago and New York, he opened his own business in Brooklyn in 1985. There, in an industrial warehouse building, he plies his decidedly pre-industrial trade, making instruments the old- fashioned way.

SAMUEL ZYGMUNTOWICZ: I'm not really sentimental about handwork or about craft, or really even about tradition per se. What's important about these things is they contain an element of great value which cannot be found somewhere else. It's taking something which has been refined over centuries and trying to refine it just a step further.

JEFFREY BROWN: In this shop, wood is something like fine wine. It's picked from European forests and aged for decades. Small pieces can cost hundreds of dollars, up to a thousand for the best.

SAMUEL ZYGMUNTOWICZ: You can start to get a sense of the wood already just by the sound that the plane makes going through it. It's very lively wood.

JEFFREY BROWN: Bosnian maple is used for violin backs; for the tops, spruce from the Italian Alps, prized for its lightweight strength, and resonant for a rich, lively sound.

SAMUEL ZYGMUNTOWICZ: You can even feel it just holding it in your hand. That's how easy it is to resonate.

JEFFREY BROWN: Zygmuntowicz patterns his instruments on classic old models, varying the thickness and curvature of the plates. Small variations give each instrument a unique sound.

SAMUEL ZYGMUNTOWICZ: I started out as a kid training to be an artist, and that's still a big part of how I feel when I'm really working with wood, when I'm shaping things and carving things, just trying to create the forms and taking the personal pleasure of creating an object.

JEFFREY BROWN: To get a hold of these objects, musicians are waiting two and a half years and paying $20,000 to $30,000. 24-year-old Nokothula Ngwenyama, known as Tula, grew up in Los Angeles. Today she's a rising soloist with a brand-new Zygmuntowicz viola.

NOKOTHULA NGWENYAMA: I think it's like when you meet somebody and you feel like you've met your soul mate or somebody that you just click, the chemistry is there. That's what I felt like with this instrument. I felt something going oomph! You know, it was alive.

JEFFREY BROWN: Tula's real-life mate is born-born violinist Ruggero Allifranchini, a member of the Borremeo string quartet, who bought his Zygmuntowicz two years ago. Both had been playing on fine older instruments on loan to them.

NOKOTHULA NGWENYAMA: I was using a viola that's made in 1750, a wonderful instrument, but, of course, out of my price range-- definitely over $250,000 at this point.

JEFFREY BROWN: Which you didn't have to spend.

NOKOTHULA NGWENYAMA: Which I didn't have and which I don't have. ( Laughs )

JEFFREY BROWN: For these young players, Zygmuntowicz offered the perfect solution.

RUGGERO ALLIFRANCHINI: Not only an instrument that just sounds very healthy and powerful, but something that, you know, with a personality.

JEFFREY BROWN: Reporter: You're Italian, great makers of the past were Italian. Did you ever think you'd be buying a violin from a fellow in Brooklyn?

RUGGERO ALLIFRANCHINI: No, actually since I was a kid, you know, you always grow up with this idea that the best instruments are Italian, you know. And a lot of people would rather sell their soul, you know, than play anything but an Italian instrument.

JEFFREY BROWN: Indeed, it's almost universally thought that the best instruments are Italian and very old. At New York's Metropolitan museum, curator Laurence Libin offered some history, even some violin pre-history.

LAURENCE LIBIN: The earliest bowed instruments seemed to come out of central Asia in ancient times. We have no idea how long ago. The nomads of central Asia depended on the horse for their existence, and they made stringed instruments in the shape of horses and using horse materials. It's not a coincidence that the strings and bow hairs are made of horse hair. We talk about the instrument having a body that has a belly and a back, it has a tail, it has a neck, it has a head.

JEFFREY BROWN: By the late Middle Ages, various kinds of fiddles were widespread in Europe. In the 1500s, professional craftsmen began to refine their work, creating the forms of today's violin, though their products retained a decidedly unrefined image.

LAURENCE LIBIN: Violins at first were not instruments of high status, and there are a lot of terms in our language that reflect this. We talk about fiddling around to waste time. Fiddle sticks is nonsense. To fiddle someone is to cheat someone.

JEFFREY BROWN: But in one town: Cremona, Italy, and in one relatively short period beginning in the late 17th century, violin making reached its heights.

LAURENCE LIBIN: This is the best of our three Stradivari violins, made in 1693.

JEFFREY BROWN: And instruments by Antonio Stradivarius and Guarneri del Gesu remain the gold standard to this day. Valued in the millions... .measured and studied meticulously by modern makers, even though a Stradivarius like this one has been much altered to survive through the centuries.

SAMUEL ZYGMUNTOWICZ: A Strad is, it's like the body of a '56 Chevy which has had the shocks changed, a new motor dropped in, new transmission, a stereo system installed. If it isn't working well, we can take it apart and redo it again. I feel quite intimate with Strad in a way. I've seen it in bits, taken apart in small pieces.

JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, one of his specialties is making copies of great instruments of the past, as a great musician of the present learned over the last several years.

ISAAC STERN: I'd heard of Sam Zygmuntowicz, tried one of his violins and found it extraordinarily easy to play. And I met him and learned also to what degree he had this extraordinary eye and capacity to literally copy your own violin.

JEFFREY BROWN: Isaac Stern's violins have included two famous Guarnari models made in the first half of the 18th century. One is named for violinist Eugene Ysaye; the other for Stern himself. When Stern wanted to let them get an occasional breather, he turned to Zygmuntowicz, and was pleased with the results.

ISAAC STERN: In this room, as we sit, if I took this violin and my Guarneri and did an a-b... ( Playing violin ) ...You'd find it difficult to tell the difference.

JEFFREY BROWN: Even top musicians can be fooled. Stern once used his copy in a rehearsal without telling his friends, all famous musicians, including cellist Yo Yo Ma.

ISAAC STERN: We were playing along, and I was amused because they didn't... And then they looked at the violin and said, "My God, that's clean. When did you have... It's gleaming new." Then they took a better look and realized that this is a copy of the Ysaye. But they had been watching it, listening to it for an hour, didn't notice anything.

JEFFREY BROWN: They couldn't tell the sound?

ISAAC STERN: No. Well, I'll tell you, there's one thing about sound. There was a story about Heifitz. Somebody came up and said, "oh, Mr. Heifitz, what a wonderful concert and the way that violin sounds, it's so wonderful. What a wonderful fiddle." And he went, "oh, really? Here, would you like to try it and see how it sounds?" ( Laughs )

JEFFREY BROWN: Ruggero Allifranchini had that very kind of experience when he got to try the violin once used by his hero, another of history's great players, Fritz Kreisler.

RUGGERO ALLIFRANCHINI: And I remember putting the bow on the string, and I was like, "ooh, how disappointing," you know. (Laughter ) not the sound of the violin. It's superb, it's a fantastic violin. Am I sounding like Kreisler? Not at all. Not even close.

JEFFREY BROWN: Reporter: Today, Allifranchini is happy playing his own violin and sounding like himself. And joined by Tula Ngwenyama, offering their favorite violin maker a Mozart and Zygmuntowicz duet. But can modern makers really equal or surpass the masters of the past? Isaac Stern says that when it comes to violins, only time can tell.

ISAAC STERN: With a great Stradivarius or Guarneri, the wood is still alive. That's the secret of those... That base... the base varnish and then the color varnish. It kept the wood alive, singing and vibrating to this day, and we're talking 250 years later.

JEFFREY BROWN: So the test for a Zygmuntowicz is the test of time.

ISAAC STERN: Exactly. So far, God bless him... ( Knocking on wood ) ...Knock on wood, it's stood up very well.

JEFFREY BROWN: In the meantime, as the sun sets in Brooklyn, there's time for some real fiddling around. ( Bluegrass music playing ) Zygmuntowicz the violin maker is also Zygmuntowicz the country fiddler, greatly enjoying the fruits of his labor.

SAMUEL ZYGMUNTOWICZ: Usually when I'm working on an instrument, it's... During every stage you have to be quite critical, like, well, is this thick enough? Is it thin enough here? It's too thin. How does that look? And it's this constant, sort of inquiring and critical state. But there's a certain point when it goes from being a project to where it's really... It comes together and you just say, "oh, wow, I did that." ( Bluegrass music playing )

RECAP

GWEN IFILL: Again, the major stories of this Monday: President Bush today dedicated a museum to victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. And riot troops moved to end the biggest prison uprising in Brazil's history. Earlier, the last of more than 7,000 hostages were released. We'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Gwen Ifill. Thank you and good night.