Watched this last night, I had never heard about this accident before, amazing how racing used to be, the crowds were so close to the track and the pits for the Le Mans 24h race were on the main start finish straight, you just had to pull over to the right and park up, no pit wall to protect you from passing cars which could pass at anything from 120mph upwards!!
“Documentary examining what caused Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes to crash into the crowd during the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour race, killing 83 people and injuring a further 120 - an incident that remains the worst accident in the history of motor racing. Among the theories discussed are the use of untested technologies by the car’s manufacturers, the addition of a lethal fuel additive, and possible reckless driving by the race’s eventual winner - future Formula One world champion Mike Hawthorn.”
we watched this last night - it was awful what happened all those people decapitated (cant spell) must have been awful to have been there and seen it, I didn’t know about that accident until last night.
It was very sad to see the before and after snaps of the people at the edge of the barriers watching what would have been a thrilling race, one minute they were watching standing on tables and all sorts and the next minute the were on the floor badly injured or worse :crying: very sad indeed, must have been awful to be there and witness that.
Still can’t believe they let the race carry on with all that going on but I suppose I can see why, they explained that if they had ended the race they would have had trouble getting abulances to the scene with all the other spectators trying to get out, just seemed like bad taste at the end of the race with the winners smilling on the podium after so many people lost their lives
Looking at the pictures I would say that the car that pulled out from behind the car slowing for the pits was ultimately to blame, it looked like he pulled out far more than he needed to but then I suppose that is the risk of motor racing!
it was a couple of brit drivers , Mike Hawthorn in the Jaguar braking hard for the pits and Lance Macklin in the Austin Healey swerving to avoid him , frenchman Pierre Levegh was driving the airborne Merc - i read all about it in Stirling Moss`s biography - good read
Think one person on the documentary even implied that it was Pierre Levegh’s fault, their reason for saying this was that he was an older driver, in his 50’s I beleive and they said he wasn’t able to handle the cars power properly and his reactions were too slow! Can’t see that myself, it would have taken a miracle to avoid Macklin’s car!!
Different world back then, in the '50s (not that I was there… much). The LeMans accident was only 10 years after WW2 and 2 years after the Korean war, so people were still kind of used to the idea of large numbers of people dying in misfortunes. Farnborough airshow, 1952, 31 killed when a jet broke up in mid-air and hit the crowd, the show carried on for the same reasons (keeping the roads clear for ambulances); that was the start of keeping the displays away from the spectators. In the same vein, check out the peacetime losses of RAF aircraft - 145 Gloster Meteor pilots died in 1953 alone, mostly during training flights when trying to land on one engine (apparently it was a sod to control when “asymmetric”, but that was part of the training until banned at the end of the '50s). Another road race, the Mille Miglia, was ceased after a Ferrari killed 9 spectators in the 1957 race. And so on.
Nowadays we’re all wrapped in cotton-wool, which some feel rather over-weening. Why haven’t wars been stopped on health and safety grounds?
There is book about the crash “Death race 1955” or something close. In it Levegh is reported as telling people he was terrified of the speed of the cars. In a previous Le Mans race he was so determined to win that he refused to get out of the car to let his co-driver race, he missed a gearchange after racing for over 23 hours and blew the engine. Obviously that could never happen now but as has been said they were very different times
