Motorsport is one of the most dangerous species sports in the world. And, at least Lately the organizers pay increased attention to the safety of the races, even at the expense of entertainment; athletes continue to die on the tracks.
Often, the participants in the tragedy are not only racers who participate in competitions at their own risk and are well aware of the price they will have to pay for a mistake, but also ordinary spectators who come to the stands to enjoy the racing. And despite all the horrors that, thanks to modern technology, gain hundreds of thousands and millions of views on YouTube, there are no fewer racers or those willing to listen “live” to the roar of powerful engines.
Some spectators, for example fans of the popular NASCAR racing series in the United States, are made fun of, believing that they come to the stands to see more accidents, fire, human casualties - just like the ancient Romans who visited the Colosseum. Well, every joke has some humor in it...
10. Accident near Tom
On Russia Day, June 12, a 46-year-old British participant in the Beijing-Paris vintage car rally, which takes place in 15 Russian regions, became a participant. A woman driving a Chevrolet 6 Tourer died as a result of a collision with an ordinary car that was not participating in the rally and was moving in the opposite direction - a Volkswagen Polo.
The accident occurred due to the fault of a “civilian” car. The Volkswagen driver jumped into oncoming traffic and was unable to avoid a collision. The driver and infant died in the accident. The child's mother, who was also in the car, was taken to intensive care. Due to the incident, rally participants will drive to the next checkpoint at minimum speed and without overtaking. The race will resume on Friday 14 June.
9. Maria de Vilotta's accident
One of the most notorious recent accidents in Russia occurred at the Duxford aviation test site. The only casualty was the reserve pilot. Russian team Formula 1 Marussia Maria de Villota.
The girl's car, which was participating in aerodynamic tests, was heading towards the service area at low speed when it collided with the platform of a truck parked nearby. According to witnesses, the car suddenly accelerated and crashed into a stationary car.
For half an hour, while the girl was removed from the cockpit, she showed no signs of life. Maria came to her senses only in the hospital and was even able to make a phone call, but then her condition worsened and the doctors were forced to put her into an artificial coma and perform surgery. As a result of the accident, the girl lost an eye. She was no longer able to continue her career as an F1 pilot and was forced to become a commentator on Spanish television.
8. Jochen Rindt
In early September 1970, one of the best Austrian racers, 28-year-old, died in a fatal accident. Jochen Rindt. A couple of months after the tragedy, Rindt was posthumously declared Formula 1 champion - before his death, Jochen managed to score so many points that no one managed to get ahead of the Austrian. Rindt is the only posthumous holder of the title.
During Saturday practice for the Italian Grand Prix, Rindt's Lotus was thrown off the line while braking for the fast and difficult Parabolica corner and thrown into the bump stop. The car fell under the barriers and crashed straight into the barrier post - the toughest part of the structure.
The cause of the athlete's death was the seat belt - the buckle slipped from its position due to the impact and squeezed the driver's throat. Rindt had long refused to wear a seat belt, claiming that it hampered his movements and reactions during performances.
7. Greg Moore
In October 1999, the death of a 24-year-old Greg Moore at the final stage of the CART series, the American analogue of Formula 1, in Fontana shocked the entire US motorsports community - Moore was a rising superstar of local racing and a favorite of the public, and the tragedy with new strength raised a debate about motorsports safety.
At one of the early restarts, Moore's car spun at the exit of the turn, after which the out-of-control car flew off to the side of the road at a speed of over 320 km/h and overturned. The machine made several revolutions around its axis and enormous speed crashed into the fence on the inside of the track. The racer received severe injuries head and neck, as well as countless internal injuries. A few hours later, doctors diagnosed the pilot's death.
Moore was considered one of the most brilliant and fearless pilots of his generation. He started winning races in his second season with CART. In 1999, a few weeks before his death, Greg's contract with the team was announced Penske, one of the grandees of the championship, and it seemed that the pilot’s career would reach a fundamentally new level.
6. Dan Weldon
Death Dan Weldon in October 2011, there was another shock for the world of motorsports - during the IndyCar stage at the track in Las Vegas, one of the best racers on the planet, who had won championship titles and the most prestigious races, crashed in an accident.
The incident occurred on the 11th lap of the race on the oval track. Due to the slight difference in the speed of the cars, two and a half dozen riders walked in a dense group. The contact between two cars at a speed of about 330-340 km/h led to a blockage involving 15 cars, many of which simply did not have time to change direction. After a collision with one of the competitors, Wheldon’s car flew about a hundred meters above the track and, turning over in the air, crashed into the fencing net. The force of the impact destroyed the protective structures of the car, and the damaged safety arch could not prevent the pilot from hitting his head on the bump stop.
Dan Wheldon became the IndyCar champion in 2005, after which he changed teams, where his results began to decline. Subsequently, Dan had to spend two years in a mediocre team, but in 2011 the Englishman made his mark again, winning the most prestigious American race, the Indianapolis 500, for the second time in his career. After this triumph, he signed a contract with Wheldon for 2012 Michael Andretti, in whose team Dan previously became a champion.
5. Dale Earnhardt Sr.
The news of the accident spreads throughout the world and goes down in the history of motorsport for two reasons: either many people died as a result of the collision, or one, but legendary, died.
The latter happened on February 18, 2001, during one of the most prestigious and popular races in the United States - the Daytona 500. On this day, perhaps the most legendary American racer passed away at the age of 49 Dale Earnhardt Sr.. The entire article is not enough to list all his titles. There could have been more if not for the unfortunate collision on the last of the five hundred laps of the race.
After making contact with an opponent's car, Dale's car lost control and crashed into a concrete barrier at full speed. From the outside, the collision did not seem so serious, but by the end of the day, doctors at the hospital to which the legendary racer was urgently taken pronounced him dead.
4. Wolfgang von Trips
The worst accident in the history of Formula 1 occurred on September 10, 1961 on the second lap of the legendary track in Monza, Italy.
The driver who was the leader in the championship at that time became the victim of the accident. Ferrari graph Wolfgang von Trips. The pilot of the red car took the lives of 14 spectators with him to the next world. His car flew into the stands at the very beginning of the race after a collision with a car from the British stable. Lotus.
3. Gilles Villeneuve
Not the bloodiest, but one of the most memorable accidents for spectators occurred with a Canadian Formula 1 racer Gilles Villeneuve.
The tragedy occurred on May 8, 1982 during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at the Zolder circuit. After contact with the opponent's car, Villeneuve's car turned over several times in the air and crashed onto the track. The pilot himself flew out of the car for unknown reasons. Doctors found his body near the bump stop, where they tried to provide emergency assistance. Gilles was urgently taken to the hospital, but doctors determined that a spinal fracture was incompatible with life.
To the son of Gilles, Jacques Villeneuve at that moment I was 11 years old. And just seven years later he began his professional career driver in Italian Formula 3, seven years later Jacques became second in the overall Formula 1 standings, and in 1997 he won the world championship in “royal” racing, dedicating the victory to his father.
2. Pierre Levegh
Accident involving a French driver Pierre Levegh It is considered the bloodiest in the history of all motor sports. The tragedy occurred in 1955 during the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race, which Levegh had been trying to win since 1938.
And so, already a veteran, he received an invitation from one of the strongest teams of that time - Mercedes. As a result, instead of triumph, tragedy occurred. Levegh's car, moving at full speed, collided with a car that had braked in front and, due to the special structure of the body, flew into the air. Everything would have worked out fine if the car had landed on the highway or on the side of the road. But the flat car flew into the stands located too close to the track.
Having fallen on the spectators, the car, the body of which contained large quantities of magnesium, ignited. As a result, another 86 spectators died along with the driver himself, and the Mercedes factory team stopped participating in the legendary race for a long 32 years, returning to the Le Mans circuit only in 1987.
1. Ayrton Senna
The same famous accident in the history of motorsport it has claimed the life of only one person, but which one. On May 1, 1994, he died on the seventh lap of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in San Marino. three-time champion world brazilian Ayrton Senna.
The day before the race, another pilot, an Austrian, died in qualifying Roland Ratzenberger. But it was decided to go ahead with the race anyway. Already on the second lap, as a result of a collision between other pilots, it became necessary to release a safety car onto the track, which reduced the speed of the pilots, in order to allow the track services to remove the wreckage of the cars scattered on the road surface.
The race continued on the sixth lap, and already on the seventh, Ayrton's car flew off the track at full speed, ramming the barriers. The race was suspended, and Senna's body, showing no signs of life, was transported by helicopter to the hospital. At the hospital it turned out that Senna was already brain dead and there was no chance of emerging from the coma. The decision was made to disconnect his body from the means that artificially supported his life.
This accident remains the most famous also because until now there are too many unknowns in the whole story. The main mystery is the cause of the accident. According to one version, the overheated tires could not stand it, according to another, the car’s control systems failed, according to the third, the pilot could not withstand the stress and fainted.
It is also unknown when Senna’s death occurred, on the highway, on the way to the hospital, or already in the hospital. Everyone agrees on only one thing - the cause of death, which was caused by a blow to the head from a wheel with the fastening elements to the body torn out. It was they who pierced Senna’s helmet and caused his death.
On April 16, 1945, exactly 117 years after the death of Francisco Goya, the ship Goya was sunk by a torpedo attack by a Soviet submarine. This disaster, which claimed 7,000 lives, became the largest shipwreck in world history.
The Goya was a Norwegian cargo ship requisitioned by the Germans. On April 16, 1945, things went wrong in the morning. A gloomy omen of the coming disaster was the bombardment to which the ship was subjected. Despite the defense, during the fourth raid a shell still hit the bow of the Goya. Several people were injured, but the ship remained afloat and they decided not to cancel the flight.
For Goya, this was the fifth evacuation flight from the advancing units of the Red Army. During four previous campaigns, almost 20,000 refugees, wounded and soldiers were evacuated. Goya set off on its last voyage loaded to capacity. Passengers were in the passages, on the stairs, in the holds. Not everyone had documents, so the exact number of passengers has not yet been established, from 6000 to 7000. They all believed that the war was over for them, they made plans and were full of hope...
The ships (Goya was accompanied by a convoy) were already at sea when at 22:30 surveillance noticed an unidentified silhouette on the right side. Everyone was ordered to put on their resident lifeguards. There were only 1,500 of them on board the Goya. In addition, one of the ships of the group, the Kronenfels, suffered a breakdown in the engine room. While waiting for the completion of repair work, the ships began to drift. An hour later the ships continued their journey. At 23:45, Goya shuddered from a powerful torpedo attack. The Soviet submarine L-3, which was following the ships, began to operate. Panic began at Goya. Jochen Hannema, a German tankman who became one of the few survivors, recalled: “Water rushed noisily from the huge holes created by the torpedoes. The ship broke into two parts and began to sink rapidly. All that was heard was the eerie roar of a huge mass of water.” The huge ship, devoid of partitions, sank in just 20 minutes. Only 178 people survived.
"Wilhelm Gustlow"
On January 30, 1945, at 21:15, the S-13 submarine discovered in the Baltic waters the German transport "Wilhelm Gustlow", accompanied by an escort, on board which, according to modern estimates, was over 10 thousand people, most of whom were refugees from East Prussia : old people, children, women. But there were also German submarine cadets, crew members and other military personnel on the Gustlov. Submarine captain Alexander Marinesko began the hunt. For almost three hours, the Soviet submarine followed the giant transport ship (the displacement of the Gustlov was over 25 thousand tons. For comparison, the steamship Titanic and the battleship Bismarck had a displacement of about 50 thousand tons). Having chosen the moment, Marinesko attacked the Gustlov with three torpedoes, each of which hit the target. The fourth torpedo with the inscription “For Stalin” got stuck. The submariners miraculously managed to avoid an explosion on the boat. [ While escaping the pursuit of a German military escort, the C-13 was bombed by over 200 depth charges.
The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlov is considered one of major disasters in maritime history. According to official data, 5,348 people died in it; according to some historians, real losses could exceed 9,000.
They were called "Ships of Hell." These were Japanese merchant ships used to transport prisoners of war and workers (actually slaves, who were called "romushi") to Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. The “ships of hell” were not officially part of the Japanese navy and had no identification marks, but the Allied forces sank them no less violently. In total, 9 “Ships of Hell” were sunk during the war, on which almost 25 thousand people died.
It is worth saying that the British and Americans could not help but know about the “cargo” that was transported on the ships, since the Japanese codes were deciphered.
The largest disaster occurred on September 18, 1944. The British submarine Tradewind torpedoed the Japanese ship Junyo Maru. Among the rescue equipment on the ship, filled to capacity with prisoners of war, there were two lifeboats and several rafts. On board were 4.2 thousand workers, 2.3 thousand prisoners of war, Americans, Australians, British, Dutch and Indonesians.
The conditions in which slaves had to survive on ships were simply terrifying. Many went crazy and died from exhaustion and stuffiness. When the torpedoed ship began to sink, the captives of the ship had no chance of salvation. The boats accompanying the “ship of hell” brought on board only the Japanese and a small part of the prisoners. In total, 680 prisoners of war and 200 romushi remained alive.
"Armenia"
The cargo-passenger ship "Armenia" was built in Leningrad and was used on the Odessa - Batumi line. During the Great Patriotic War in August 1941, "Armenia" was converted into a medical transport ship. The side and deck began to be “decorated” with large red crosses, which, in theory, were supposed to protect the ship from attacks, but...
During the defense of Odessa, "Armenia" made 15 flights to the besieged city, from where more than 16 thousand people were taken on board. The last voyage of the “Armenia” was a trip from Sevastopol to Tuapse in November 1941. On November 6, having taken on board the wounded, almost the entire medical personnel of the Black Sea Fleet and civilians, the Armenia left Sevastopol.
At night the ship arrived in Yalta. The captain of the "Armenia" was forbidden to make the transition to Tuapse during daylight hours, but the military situation dictated otherwise. The port of Yalta did not have cover to protect against German air raids, and there were already German troops on the near approaches to the city. And there was practically no choice left...
At 8 o'clock in the morning on November 7, "Armenia" left Yalta and headed for Tuapse. At 11:25 the ship was attacked by a German torpedo bomber He-111 and sank less than 5 minutes after the torpedo hit the bow. Together with “Armenia”, from 4,000 to 7,500 people died, and only eight managed to escape. The causes of this terrible tragedy are still controversial.
"Dona Paz"
The sinking of the Dona Paz ferry is the largest shipwreck that occurred in peacetime. This tragedy became a cruel lesson exposing greed, unprofessionalism and sloppiness. The sea, as you know, does not forgive mistakes, and in the case of “Danya Paz” mistakes followed one after another. The ferry was built in Japan in 1963. At that time it was called "Himeuri Maru". In 1975, it was profitably sold to the Philippines. Since then, he has been exploited even more than mercilessly. Designed to carry a maximum of 608 passengers, it was usually packed to capacity, accommodating between 1,500 and 4,500 people.
Twice a week the ferry carried out passenger transportation on the route Manila - Tacloban - Catbalogan - Manila - Catbalogan - Tacloban - Manila. On December 20, 1987, the Doña Paz set sail on its last voyage from Tacloban to Manila. This flight was packed with maximum passengers - Filipinos were rushing to the capital for the New Year.
At ten in the evening of the same day, the ferry collided with the huge tanker Vector. The collision literally broke both ships in half, and thousands of tons of oil spilled across the ocean. The explosion caused a fire. The chances of salvation were reduced to almost zero. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the ocean at the site of the tragedy was swarming with sharks.
One of the survivors, Paquito Osabel, later recalled: “Neither the sailors nor the officers of the ship reacted in any way to what was happening. Everyone demanded life jackets and a lifeboat, but there were none. The cabinets in which the vests were stored were locked, and the keys could not be found. The boats were thrown into the water just like that, without any preparation. Panic, confusion, chaos reigned."
The rescue operation began only eight hours after the tragedy. 26 people were caught from the sea. 24 are passengers of the Donya Paz, two are sailors from the tanker Vector. Official statistics, which cannot be trusted, indicate the death of 1,583 people. More objective, independent experts claim that 4,341 people died in the disaster.
"Cap Arcona"
Cap Arcona was one of the largest passenger ships in Germany, with a displacement of 27,561 tons. Having survived almost the entire war, the Cap Arcona perished after the capture of Berlin by the Allied forces, when on May 3, 1945, the liner was sunk by British bombers.
Benjamin Jacobs, one of the prisoners who were at Cap Arcona, wrote in the book “The Dentist of Auschwitz”: “Suddenly airplanes appeared. We could clearly see their identification marks. “These are the British!” Look, we are KaTsetniks! We are prisoners of concentration camps!” we shouted and waved our hands at them. We waved our striped camp caps and pointed to our striped clothes, but there was no compassion for us. The British began to throw napalm at the shaking and burning Cap Arcona. On the next approach, the planes descended, now they were at a distance of 15 m from the deck, we clearly saw the pilot’s face and thought that we had nothing to fear. But then bombs fell from the belly of the plane... Some fell on the deck, others into the water... They shot at us and those who jumped into the water from machine guns. The water around the drowning bodies turned red.”
Aboard the blazing Cap Arcona, more than 4,000 prisoners were burned alive or suffocated by smoke. Some prisoners managed to escape and jump into the sea. Those who managed to avoid the sharks were picked up by trawlers. 350 prisoners, many of whom suffered from burns, managed to escape before the liner capsized. They swam ashore, but became victims of the SS men. A total of 5,594 people died on Cap Arcona.
"Lancasteria"
Western historiography prefers to remain silent about the tragedy that occurred on June 17, 1940. Moreover, a veil of oblivion covered this terrible catastrophe on the day it happened. This is due to the fact that on the same day France capitulated to Nazi troops, and Winston Churchill decided not to report anything about the sinking of the ship, as this could break the morale of the British. This is not surprising: the Lancastrian disaster was the largest mass death of the British during the Second World War, the number of victims exceeded the sum of the victims of the sinking of the Titanic and Luisitania.
The Lancastria liner was built in 1920 and was used as a military vessel after the outbreak of World War II. On June 17, he evacuated troops from Norway. A German Junkers 88 bomber spotted the ship and began bombing. The liner was hit by 10 bombs. According to official figures, there were 4,500 soldiers and 200 crew on board. About 700 people were saved. According to unofficial data published in Brian Crabb's book about the disaster, it is said that the number of victims is deliberately downplayed.
The tragedy occurred on final stage prestigious IndyCar series, Kommersant.Ukraine reports. 15 cars were damaged. The famous American pilot Dan Weldon died in the crash.
On the 12th lap of the race, 15 cars collided on the oval track in Las Vegas. The pilots who found themselves in the thick of events later said that they had never seen anything more terrible in their lives: the entire highway was strewn with debris, some cars caught fire.
Dan Weldon was riding slightly behind. And it was precisely this circumstance that became fatal for him. Trying to brake at enormous speed (in IndyCar it exceeds 300 km/h, and the Las Vegas track is one of the fastest), he ran into the wheel of the car in front. Weldon's car went airborne and crashed into a guardrail.
The athlete received medical assistance right at the stadium and was then sent to the hospital. The race was stopped, and two hours later it was announced to the drivers and spectators, who still had not left the arena, that Wheldon had died due to non-life-threatening injuries.
Briton Dan Wheldon was an IndyCar star. He moved to this series in 2002 and achieved great success. He won the championship in 2005 and won the iconic Indianapolis 500 twice, including this season. His death is the first in IndyCar since 2006, when Paul Dana crashed during free practice in Florida.
Reference : IndyCar is the American equivalent of Formula 1. For a long time these races were almost equal to her in status.
photo: inquisitr.com, lvrj.com, espn.go.com
Catastrophe
One of the worst and largest disasters in the history of motorsports occurred in Las Vegas. During final stage In the IndyCar Series, a total of 15 cars were damaged, some very seriously. And the famous pilot Dan Weldon, whose car crashed into a barrier at full speed, died.
The accident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which occurred on the night of Sunday to Monday Moscow time, was yesterday the central story of many American television channels. There is nothing surprising. Disasters like the one in Las Vegas last years no one was able to observe.
Pilot Ryan Briscoe, who took part in this race, speaking about his feelings, said that it was as if he was in a scene from the movie “Terminator”: “There are pieces of metal, some debris, fire all around...” And Danica Patrick, a woman who has been performing for a long time in the IndyCar championship on an equal basis with men, she admitted that she had never been as scared as at the moment when the tragic events occurred in her life.
They happened when 11 laps of this race were left behind, that is, just a few minutes after the start. However, many had premonitions that it could end badly long before him. The fact is that during free practice the cars on the oval in Las Vegas developed some monstrous speeds - more than 350 km/h. And concerns have been raised that such a fast track could pose a safety risk.
But, of course, no one would cancel it - too much was at stake for IndyCar in the race. Once upon a time, this American series competed in status and popularity with Formula 1 - essentially its own analogue. However, IndyCar's ratings have dropped recently. The executive director of the series, Randy Bernard, did not even rule out the possibility of resigning: the board of directors had serious complaints against him.
The final stage of the season should have corrected the situation. At least he promised a spectacular fight: the track is super-fast, two pilots are fighting for the title - Dario Franchitti and Will Power. And an additional intrigue was to be provided by a bonus of $5 million. The organizers appointed such a reward to the driver who, without having a permanent place in any team during the season, would risk entering the race and win it.
Actually, it was because of the bonus that Dan Weldon found himself on the track. This season he was unable to find a job in any team. The Andretti Autosport stable planned to sign a full-fledged contract with him immediately after the end of the stage, and on Sunday they were counting on a good performance by the driver in Las Vegas.
There really were reasons to count on him. 33-year-old Briton Dan Weldon, who had been living in America for more than ten years, was considered a star. In 2005, he won the championship title and won 16 stages of the series during his career. Two of them are the legendary Indianapolis 500, a cult race in motorsports. He won it for the first time in 2005, the second time - this spring... Before the race, he himself stated that he hoped to come first: if only, starting behind the championship leaders, he could reach them and grab their tail.
He was almost there when the car in front of him, driven by Wade Cunningham, made contact with J.R. Hildebrand's car. Indycar racing differs in principle from formula racing in the toughness and intensity of the competition. But the consequences of this contact were somehow unique in their destructiveness.
Hildebrand's car overturned, Cunningham's car crashed into a bump stop. And those who were driving behind could no longer dodge. The next five seconds turned into seconds of pure hell. Power miraculously survived crashing into the fence: he could well have been killed by his own wheel, which, having fallen off, almost destroyed the cockpit. Pippa Mann was also on the verge of death, but got off easily: together with Hildebrand, he was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Only Dan Weldon was unlucky. He ran into rear wheel Paul Tracy's car. The Briton's car was thrown up as if on a springboard, and it slammed into the fence with all its might, instantly turning into a pile of debris blazing with fire.
The ambulance appeared on the highway quickly. Weldon was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital. The race was canceled, but no one left the arena. Two hours later, the pilots and spectators were told the tragic news: Weldon did not survive.
American experts do not rule out that his death will entail changes in the IndyCar regulations - similar to those that resulted in the Formula 1 tragedy in 1994: then, within the same racing weekend in San Marino, Roland Ratzenberger and the great Ayrton Senna crashed to death. The number of victims of Formula 1 after that reached 43 people, and the teams tightened security measures to the detriment of entertainment. As a result, no fatal accidents have occurred since then.
IndyCar, despite its seemingly harsher format, has long been considered a relatively safe series. The list of pilots killed in it now includes four people. However, all these tragedies took place within the past 15 years. Scott Brayton died in 1996, Tony Renna in 2003, and Paul Dana in 2006.
Alexey Dospehov
The twenty-four hour race at Le Mans (24 Heures du Mans) rightfully has two well-deserved titles - firstly, it is the oldest endurance auto race, which has been held annually since 1923, and secondly, in 1955, during the race, the most The biggest car accident in motorsport history, which killed 84 people (including one of the drivers) and seriously injured another 120 people.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans race began on June 11, 1955. The competition between teams such as Mercedes, Jaguar, Aston Martin was extremely intense, and almost from the very beginning of the race many existing Le Mans lap records for time and speed were broken. By the end of lap 35, Pierre Levegh, driving the number 20 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, along with Lance Macklin's Austin-Healey 100, which was slightly to the right, were hot on the heels of Mike's Jaguar D-type Hawthorn (Mike Hawthorn), approaching the pit stop. Mike belatedly saw the signal from the pit stop about refueling, and quickly began to brake and taxi to the pit stop, deciding not to make another lap. Since the Jaguar had disc brakes (a new feature at the time), he slowed much faster than the rest of the race, and his maneuvers forced Lance McLean, who was following almost closely behind him, to slam on the brakes, throwing out a small cloud of dust from under the wheels , and steer left, avoiding a collision. At the same time, he completely forgot about Pierre Leve, who was driving behind him in a Mercedes, who had no time to react, and who hit the Austin-Healey in the left rear fender at a speed of approximately 240 km/h. As a result of the impact at such high speed, the Mercedes rose into the air and, instantly overcoming the track barriers, flew into the crowd of spectators, crushing everything in its path.
Due to the enormous speed of the collision, the Mercedes literally broke into pieces after hitting the fences of the spectator stands, which resulted in so many casualties. The engine, hood, and front axle separated from the frame and flew across the stands, knocking down spectators along the way. The pilot was also thrown from the car and died from hitting his head on the grandstand upon landing. Interestingly, at that time, racing cars were not equipped with seat belts, as the common belief among racers was that it was better to be thrown out of the car than to be burned in it or to be crushed while strapped to the seat. However, it is unlikely that the belts would have helped Pierre Leve: after landing, the remains of the Mercedes body caught fire due to a burst gas tank, and, given that the body itself was made of a special light magnesium alloy, this caused fiery flashes that scattered onto the track and into the surrounding stands, adding new victims. In addition, eyewitnesses tried to extinguish the fire with water, adding intensity to the burning of the magnesium body, and as a result the fire lasted for several hours.
After the collision, Lance McLean's Austin-Healey 100 car flew off into the wall farthest from the stands and ricocheted back across the entire track towards the fences of the spectators, crushing one of them along the way. Lance himself was practically unharmed.
As a result of the accident, 84 people died, including one racer, Pierre Leve, and more than 120 spectators were seriously injured. This incident went down in history as the deadliest accident ever. the largest number victims throughout the history of motorsport.
They decided not to stop the race so that the leaving spectators would not interfere with the movement of ambulances and firefighters and would not block the road to the city. At midnight, at the request of John Fitch, the co-pilot who was supposed to replace Pierre Leve, the Mercedes team held an urgent meeting of the board of directors, at which it was decided to end the race early as a sign of respect for the victims of the incident. Eight hours after the accident, the two remaining Mercedes crews - Juan Manuel Fangio / Stirling Moss and Karl Kling / Andre Simon - were withdrawn from racing, despite the fact that the team was in the lead. The team directors also offered to leave the race for the Jaguar team, but they refused. As a result, the Jaguar team and its drivers Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb became the winner of the 1955 24-hour Le Mans race.
The next day, a funeral took place in Le Mans for all those killed. At the same time, the Jaguar team racers celebrated their victory. The French press, although they covered this event, treated the Jaguar team with slight contempt, believing that Mike Hawthorne's Jaguar D-type was the culprit of the tragedy. However, an official commission ruled that the jaguar was not the culprit and placed the blame squarely on insufficient safety measures for spectators at the track. This was the impetus for the closure and refurbishment of not only the Le Mans track, but also many others in France, Spain, Germany and other countries. In Switzerland, there is still a ban on racing in which cars can approach each other side by side (i.e., in fact, racing is prohibited at all).
In 1955, only two more races were held - the RAC Tourist Trophy in England and the Italian Targa Florio, with the Mercedes team leading the way. After these two competitions, Mercedes announced that they were leaving motorsports for an indefinite period and would focus on developing passenger cars for the public. The Jaguar team decided the same thing a little later.
John Fitch retired from racing after the incident and became actively involved in improving the safety of drivers and spectators at race tracks. On his initiative, all the pit stops on the Le Mans circuit were redone.
Cars involved in the accident
Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR
The 300 SLR was a successor to the 1955 Mercedes-Benz W196 racing car that competed in the Formula 1 class. For the first time, a body made of a specially developed magnesium alloy (called Elektron) was installed on it, which significantly reduced the weight of the car to 880 kg. The engine installed on it was eight-cylinder, with a volume of 2,981 cc and a power of 310 hp. It was installed longitudinally, and in order to improve the aerodynamic properties of the car, it was rotated 33 degrees relative to the chassis and protruded slightly beyond the hood space, for which a special bulge was made on the hood on the passenger side. The brakes on the 300 SLR were drum type.
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR won the 1955 Mille Miglia and the World Sportscar Championship, as well as several races at the Nürburgring (Germany) and Christianstadt (Sweden). Despite these victories, after the 1955 Le Mans incident, the SLR 300 (and the Mercedes team in general) was discontinued from racing. Stirling Moss, winner of the 1955 Mille Miglia and Le Mans racer, praised the Mercedes 300 SLR as "the finest racing car ever built."
The D-Type was produced from 1954 to 1957. The supporting body was made of aluminum and was designed based on aviation concepts of aerodynamics of that time. The engine is an in-line six-cylinder, with a volume of 3.4 (3.8 on the 1957 version) liters. The D-Type won the Le Mans 24-hour race back-to-back in '55, '56 and '57.
Only 87 Jaguar D-Types were produced. The first example off the production line (XKD-509) was sold at auction in 2008 for £2,200,000.
Austin-Healey 100s
In 1952, Donald Healey built an experimental example called the Healey Hundred for the 1952 London Motor Show, and it so impressed Leonard Lord, then director of Austin (who was in the process of looking for a replacement for the unpopular Austin A90), that he He immediately made a deal with Healey to produce a new car, which they decided to call the Austin-Healey 100.
The Austin-Healey 100 was produced from 1953 to 1956. The 100s, like the Jaguar, had an aluminum body and disc brakes on all wheels. Engine power was 132 hp. Only 50 Austin-Healey 100s were produced.
Austin-Healey 100s number 26 - 1955 Le Mans - The same car that was number 26 at the 1955 Le Mans was sold at auction in 2011 for £843,000.
Now on the Le Mans circuit at the scene of the accident hangs a memorial plaque with the date of the crash - June 11, 1955.
