These races took place at night too. with barely any visibility other than their car's headlights. So they reached 273KP/H or more with limited vision. in a track, with insane bends and turns.
This is one of the best summaries of the '55 LeMans disaster I've seen; Well done. As a former volunteer track worker who has researched this a lot, there are a few things I'd like to add: 1. There was no separate pit lane, unlike today. Pit lane was just the far side of the track surface with nothing to separate it from the racing cars. That's why Hawthorn pitting trigger such mayhem--he was going full racing speed, with Macklin close behind him, and then stomped on the brakes at the last minute & pulled over. 2. The Jaguars were the *only* cars with disc brakes; all others, including the Mercedes 300SLRs of Levegh & Fangio, had only drum brakes. Jaguar was the first to develop them, based on similar systems used on aircraft, and this was the first time cars with disc brakes were raced. So the Jags could stop in a much shorter distance than any other car on the track, which is why Macklin had to swerve out of the way when Hawthorn braked; his only other option was to plow his Austin-Healy into the back of the Hawthorn's Jag. 3. At this time, there was no such thing as a safety culture in racing. At all. Be it drivers or spectators or track workers, the attitude was that if you were stupid enough to go to a race (an inherently dangerous activity), if something went wrong, you got what you deserved. After the disaster, safety for the spectators was improved, but not for the drivers. That wouldn't start until the late '60s/early '70s, when drivers like Sir Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi started making a fuss about it. And it took until the early/mid 1980s for actual medical treatment of racing injuries because a thing, again thanks to people like Sid Watson in F1 and Drs. Steve Olvey and Terry Trammell in Indycar(CART). LeMans '55 was and still is a major impetus for drastic change in racing, to the point that racing is still illegal in Switzerland to this day. A curious footnote to the whole situation was Mike Hawthorn's death a few years later in 1959. He was supposedly racing a friend, team manager Rob Walker, and lost control of his Jaguar 3.4 Mk 1. Walker was driving a Mercedes 300 SL (gullwing), the street counterpart to the 300 SLR racecar Levegh & Fangio were driving at LeMans in '55.
@@MikeSmith-bn1qr I bet you are not in the majority, that's for sure. Even today with all the safety implementations there are still hundreds of possibilities that a freak accident can happen and all the safety in the world can't help matters, like what happened to Antoine Hubert. But if something is preventable then there is no reason why we should not prevent it. And there are still events today that are really dangerous, like the Isle of Man TT, Pikes Peak hillclimb, Rally Dakar and many more.
@@MikeSmith-bn1qr No, you have a fairly common, popular opinion. When taken to the extreme, a surprising number of folx will actually try to prevent their community from spending any time/money preventing the death & suffering if they think the “most likely” victims “deserved it”. To be frank, I think it’s a bit narrow-minded & cynical; taking personal feelings out of the matter entirely, though, it’s still shortsighted. No, racing isn’t super safe, & yes, drivers should be aware they’re risking their lives every time they get on a track (even w/ today’s safety advancements) - but those advancements aren’t just for the driver, is it? It’s for the driver’s team (& anyone in the immediate vacimity), the stadium around them (though crashes are less likely to cause major issues for spectators nowadays, it’s still a possibility), &, Hell, the well-being of their children & partners (considering how crushing of a mental toll a loved one’s injuries/death inherently are), etc. Not only that, but major leaps in racing safety can potentially translate to improved safety for all other vehicles, incl. any of the ones you might use.
Thank you for the deeper insight here msnovtue, this was very informative! I’m glad things have started improving - that it took til the ~70s for such a major shift is just downright nuts.
Refusing to call off the race in order to keep the surrounding roads clear for emergency vehicles actually seems like a smart call. Callous, but smart.
I agree 100%. I obviously was not there, but it seems to me like that was the best option to give the injured the best chance, even though they probably knew they would get flak for it.
That wouldn't have occured to me until recently with the Hamlin situation (American football player who had heart attack; they didn't cancel the game until they had the opportunity to send him out to the hospital). I kept wondering why they weren't cancelling the game when it was happening, but once I understood that, I realized it was a more respectable decision than it seemed to be. I don't understand why people who saw what happened continued to drive though. Maybe those who were moving literally didn't see what happened, but Hawthorne? He was right there! Maybe it was the shock of it. But he managed to swallow champagne? How?
Still, it feels like a hindsight excuse for not calling the race. "Why didn't we stop things so that fewer cars piled up? We had a good reason... which I will tell you after these messages from our sponsor. Please hold."
@@gohawks3571 Many did ultimately bow out, it seemed. Considering how long the course was, they had plenty of time to internalize their feelings on the matter, and some probably didn't know how bad it was until they made pit stops and (presumably) heard more details from the pit crew.
I think keeping the race going to keep from flooding the streets with leaving spectators was wise. I think letting the race finish and awarding a winner was insensitive.
I remember learning about this tragedy years ago. The detail of the bonnet "decapitating 14 spectators" etched this one into my memory. Such a visceral image.
I read the spectators were all stood on a platform/table to get a better view of the race and the bonnet flew through them decapitating them all who stood on it.
The heavy and burning engine flinging itself through the crowd killed so many. From the film (not shown here) of the actual crash you can see the engine cannonball tearing through. And I think the scything bonnet.
There was a documentary on the 50th anniversary [I think] A cameraman in the stands had taken a panoramic photo of the scene in front of him just minutes before the crash. He instinctively took the same shot just minutes after the crash. In the documentary they ran a slow mo overlay of the two pictures and it gives a drastic realisation of the devastation. The platform where the people you mention is seen in the first image. Needless to say it's empty in the second.
As an F1 fan this is one of the few events I'm already familiar with. Up until VERY recently racing was just about the most dangerous profession there was. You could easily do an entire series on F1 incidents alone.
Dude, most Western adults knows about Le Mans. Also, who gives a sh*t how dangerous the sport is? There is hardly a more selfish way to live your life. They die happy, content, good-for-nothing losers... They literally lose their race. Selfish losers. You know, the smallest amount of money can save a life, F1 is a f*cking disgrace. It's a beacon of all those humans who don't give a f*ck about those less fortunate
U shud look into the old Shah Alam Batu 3 track history . In the 70s a car ran out of track at the back straight and into the stands , killing many spectators
I’ve seen a documentary which shows before and after photos of the spectator stand, highlighting the absence of those killed. Many were standing on ladders for a better view and they’d all disappeared.
The footage is extremely unsettling.. the engine was going the same speed the car hit the wall at, and hit the spectators and just tumbled thru at 150+mph along with hood, chunks of frame and suspension... 😶
@@tyleroutingdyke849 The bonnet (hood) acted like a razor blade decapitating many as it swirled through the crowd swiftly followed by the entire front wheel axle. Some of those in attendance still don't know they are dead.
I was four years old when this happened, i can just vaguely remember it, it cast a pall over the whole ethos of motorsport for ages, my father was a big fan of course and i think that brought it a little closer into my consciousness, Mercedes pulled out of racing for many years although i don't think any blame attached to them, took this tragedy and the deaths of many more good drivers and a lot of campaigning by Jackie Stewart etc for the sport to clean up its act.
The hood from the Mercedes came off and went through the crowd like a scythe. There were a number of people that were decapitated. One survivor talked about a young girl's head coming to rest near his feet. 😣
A strange digression, this, but a close friend served in Iraq a few years ago when his armoured vehicle was struck by a bus. The bus disintegrated and killed a number of passengers, one of whose heads came to rest on the front of his carrier. He has PTSD, so heaven knows how the people in the crowd who survived must have felt.
You did miss an interesting safety-related tidbit that would have been a nice addition to the end of the video. Levegh's co-driver John Fitch, looking for racing safety improvements, filled liquor barrels with sand, inventing some of the first impact attenuators. The term Fitch Barrel is still used in the civil engineering world and are still used on roads today, but they are the yellow, sand-filled plastic barrels you see on highways, generally at the end of guard rails and barriers.
@@SkibopDaSequel They are methods to lessen the impact IF there is a crash. You don't WANT a car to hit it, but if the car DOES hit it it's a less severe impact than, say, hitting a brick wall.
@@SkibopDaSequel if you’re interested in a more thorough explanation, andrew lam did a great video explaining how road barriers work something like “how road barriers stopped drivers from being killed” th-cam.com/video/w6CKltZfToY/w-d-xo.html
i had no idea that was how those barrels were created, it is genius on his part as those barrels are highly effective and cheaper than many other road safety options (part of why they are so commonly used and why they are placed in front of other ones)
I’ve been following you for a long time now, you might be one the most consistent youtubers out there, I look foward to every tuesday and usually eat my lunch while watching the new video, your videos are always well researched, respectful and you are an excellent narrator. thank you for everything!
Definitely one of the best narrators on here, so clear and concise. Ironically has a text commentary which isn`t really needed, whereas with other narrators whose diction is lazy and unclear, they often don`t have one.
The deadliest motor racing event overall is also the world's oldest - the Isle of Man TT. The 1955 Le Mans accident remains the deadliest _single_ incident in motor sport, however the Isle of Man circuit has claimed the most lives of any motor sport during the course of its 116-year history. There have been over 260 fatalities over that time span, including some spectators. There were 5 fatalities in 2022 alone.
I wondered if anyone was going to mention Isle of Man. I was briefly involved as pit crew in Grand Prix motorcycle racing in the early 80's. Bike riders are just insane, period. 😝😬🙄
In my opinion, the TT, is deeply immoral. The Le Man's disaster was a terrible accident. The TT, runs every year (COVID aside), despite the near inevitability that there will be multiple fatal accidents.
@@philipjamesparsons I agree in part, Philip. I guess there's two ways to look at it. On the one hand, it is a ridiculously dangerous event, and there's hardly a year goes by when there isn't a fatality, or at least serious injury, involved. On the other hand, nobody is forcing the contestants to participate. There is however the question of spectator safety - as I mentioned (and I'm sure you're aware) some of them have been killed, and that is definitely a concern. But as far as the riders go, I suppose if they're prepared to take the risk, they shouldn't be prevented from participating. As a long-time rider myself, I would say "no thank you". I love motorcycling, but kissing a stone wall at a couple of hundred kays per hour is not a thrill I crave. Frankly, in this sometimes nursemaidy era, I'm surprised that it's still allowed to be held at all.
If you are ever looking for another racing disaster to cover, the 1986 World Rally Group B race in Portugal is an intense subject. The crowd was so close to the road that a car drove over several spectators when it lost control trying to avoid hitting ANOTHER spectator in the road.
That sounds a bit like the 1903 Paris to Madrid road race which only got as far as Bordeaux as they had so many accidents, the race was terminated there. The lessons must not have been learned as it was very early days, there was a long ban and the whole thing was probably forgotten about over the years which included WW1.
My dad,a racing enthusiast, has talked about this for years. He is fascinated by LeMans and I believe has passed some of that down to me. As a kid, he had us watch LeMans with Steve McQueen. I didn’t understand the movie at 11, and thought it was boring. Over time, I’ve come to realize what it’s about. Thank you for this video!
I remember this and the Farnborough Airshow DH110 crash of 1952 when the show also continued despite considerable numbers of deaths and injuries in the crowd. Attitudes to risk were different then. People were used to seeing death and injury around them after WW2.
In one country the racing ban remained permanently: Switzerland never again hosted a race. (Rallies, yes, but not races; there were two "Swiss Grand Prix" F1 events, but they were held at Dijon in France!)
Actually, Switzerland very partially lifted the ban in 2015 (60 years later) and allowed eletric motor racing. Since then, there were only 2 Formula E races (Zuerich ePrix in 2018 and Bern ePrix in 2019) on Swiss soil.
I have a story about this one race, my grandmother who was 13 at the time, remembers the radio being on and she was in a cafe at the time in Germany and the radio was on and when the crash happened everyone went deathly silent.....and she remembers just how shocked everyone was at the time realising that one of their cars had crashed and killed over 80 people....there was another thing I remember "We are racing drivers, we are not monsters" that was a line from a video posted years ago on this very incident Mercedes took the lead 10 hours into the race and then promptly withdrew all the cars from that race and by morning, they had returned to Germany..... Also the fact that Mike Hawthorn had gone sobbing to the Merc team boss Alfred Neubauer was also telling and that Mercedes discussed with Jaguar about pulling out of the race as a mark of respect and Jaguar refused and we had that infamous picture of Mike smiling at the end of the race and he was hung out to dry for it by the French Media....
Hawthorne should have retired from the race whether team jaguar did or not, as a show of respect and out of grief over the deaths he was partially responsible for. His apparent jubilation and celebration in the winner's circle was both callous and reprehensible.
Mercedes pulled out at the urging of John Fitch, Levegh's American co-driver. (Who was quite an interesting fellow himself, and became a safety advocate & inventor after LeMans '55.)
@@stargazer5784 to say he was partially responsible is to pretend that he didn't do the exact same as every other racer had since the start of racing, the only people at fault are the people who didn't think a pitlane is needed
@@richardhobbs7360The only difference being the disc brakes, which allowed Harwthorne to brake sharply a lot closer to the pit lane then what other drivers were accustomed to. No one was ready for that and probably assumed Hawthorne would not be pulling over. So no, Hawthorn’s actions were not what every other racer had ever done before.
@@jpbaley2016 brake sharply- pull over is how it had always been done, it’s not like there’s a 100 meter difference between disc and drum It’s no one’s fault that it happened, but if you want to blame someone, blame the track designers
When I first stumbled into this channel, I had a feeling this disaster would be covered at some point down the line. It can't be stressed enough how close motor racing as a whole came to being permanently shut down due to this incident. Fortunately, we learned and made things so much safer and still do make things safer with every passing serious incident but we were this close to having never had the chance to learn from this and losing motor racing all together.
@@victorvance2573 no gas car motorsport is what can be easily described. The still have motorbike racing, and they have a Formula E race but, up until now, they're not allowing any motorsport involving gasoline powered cars
A hand signal to slow down from Levegh to his teammate running behind, just before the crash, was later credited by that driver with saving his life. That driver was 5-time F1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio. Also worth mentioning is driver John Fitch, who began designing safety improvements for road and track after the disaster. His inventions are credited with saving tens of thousands of lives.
This generation's idea of safety was a bullet missing you, not the lack of being shot at, so to speak- they were used to sitting in bombers getting hit by flak, or trenches with artillery coming down around them. Anything in comparison would seem safe. Combine that with PTSD and survivor's guilt, it's a perfect storm for risky behavior/passive self destruction
@@JezaLoki who's softer- the people offended by bad words, or the person who spends years being upset about people being offended by bad words? Just a thought on self-awareness If you think you're different from those people, you know, maybe don't be so sensitive?
Great vid as always. This reminds me of another fascinating horror type thing you might like. I recall at a monster truck show a few years back a bit of debris was flung up into the stands and killed a kid. It's just fascinating how we go through life blissfully unaware that we are in constant danger from things we would never expect.
I had come across this story before on another channel, but while they had mentioned people continued racing (primarily Mr Hawthorn), they didn't include the detail that this was partially to the organiser's plan to hopefully avoiding a panic, and making the situation worse. While the fact the one who caused the accident continued to win and celebrate still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, this added context helps understand why both he and the other drivers continued to race.
Accidents are normal in racing, and it's almost never just one driver's fault. The issue was that the track was relatively narrow and the pitlane wasn't separated from the racetrack something that didn't happen until 1970. As you said, drivers didn't really know what had happened. Also, deadly accidents were common back then and people didn't really care. In the F1 Italian GP in 1961 at Monza driver Wolfgang Von Trips crashed with two competitors and veered off the track killing about 11 spectators if I remember correctly. The race continued normally. Three time F1 champion Jackie Stewart, who drove F1 and other racing series between the early 60s until his retirement in 1974 said that he and his wife sat down and counted all the funerals of racing drivers they had gone to. They counted about 50 dead racing drivers. Racing was really dangerous back then and people simply accepted that. Jackie was one of the first drivers who demanded that safety measures should be taken. Luckily people followed him and so today racing while still dangerous is a lot safer than during those days.
Mike Hawthorne actually did want to pull out of the race as a mark of respect, but Jaguar said no - it was out of his hands. He himself died in a racing accident just a few years later.
@@SparkieGoth I'm pretty sure that's not true. Hawthorne said how very sad he was to the press afterwards but the mechanics and drivers who watched him compete that day said otherwise. They said he couldn't have cared less about the accident he caused and was only interested in winning the race - same as the entire Jaguar team.
One thing I find interesting is in that a lot of accidents that happen, humans tend to be more reactive to make changes instead of proactive. Everything's fine until lives are lost, it seems.
Racing is unfortunately one of those things that runs on 'tombstone technology'. Until enough people are injured or killed to the point it becomes a financial drain on those running it, nothing changes (although to a much lesser degree today, thankfully.)
@@MrNelmo2 Not really. Quite often dangers are identified long before the incidents occur. It's just that they tend to be dismissed as too expensive to rectify, because/or the odds of the incident 'too low to realistically occur' to justify the remedy. There are literally hundreds, if not tens of thousands of stories where the dangers or weak points had been identified and/or warned about , yet no changes were made.
I watched an extended documentary on this event including interviews with survivors and the co-driver of the driver who died. (Each team had 2 drivers that swapped back and forth so one could rest.) There is a panoramic photo of the area the engine swept through just before and just after and it's horrifying. Several people were decapitated by flying debris. This event is truly both fascinating, and horrifying.
Good job depicting the nuance of the crash and how difficult it can be to place blame on anyone in racing crashes. It all can go wrong so quickly, as seen in the crash here. I love motor racing and feel proud of everyone who contributed to making it as (relatively) safe as it is today, never forgetting those who have paid the price on the way
I recall reading a detailed report about this on the internet years ago, and there were many photographs accompanying the article - some of them were absolutely gruesome showing headless bodies, random limbs strewn about, and many burned bodies. Bizarrely, people were in the photographs just standing there staring at the dead. Maybe they were in total shock and couldn't take in what had happened? It was truly appalling.
@@delorbb2298 Also... a person who is injured and needs help... that's a cause for immediate action... say a woman who lost her arm at the elbow and needs help to stop the bleeding... but someone who's obviously completely dead and beyond help? That's different. In that case it's more like "I wonder who that was.... maybe I can notify the next of kin?"
@@marhawkman303 So true. I have a photo where you’d swear I was blind drunk. But the truth was that I was caught mid-blink. A photo is a split second. A split second before someone moved in either direction. A split second between looking and acting. You can’t always judge things from a picture.
For some reason, this 9/11 video was suggested right before this one...In it, you can see firefighters wide-eyed and staring...after the first tower falls, they walk around outside, covered in dust, looking around as if they're at the zoo looking at tropical birds. When the mind sees things too gruesome to comprehend - it fails to comprehend. th-cam.com/video/Vk4LikKNttI/w-d-xo.html
Don't read up on the details. Let's just say that along with the engine, the hood (bonnet) of the car hurdled through the crowd at around neck and other levels.
"WW2 had ended just a decade ago and this was one of the first times that nations which had previously been at war would compete in a more civilized competition." I love that final part of the sentence, hahah. ^^
WOW, THANKS!! *What an education on magnesium!!* When discharged, I took the indy 500 race track tour, and, in high school, I had the thrill of seeing Joey CHITWOOD and the Dare Devils (drivers) perform as well as a race!! *BUT* I was *NOT* aware of the horrible tragedy that historically preceded years ahead of our "entertainment!"
This has become one of my favorite channels. I eagerly await each new video, and I am practically guaranteed to learn something I did not know, either from the video itself, or some of interesting comments people leave. Keep up the good work!
This is one of those disasters that I've been fascinated by since reading about in in a book many years ago when in junior high school. Thank you, FH, for covering it here.
The fact this story stands out among all others is a testament to the carnage witnessed by survivors. These events are tragic but witnessing them leave people scarred for generations.
I’ve been to Le Mans, learning a few years ago that there was one of the deadliest racing disasters in history there (and knowing exactly where on the track it happened) has left me with a somewhat Erie memory of it all. In contemporary footage you can see the layout and exactly where it would be today. Just incredibly sad, but as with many videos on this channel - something like this was, unfortunately, required for change.
There is a very small memorial plaque somewhere in that area. I think the wooden fence its nailed is the same one from 1955. At least thats what I heard.
Many have died there since. Allan Simonsen , died in 2013. He hit a guardrail. The guardrail was so close to a tree it had to give. It is still a dangerous circuit.
Agreed. Even though I know I'm in for a sad story...the intro music and his voice calm me down and make my world a lil more upright.. not so crazy. I've had a day from hell & thought there's nothing.... nothing that could produce this feeling. I hope he never changes the format he's using. Now to actually watch the story. Le sigh...
It is understandable that massive changes happen after spectators are killed, moreso than the drivers. I happened to attend another such event, the 1998 US 500 at Michigan, where three spectators lost their lives (this race also continued to completion). Big changes were made after that to make sure wheel assemblies couldn't fly off the main body of the car.
I was hoping to find a video explaining the events - and was delighted to find that my favourite channel had made one. Thanks so much for your continued effort in bringing us knowledge about disasters that I would otherwise, in many cases, never had known about!
which is kinda funny because ECars burn SO MUCH hotter and worse than ICE powered cars.. it was virtue signalling then by the swiss and its the same now..
last week i was in a games shop,,,, i heard Glass Pond by Public Memory start playing. I froze. My heat skipped a beat and started pounding. I went to the front counter and asked the owner. 'Is this song a normal part of your soundtrack?' He asked why? I told him "dude, im about 3 seconds away from running out of this shop and shopping center!" He burst out laughing and said "You must be a fan of Fascinating Horror on TH-cam like me!' hahah, the legend gave me 40% off my purchases. Legit freaked me the F out!
Something similar almost happened in Talladega during a nascar race in 1987. Bobby Allison's car flew into the air after being turned on it's side, and almost flew into the stands. he barely missed by hitting a barrier before the fence, which slowed him down enough to be deflected off the fence & not blow through it
Same Thing Happened To Call Edwards At Talladega In 2009 And Also To Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, And Ryan Newman At Daytona. However In These Instances The Catch Fence Held.
Back in the 70s my Dad bought a book about disasters,natural ones and ones caused by humans. This one was in the book and it was truly horrific and completely preventable. Interestingly enough,I think,there was no condemnation of Hawthorne. Used to wonder(the book was still around my folks' place for decades) if this may have been due to the fact that it was a British publication. Just speculating.
this is so weird, I was just watching a documentary about the le mans disaster but I was looking for a fascinating horror ep on it (I figured it had already been done) and then not two days later this comes out. Spooky. Great work as always.
Excellently made and presented as always. You always take the high road and give a well-researched, respectful accounting of times when people are at their best, or at their worst. Possibly in future might you look at the Indianapolis 500, specifically the 1964 or 1973 races?
👏Thanks FH! I love your vids, always brief, yet interesting enough that a lot of the time makes me further look into the story, or subject. Sometimes you shine a light on things that I never knew happened. *Fun fact: We have a game show here in the US called Jeopardy, more than once I knew answers because it was something I had learned from Fascinating Horror!😄👍
One factor that doesn’t get mentioned was the practice of allowing automobiles of vastly different capabilities to compete in the same race. Macklin was driving an Austin-Healey - essentially a production car anyone could buy that was then modified for racing. It was much slower than the purpose-built factory racers such as Mercedes, Jaguar, Ferrari, Maserati and the like. Hawthorn was told to pit and appears to have decided to pass the slower 26 car driven by Macklin before doing so. That made it necessary for him to brake strongly causing Macklin to hit the right edge of the track. His car then swerved, apparently out of control, into the path of the fast-closing Levegh. It seems to me that the practice of allowing cars of all classes to compete in the same race was a major factor in the disaster. Arguably, Macklin and his Austin-Healy should never been allowed in the race at all.
To add to Hawthorn winning the race, the next year Hawthorn had a camera on his car in practice. He did a lap around the track and did commentary while driving and mentions safety improvements made to the track after "the terrible accident last year". The one that he caused. That videos on TH-cam
@@peterf.229 slowing down and pulling suddenly (and without warning) to the right side of the track, into the path of Lance Macklin causing him to swerve and make contact with a much faster Pierre Levegh is not causing the accident?
Hawthorne seems to have been a pompous twit but how is anyone in that situation supposed to foresee the outcome of merely slowing down on the pit straight when all you can see is a few blurry cars behind you in a shaking mirror? Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. There are so many "what if"s that Hawthorne can't be blamed totally. For example what if Macklins car didn't have a sloped rear? Then Le Veigh's car wouldn't have been launched and there would have likely been far less carnage, possibly none. You can say Hawthorne was guilty of reckless driving, but not directly responsible for 84 people dead.
I love all of your videos! Watching this triggered a thought I had, what about doing a short doc/video on the Ramstein Air Base where all of those spectators were killed when that plane crashed into the crowd? It's an idea... Super-long-time-subscriber, I've watched your entire library of videos! 😊
In the 60s it was more dangerous to be a racing driver than to be an astronaut. 50s were not much better. Fragile cars, no seat belts, no pitlanes, no helmets, no fireproof overalls, no safety on the racetrack, no designated hospitals and doctors, cars that were deathtraps and could spontaneously combust after a crash, no marshals and no trackside safety. It's truly a miracle there were not more accidents like LeMans 1955 or Monza 1961.
My friend's uncle was killed by a flying tire at a Nascar race. I was shocked because i had never considered something like that. And that was just a single fatality accident 😳
What some people don't fully appreciate is that there's always been an element of "motor racing is dangerous, if you don't accept the risk then don't participate or spectate" but over the years we've seen just how much risk is acceptable to the general public. More recently, safety has also been mandated because of the risk of litigation. For example the court case after the death of Ayrton Senna dragged on for many years. We still hear of occasional spectator deaths in motor racing, notably rallying. Le Mans was on a different scale though. I doubt anyone in 1955 imagined there could possibly be such a massive death toll from a single accident until that day.
Imagine going to a race with your loved ones because you both like motorsport, and then by the end of the day, one or both of you aren’t going home because you ended up in something that could come strait out of a Final Destination movie. Absolutely horrifying to just think about.
or you could be asleep and never wake up due to a house fire, gas leak , co poisoning or a heart attack , people love to talk about terror and are afraid to live.
It’s 6:45am here in Virginia and as I was fixing my breakfast, I was like ooohhh Fascinating Horror should have uploaded this morning! ❤️. This accident was horrific 😔
Motor racing used to be so insanely dangerous! This wouldn't be the last time the long straights at Le Mans would cause a Mercedes to take flight (1999) but the drivers would survive the flight into the trees.
Auto racing of all kinds has always been something I love to watch. F1 isn't my favorite, but it is still fascinating to watch. I'm surprised it made it into the 50's without realizing they needed more safety features. I'm glad they didn't blame any one person, but put some focus on the set up of the track and the cars as well. It is sad that this had to happen to make the sport safer, and also sad that some of the drivers were so traumatized they quit racing. That part about this I had not known before. Thank you for being so respectful in your narrative. I appreciate the lack of drama in your videos.
Speaking of motorsport incidents that had far reaching implications, I would suggest the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Italy. So many incidents occurred that weekend that it would fill a book by itself. It was more than just the death of Ayrton Senna, the various incidents left not just the motorsport community, but people around the world in shock and anger at what had been allowed to happen. After the major incidents that either left drivers, mechanics or spectators injured or killed, the governing body of the Formula One World Championship, the Federation International de l'Automobiles (FIA), made a series of dramatic changes in the wake of what happened that weekend, including modifying the track layout at Imola, improving the overall safety of the cars, and most lasting, the implementation of a pit lane speed limit. The reason for the latter was graphically shown in the closing stages of the race as Michele Alboreto accelerated down the pit lane after his last tyre change and topping up of fuel. As his car approached 90MPH, his right rear wheel came off and ploughed through mechanics from other teams, knocking down two mechanics each from Ferrari and Lotus, leaving them requiring hospital treatment. Another change resulting from Imola 1994, mechanics from every team had to wait in the comparative safety of their team garage until called upon. A lot of people overly simplify that weekend as being the weekend where Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna were killed (the former was the first driver fatality at a race weekend since 1982 and the first at the wheel of then contemporary F1 machinery since 1986)
It's insane that not only do we have an video of the car/engine block flying across the grandstands, but also a video of the car jumping over the hay barrier at a camera for it to suddenly freeze. That's basically unheard of at that time.
I have been involved in motorsport in Australia since 1991. It took me 15 years to see my first accident that caused deathm then ot have someone die at another event a couple of months later was really eerie.
@@carlodifabio7991 No both the people i was reffering to were competitors. Kirk McCarthy Australian Superbike rider had an accident then a couple of months later a Driver at the Festival of Speed on Tweed passed away after rolling his historic car without a roll bar on both events were in 2004.
It appears that Hawthorne's tasteless celebrations weren't an aberration. From the girlfriend of Hawthorne's teammate and rival (who had just died): "After visiting the mortally injured Musso in hospital, Breschi returned to her hotel, where she and the rest of the Ferrari team were informed by the team manager that afternoon that Musso had died. Within thirty days Collins too was dead, and the following January, Hawthorn. Breschi could not suppress a feeling of release: "I had hated them both", she said, "first because I was aware of certain facts that were not right, and also because when I came out of the hospital and went back to the hotel, I found them in the square outside the hotel, laughing and playing a game of football with an empty beer can. So when they died, too, it was liberating for me. Otherwise I would have had unpleasant feelings towards them forever. This way I could find a sense of peace."
I put the accident completely at Hawthornes fault. He should've taken responsibility for his actions, and the fact that he did not follows him into eternity....
@@cplcabs Because he let his ego get the better of him... He already had instructions from the lap before to go into the pits, he could've prepared that pit stop accordingly in a safe way. Instead he made a split second decision going into the pits, after considering going another lap. With new technology comes a responsibility. He was the only one in the field with disc brakes, he should've taken into consideration no one else in the field could break that fast. He didn't look into the rear view mirror, because if he had he would've known that the car behind would crash into him. So, Hawthorn was riding high on his big ego, considered doing another lap, changed his mind, hand signalled, put the foot on the breaks and swirved into the pitlane. The signal was obviously too little too late for anyone to react in a safe way thus leading to the crash. Without Hawthorns actions there wouldn't have been a crash.
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 cope. he didn't do anything wrong. And the fact that you try to pin everything on one person instead of acknowledging that everything design wise in the race (car design, track design, safety, spectator seating, etc) was a shit show is ridiculous.
Lance Macklin's Austin Healey was quite literally ramp shaped in the back: a special drag reducing sloped tail had been fitted. This made an extra 'convenient' ramp for Pierre Levegh's racing Mercedes to zoom up the ramp and into the crowd. His Mercedes' body and wheels were also largely made of magnesium: Magnesium burns white hot and cannot be put out by water. BTW, Magnesium and phosphorous were 2 of the main ingredients in WWII Incendiary bombs.
3:40 Re: Disk Brakes -- Period disk brakes did not allow faster stopping than comparable drum brakes. That is incorrect. Disk brakes cool much more efficiently than drum brakes and are more resistant to brake fade during prolonged braking. In period DBs didn't stop a car faster or in less distance, but they did allow a driver to brake more aggressively over a longer time, and they are easier to service (pad replacement), resulting in quicker pit stops during a long endurance race. One only needs to observe that the Jags were not drastically outbraking the drum-equipped cars in the race's early stages to come to this conclusion.
Sadly, this kind of thing is what it takes to make it better. In Nascar, Earnhart's crash made the cars leaps and bounds better. Also in drag racing, Kalita's crash brought many improvements to drag car's.
@@HellmuthsHotRods Didn't Dale Earnhart's old-style racing helmet also contribute to his death? While the other NASCAR drivers, including his son Dale Jr., wore the full-face helmets, he wore a style of racing helmet that he wore since he started racing that didn't cover his whole head area. It looks like a football helmet without the face mask.
@@arnoldhenry Partially but it was also due to a number of other reasons. Less restrictions on safety gear (the HANS or Hutchens device wasnt mandatory) led to several driver deaths in 2000 and 2001. His death was the 4th in a row caused by a basilar skull fracture (besides Tony Roper who I believe suffered a neck injury which restricted blood flow to his brain). Even after Dales death these devices weren't mandatory until Blaise Alexanders death later in 2001 in which he also died of a basilar skull fracture. Not only was the lack of a safety device responsible for his death but so was concrete walls still being used and no SAFER barrier existing at this point in time.
I have seen the video of the crash and the disintegrating parts hitting the stands...it is truly horrific to see. We researched, and well presented, DF.
Well yes, they did not stop the race immediately to avoid panic, but it went on for other 18 hours, including night time when a lot of spectators left anyway, so... it was not a decision simply based on safety. By the way if you like animation, here is a short film about the event (taking artistic liberties) th-cam.com/video/22I7yJiOu0s/w-d-xo.html
I wrote about this crash for a book chapter in TAFE many years ago, actually part of an assignment about the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in general. Still an insane story in the history of motor racing. There is a beautifully animated short film about the disaster told from the perspective of the Mercedes team that came around the same time as that Ford v. Ferrari film. Worth checking out since it's available on TH-cam. Oh, and as an addendum to this story, Mercedes did pull out of racing after the crash but they wouldn't return to sports car racing until the late 1980s when Mercedes paired with Sauber to build a car to compete against Porsche and Jaguar. Mercedes did win the 24 Hour race in 1989 and by that time, the speeds at Le Mans had skyrocketed with the fastest ever speed recorded at an astonishing 405km/h (252mph) the previous year. The next year, two chicanes were finally built to reduce top speeds. Mercedes returned off and on to Le Mans and sports car racing, the last time that they did at Le Mans was also the year that saw the Silver Arrows cars take off... and land with a thud.
Of course this is just one of many devastating accidents involving F1 it comes with the territory I guess when you're going 200 mph around a bend the risk is also there but so does getting into any car imo
Scary thing is, the philosophy that it's better to be thrown from your vehicle persisted in hydroplane racing up until the late 80s. It took two high-profile deaths in the early 80s to finally start turning that notion around.
This sounds like the beginning of one of the Final Destination movies that took place at a racetrack. I wonder if the script writer used this as inspiration. Gruesome. ☹️☹️
Driving and surviving back in those days wasn't a question of talent, it was a question of luck. Respect to the drivers such as Jackie Stewart who had enough of the deaths and wanted to stop it for good.
It goes right back to the start of the 20th Century and even the end of the 19th. They got away with it for a few years right at the beginning as they were lucky and the cars were not very fast. But it didn`t take them long to build bigger and faster cars and create a disaster, (see 1903 Paris to Madrid Road Race).
Damn I remember watching this channel all the way back in 2020 or so happy to see the channel is still doing good. Would always make my morning every wednesy ong
id interpret it as you wrote it since ww2 in NO WAY resembled this wreck HTF am i supposed to think YOU think its foreshadowing a car wreck? when NOTHING about ww2 resembles in ANY WAY, a car wreck?
@@adamjohnson2914 well since the task of making the message clear, is on the messenger not the recipient. id say thats a YOU problem since i was quite clear how youre comment was structured wrong.. but since youve proven quite a dullard.. NOTHING about the race resembles ww2 so what happened in ww2 was in no way any kind of "foreshadowing" of a random wreck in the 1955 LeMans race WW2 on the track refers to the fact the car makers were british german and italian.. btw, do you have the number to the public school you went to? id like to call and tell them they let you down quite badly in the area of sentence structure and reading comprehension.. and a quick word with your history teacher would be swell too..
Motorsport was and still is one of the most dangerous sport out there. Fatal crashes and accidents paved the way for better safety equipments and regulations for the participants and spectators. We might still hear fatalities on motorsport nowadays, but it'll less likely to happen like it was 30-40 years ago.
Top speeds reaching 170 mph, open cockpits and no roll bars nor seatbelts. It’s a miracle any of these drivers survived. That’s absolutely insane.
Beats modern day F1.. overpaid drivers driving bumper cars
@@andy86i 😂 I wouldn't go that far with the "bumper cars"
These races took place at night too. with barely any visibility other than their car's headlights.
So they reached 273KP/H or more with limited vision. in a track, with insane bends and turns.
Wow! Literal Jesus take the wheel racing
A good number of them didn't.
This is one of the best summaries of the '55 LeMans disaster I've seen; Well done.
As a former volunteer track worker who has researched this a lot, there are a few things I'd like to add:
1. There was no separate pit lane, unlike today. Pit lane was just the far side of the track surface with nothing to separate it from the racing cars. That's why Hawthorn pitting trigger such mayhem--he was going full racing speed, with Macklin close behind him, and then stomped on the brakes at the last minute & pulled over.
2. The Jaguars were the *only* cars with disc brakes; all others, including the Mercedes 300SLRs of Levegh & Fangio, had only drum brakes. Jaguar was the first to develop them, based on similar systems used on aircraft, and this was the first time cars with disc brakes were raced. So the Jags could stop in a much shorter distance than any other car on the track, which is why Macklin had to swerve out of the way when Hawthorn braked; his only other option was to plow his Austin-Healy into the back of the Hawthorn's Jag.
3. At this time, there was no such thing as a safety culture in racing. At all. Be it drivers or spectators or track workers, the attitude was that if you were stupid enough to go to a race (an inherently dangerous activity), if something went wrong, you got what you deserved.
After the disaster, safety for the spectators was improved, but not for the drivers. That wouldn't start until the late '60s/early '70s, when drivers like Sir Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi started making a fuss about it. And it took until the early/mid 1980s for actual medical treatment of racing injuries because a thing, again thanks to people like Sid Watson in F1 and Drs. Steve Olvey and Terry Trammell in Indycar(CART).
LeMans '55 was and still is a major impetus for drastic change in racing, to the point that racing is still illegal in Switzerland to this day.
A curious footnote to the whole situation was Mike Hawthorn's death a few years later in 1959. He was supposedly racing a friend, team manager Rob Walker, and lost control of his Jaguar 3.4 Mk 1.
Walker was driving a Mercedes 300 SL (gullwing), the street counterpart to the 300 SLR racecar Levegh & Fangio were driving at LeMans in '55.
In regards to number 3; I'd have to agree with that line of thinking. Am I the only one these days?
Thank you so much for these details. Fascinating (no pun intended).
@@MikeSmith-bn1qr I bet you are not in the majority, that's for sure. Even today with all the safety implementations there are still hundreds of possibilities that a freak accident can happen and all the safety in the world can't help matters, like what happened to Antoine Hubert. But if something is preventable then there is no reason why we should not prevent it. And there are still events today that are really dangerous, like the Isle of Man TT, Pikes Peak hillclimb, Rally Dakar and many more.
@@MikeSmith-bn1qr No, you have a fairly common, popular opinion. When taken to the extreme, a surprising number of folx will actually try to prevent their community from spending any time/money preventing the death & suffering if they think the “most likely” victims “deserved it”.
To be frank, I think it’s a bit narrow-minded & cynical; taking personal feelings out of the matter entirely, though, it’s still shortsighted.
No, racing isn’t super safe, & yes, drivers should be aware they’re risking their lives every time they get on a track (even w/ today’s safety advancements) - but those advancements aren’t just for the driver, is it? It’s for the driver’s team (& anyone in the immediate vacimity), the stadium around them (though crashes are less likely to cause major issues for spectators nowadays, it’s still a possibility), &, Hell, the well-being of their children & partners (considering how crushing of a mental toll a loved one’s injuries/death inherently are), etc. Not only that, but major leaps in racing safety can potentially translate to improved safety for all other vehicles, incl. any of the ones you might use.
Thank you for the deeper insight here msnovtue, this was very informative! I’m glad things have started improving - that it took til the ~70s for such a major shift is just downright nuts.
Refusing to call off the race in order to keep the surrounding roads clear for emergency vehicles actually seems like a smart call. Callous, but smart.
I agree 100%. I obviously was not there, but it seems to me like that was the best option to give the injured the best chance, even though they probably knew they would get flak for it.
That wouldn't have occured to me until recently with the Hamlin situation (American football player who had heart attack; they didn't cancel the game until they had the opportunity to send him out to the hospital). I kept wondering why they weren't cancelling the game when it was happening, but once I understood that, I realized it was a more respectable decision than it seemed to be. I don't understand why people who saw what happened continued to drive though. Maybe those who were moving literally didn't see what happened, but Hawthorne? He was right there! Maybe it was the shock of it. But he managed to swallow champagne? How?
Still, it feels like a hindsight excuse for not calling the race. "Why didn't we stop things so that fewer cars piled up? We had a good reason... which I will tell you after these messages from our sponsor. Please hold."
@@gohawks3571 Many did ultimately bow out, it seemed. Considering how long the course was, they had plenty of time to internalize their feelings on the matter, and some probably didn't know how bad it was until they made pit stops and (presumably) heard more details from the pit crew.
I think keeping the race going to keep from flooding the streets with leaving spectators was wise. I think letting the race finish and awarding a winner was insensitive.
I remember learning about this tragedy years ago. The detail of the bonnet "decapitating 14 spectators" etched this one into my memory. Such a visceral image.
The bonnet guillotining its way through the crowd is the defining image of this nightmare to me too!
I read the spectators were all stood on a platform/table to get a better view of the race and the bonnet flew through them decapitating them all who stood on it.
The heavy and burning engine flinging itself through the crowd killed so many. From the film (not shown here) of the actual crash you can see the engine cannonball tearing through. And I think the scything bonnet.
There was a documentary on the 50th anniversary [I think] A cameraman in the stands had taken a panoramic photo of the scene in front of him just minutes before the crash. He instinctively took the same shot just minutes after the crash. In the documentary they ran a slow mo overlay of the two pictures and it gives a drastic realisation of the devastation. The platform where the people you mention is seen in the first image. Needless to say it's empty in the second.
@@TheGiantKillers any idea where i could watch the documentary?
As an F1 fan this is one of the few events I'm already familiar with. Up until VERY recently racing was just about the most dangerous profession there was. You could easily do an entire series on F1 incidents alone.
Dude, most Western adults knows about Le Mans. Also, who gives a sh*t how dangerous the sport is? There is hardly a more selfish way to live your life. They die happy, content, good-for-nothing losers... They literally lose their race. Selfish losers.
You know, the smallest amount of money can save a life, F1 is a f*cking disgrace. It's a beacon of all those humans who don't give a f*ck about those less fortunate
Some of the crashes on camera are horrific, massive fireballs, cars disintegrating.
A video on Senna’s accident would be good too. Many changes were also made to F1 Safety because of his death.
“To come second is the first to lose”
The 1977 Kyalami Grand Prix would be a good disaster to cover
U shud look into the old Shah Alam Batu 3 track history . In the 70s a car ran out of track at the back straight and into the stands , killing many spectators
I'm still in awe how deadly this accident was. Just the thought of an engine decapitating spectators is such a haunting visual
I’ve seen a documentary which shows before and after photos of the spectator stand, highlighting the absence of those killed. Many were standing on ladders for a better view and they’d all disappeared.
Guess you could say they were a engine head.
(I’ll see myself out)
The footage is extremely unsettling.. the engine was going the same speed the car hit the wall at, and hit the spectators and just tumbled thru at 150+mph along with hood, chunks of frame and suspension... 😶
@@tyleroutingdyke849 The bonnet (hood) acted like a razor blade decapitating many as it swirled through the crowd swiftly followed by the entire front wheel axle. Some of those in attendance still don't know they are dead.
I was four years old when this happened, i can just vaguely remember it, it cast a pall over the whole ethos of motorsport for ages, my father was a big fan of course and i think that brought it a little closer into my consciousness, Mercedes pulled out of racing for many years although i don't think any blame attached to them, took this tragedy and the deaths of many more good drivers and a lot of campaigning by Jackie Stewart etc for the sport to clean up its act.
The hood from the Mercedes came off and went through the crowd like a scythe. There were a number of people that were decapitated. One survivor talked about a young girl's head coming to rest near his feet. 😣
Hood, front axle and motor all broke loose and went hurtling through the crowd and caused the majority of the injuries/fatalities.
Wow. I would hav nightmares if I saw that. 🫣
Holy Jesus Christ. What a nightmare. And lest anyone think I'm taking the Lord's name in vain, that was a prayer.
Dammitman.. folks paid extra for front row seats... They got a show that day...😫
A strange digression, this, but a close friend served in Iraq a few years ago when his armoured vehicle was struck by a bus. The bus disintegrated and killed a number of passengers, one of whose heads came to rest on the front of his carrier. He has PTSD, so heaven knows how the people in the crowd who survived must have felt.
You did miss an interesting safety-related tidbit that would have been a nice addition to the end of the video. Levegh's co-driver John Fitch, looking for racing safety improvements, filled liquor barrels with sand, inventing some of the first impact attenuators. The term Fitch Barrel is still used in the civil engineering world and are still used on roads today, but they are the yellow, sand-filled plastic barrels you see on highways, generally at the end of guard rails and barriers.
for quicker easier substitutes some places do something similar with water filled barrels.
what's an impact attenuator? are crs meant to hit them?
@@SkibopDaSequel They are methods to lessen the impact IF there is a crash. You don't WANT a car to hit it, but if the car DOES hit it it's a less severe impact than, say, hitting a brick wall.
@@SkibopDaSequel if you’re interested in a more thorough explanation, andrew lam did a great video explaining how road barriers work something like “how road barriers stopped drivers from being killed”
th-cam.com/video/w6CKltZfToY/w-d-xo.html
i had no idea that was how those barrels were created, it is genius on his part as those barrels are highly effective and cheaper than many other road safety options (part of why they are so commonly used and why they are placed in front of other ones)
I’ve been following you for a long time now, you might be one the most consistent youtubers out there, I look foward to every tuesday and usually eat my lunch while watching the new video, your videos are always well researched, respectful and you are an excellent narrator. thank you for everything!
I eat my work lunch every Tuesday to these great videos
I absolutely agree. Accurate and interesting always. Thank you Sir. Love your content ❤️
Definitely one of the best narrators on here, so clear and concise. Ironically has a text commentary which isn`t really needed, whereas with other narrators whose diction is lazy and unclear, they often don`t have one.
*forward
👍👍❤️
Early racing was terrifying in general really, it's sad incidents like this happened.
Thankfully stuff is a lot safer now.
The Isle of Man TT: *"Lmao what's safety?"*
@@zvenafnazbalji7539 ohh god the bike racers....i seen a few fall off and died
Most of the regulations if not all that you have today have been indeed written in blood.
Racers over the years who survived these terrible events also petitioned for safer conditions
The deadliest motor racing event overall is also the world's oldest - the Isle of Man TT. The 1955 Le Mans accident remains the deadliest _single_ incident in motor sport, however the Isle of Man circuit has claimed the most lives of any motor sport during the course of its 116-year history. There have been over 260 fatalities over that time span, including some spectators. There were 5 fatalities in 2022 alone.
I wondered if anyone was going to mention Isle of Man. I was briefly involved as pit crew in Grand Prix motorcycle racing in the early 80's. Bike riders are just insane, period. 😝😬🙄
In my opinion, the TT, is deeply immoral. The Le Man's disaster was a terrible accident. The TT, runs every year (COVID aside), despite the near inevitability that there will be multiple fatal accidents.
@@philipjamesparsons I agree in part, Philip. I guess there's two ways to look at it. On the one hand, it is a ridiculously dangerous event, and there's hardly a year goes by when there isn't a fatality, or at least serious injury, involved. On the other hand, nobody is forcing the contestants to participate. There is however the question of spectator safety - as I mentioned (and I'm sure you're aware) some of them have been killed, and that is definitely a concern. But as far as the riders go, I suppose if they're prepared to take the risk, they shouldn't be prevented from participating. As a long-time rider myself, I would say "no thank you". I love motorcycling, but kissing a stone wall at a couple of hundred kays per hour is not a thrill I crave.
Frankly, in this sometimes nursemaidy era, I'm surprised that it's still allowed to be held at all.
If you are ever looking for another racing disaster to cover, the 1986 World Rally Group B race in Portugal is an intense subject. The crowd was so close to the road that a car drove over several spectators when it lost control trying to avoid hitting ANOTHER spectator in the road.
That sounds a bit like the 1903 Paris to Madrid road race which only got as far as Bordeaux as they had so many accidents, the race was terminated there. The lessons must not have been learned as it was very early days, there was a long ban and the whole thing was probably forgotten about over the years which included WW1.
Or The Death Of Dale Earnhardt At The End Of The 2001 Daytona 500.
My dad,a racing enthusiast, has talked about this for years. He is fascinated by LeMans and I believe has passed some of that down to me. As a kid, he had us watch LeMans with Steve McQueen. I didn’t understand the movie at 11, and thought it was boring. Over time, I’ve come to realize what it’s about. Thank you for this video!
I remember this and the Farnborough Airshow DH110 crash of 1952 when the show also continued despite considerable numbers of deaths and injuries in the crowd.
Attitudes to risk were different then. People were used to seeing death and injury around them after WW2.
Plainly Difficult (also from the UK) has covered that airshow disaster.
@@AEMoreira81 👍
In one country the racing ban remained permanently: Switzerland never again hosted a race. (Rallies, yes, but not races; there were two "Swiss Grand Prix" F1 events, but they were held at Dijon in France!)
Actually, Switzerland very partially lifted the ban in 2015 (60 years later) and allowed eletric motor racing.
Since then, there were only 2 Formula E races (Zuerich ePrix in 2018 and Bern ePrix in 2019) on Swiss soil.
I have a story about this one race, my grandmother who was 13 at the time, remembers the radio being on and she was in a cafe at the time in Germany and the radio was on and when the crash happened everyone went deathly silent.....and she remembers just how shocked everyone was at the time realising that one of their cars had crashed and killed over 80 people....there was another thing I remember
"We are racing drivers, we are not monsters" that was a line from a video posted years ago on this very incident
Mercedes took the lead 10 hours into the race and then promptly withdrew all the cars from that race and by morning, they had returned to Germany.....
Also the fact that Mike Hawthorn had gone sobbing to the Merc team boss Alfred Neubauer was also telling and that Mercedes discussed with Jaguar about pulling out of the race as a mark of respect and Jaguar refused and we had that infamous picture of Mike smiling at the end of the race and he was hung out to dry for it by the French Media....
Hawthorne should have retired from the race whether team jaguar did or not, as a show of respect and out of grief over the deaths he was partially responsible for. His apparent jubilation and celebration in the winner's circle was both callous and reprehensible.
Mercedes pulled out at the urging of John Fitch, Levegh's American co-driver. (Who was quite an interesting fellow himself, and became a safety advocate & inventor after LeMans '55.)
@@stargazer5784 to say he was partially responsible is to pretend that he didn't do the exact same as every other racer had since the start of racing, the only people at fault are the people who didn't think a pitlane is needed
@@richardhobbs7360The only difference being the disc brakes, which allowed Harwthorne to brake sharply a lot closer to the pit lane then what other drivers were accustomed to. No one was ready for that and probably assumed Hawthorne would not be pulling over. So no, Hawthorn’s actions were not what every other racer had ever done before.
@@jpbaley2016 brake sharply- pull over is how it had always been done, it’s not like there’s a 100 meter difference between disc and drum
It’s no one’s fault that it happened, but if you want to blame someone, blame the track designers
Keep up the quality videos you make. You highlight events that are both well known and aren’t as well known.
When I first stumbled into this channel, I had a feeling this disaster would be covered at some point down the line. It can't be stressed enough how close motor racing as a whole came to being permanently shut down due to this incident. Fortunately, we learned and made things so much safer and still do make things safer with every passing serious incident but we were this close to having never had the chance to learn from this and losing motor racing all together.
In the USA, that’s part of why Daytona Speedway was built.
Its still banned in Switzerland to this very day.
@@neilmartin3220 There is no motorsport in Switzerland?
@@neilmartin3220 I've read that the ban has, or will he lifted soon, however.
@@victorvance2573 no gas car motorsport is what can be easily described. The still have motorbike racing, and they have a Formula E race but, up until now, they're not allowing any motorsport involving gasoline powered cars
A hand signal to slow down from Levegh to his teammate running behind, just before the crash, was later credited by that driver with saving his life. That driver was 5-time F1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio. Also worth mentioning is driver John Fitch, who began designing safety improvements for road and track after the disaster. His inventions are credited with saving tens of thousands of lives.
This generation's idea of safety was a bullet missing you, not the lack of being shot at, so to speak- they were used to sitting in bombers getting hit by flak, or trenches with artillery coming down around them. Anything in comparison would seem safe. Combine that with PTSD and survivor's guilt, it's a perfect storm for risky behavior/passive self destruction
This exactly.
Group B rally is a good example with people literally standing in the middle of the track as cars went by
Modern generations idea of safety is the criminalisation of icky words.
@JezaLoki for the love of God shut up with this tired ass take lmao
@@JezaLoki who's softer- the people offended by bad words, or the person who spends years being upset about people being offended by bad words? Just a thought on self-awareness
If you think you're different from those people, you know, maybe don't be so sensitive?
Great vid as always. This reminds me of another fascinating horror type thing you might like. I recall at a monster truck show a few years back a bit of debris was flung up into the stands and killed a kid. It's just fascinating how we go through life blissfully unaware that we are in constant danger from things we would never expect.
Oh man! That makes me wonder about how many other fatalities and injuries hav happened at monster truck shows. What about motocross shows too?
one in Mexico had the safety engine shutoff fail and it crashed through the stands , i forget how many died
I had come across this story before on another channel, but while they had mentioned people continued racing (primarily Mr Hawthorn), they didn't include the detail that this was partially to the organiser's plan to hopefully avoiding a panic, and making the situation worse. While the fact the one who caused the accident continued to win and celebrate still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, this added context helps understand why both he and the other drivers continued to race.
This- it was the correct call, even if it feels callous.
Accidents are normal in racing, and it's almost never just one driver's fault. The issue was that the track was relatively narrow and the pitlane wasn't separated from the racetrack something that didn't happen until 1970. As you said, drivers didn't really know what had happened. Also, deadly accidents were common back then and people didn't really care. In the F1 Italian GP in 1961 at Monza driver Wolfgang Von Trips crashed with two competitors and veered off the track killing about 11 spectators if I remember correctly. The race continued normally. Three time F1 champion Jackie Stewart, who drove F1 and other racing series between the early 60s until his retirement in 1974 said that he and his wife sat down and counted all the funerals of racing drivers they had gone to. They counted about 50 dead racing drivers. Racing was really dangerous back then and people simply accepted that. Jackie was one of the first drivers who demanded that safety measures should be taken. Luckily people followed him and so today racing while still dangerous is a lot safer than during those days.
It's just an excuse they came up with afterwards. They really were that callous.
Mike Hawthorne actually did want to pull out of the race as a mark of respect, but Jaguar said no - it was out of his hands. He himself died in a racing accident just a few years later.
@@SparkieGoth I'm pretty sure that's not true. Hawthorne said how very sad he was to the press afterwards but the mechanics and drivers who watched him compete that day said otherwise. They said he couldn't have cared less about the accident he caused and was only interested in winning the race - same as the entire Jaguar team.
One thing I find interesting is in that a lot of accidents that happen, humans tend to be more reactive to make changes instead of proactive. Everything's fine until lives are lost, it seems.
That's because no-one can predict where the dangers are - sadly, experience is the best teacher.
Basic foresight is rare amongst humans
Because proactivity takes more effort to execute.
Racing is unfortunately one of those things that runs on 'tombstone technology'. Until enough people are injured or killed to the point it becomes a financial drain on those running it, nothing changes (although to a much lesser degree today, thankfully.)
@@MrNelmo2 Not really. Quite often dangers are identified long before the incidents occur.
It's just that they tend to be dismissed as too expensive to rectify, because/or the odds of the incident 'too low to realistically occur' to justify the remedy.
There are literally hundreds, if not tens of thousands of stories where the dangers or weak points had been identified and/or warned about , yet no changes were made.
I watched an extended documentary on this event including interviews with survivors and the co-driver of the driver who died. (Each team had 2 drivers that swapped back and forth so one could rest.)
There is a panoramic photo of the area the engine swept through just before and just after and it's horrifying. Several people were decapitated by flying debris.
This event is truly both fascinating, and horrifying.
Do you happen to know where I could see this documentary?
@@emilionavarrete5169 th-cam.com/video/Qsdu2bxK1iE/w-d-xo.html
@@mickcollins1921 Thanks!
@@emilionavarrete5169 No doubt you've found it by now, but, if not: th-cam.com/video/x8rw6K8ERj0/w-d-xo.html
Good job depicting the nuance of the crash and how difficult it can be to place blame on anyone in racing crashes. It all can go wrong so quickly, as seen in the crash here. I love motor racing and feel proud of everyone who contributed to making it as (relatively) safe as it is today, never forgetting those who have paid the price on the way
I recall reading a detailed report about this on the internet years ago, and there were many photographs accompanying the article - some of them were absolutely gruesome showing headless bodies, random limbs strewn about, and many burned bodies. Bizarrely, people were in the photographs just standing there staring at the dead. Maybe they were in total shock and couldn't take in what had happened? It was truly appalling.
Well, a photograph is a moment in time. Perhaps that was the second before they moved?
@@delorbb2298 Also... a person who is injured and needs help... that's a cause for immediate action... say a woman who lost her arm at the elbow and needs help to stop the bleeding... but someone who's obviously completely dead and beyond help? That's different. In that case it's more like "I wonder who that was.... maybe I can notify the next of kin?"
@@marhawkman303 So true. I have a photo where you’d swear I was blind drunk. But the truth was that I was caught mid-blink. A photo is a split second. A split second before someone moved in either direction. A split second between looking and acting. You can’t always judge things from a picture.
For some reason, this 9/11 video was suggested right before this one...In it, you can see firefighters wide-eyed and staring...after the first tower falls, they walk around outside, covered in dust, looking around as if they're at the zoo looking at tropical birds. When the mind sees things too gruesome to comprehend - it fails to comprehend.
th-cam.com/video/Vk4LikKNttI/w-d-xo.html
don't forget the war some years before; people at this time have seen a lot of tragedies.
Some of the black and white footage shows how sketchy it could be. Great vid
Don't read up on the details. Let's just say that along with the engine, the hood (bonnet) of the car hurdled through the crowd at around neck and other levels.
"WW2 had ended just a decade ago and this was one of the first times that nations which had previously been at war would compete in a more civilized competition."
I love that final part of the sentence, hahah. ^^
I liked the WW2 on the tracks
My dad told me about this one as a kid and we had some VHS motorsports documentary tapes that covered it. Very good summary here!
I've never seen a more detailed and un-biased description of how the crash happened. Exceptionally well done.
most try to assign blame esp to the guy who won, but it was just a racing thing that happened .
I can see where that motor speedway disaster on that one Final Destination movie got its inspiration from.
That the driver who ultimately started the accident also won the race is an interesting if not sad coincidence.
I don't think anyone really won that day.
@@pmberry
They continued the race like normal as if the accident didn't even happen. Mike Hawthorn ended up winning.
@@zvenafnazbalji7539 It's an expression, in other words, everyone was a loser on that day, there were no real winners
@@StuRap
I don't know if the other drivers even noticed something was wrong until the event ended. like Williamson's death in the 1973 F1.
Mike Hawthorne later went on to die trying to pass a Mercedes on a wet road.
The graphs showing the progress of the accident are helpful. Thank you for another good one!
WOW, THANKS!! *What an education on magnesium!!* When discharged, I took the indy 500 race track tour, and, in high school, I had the thrill of seeing Joey CHITWOOD and the Dare Devils (drivers) perform as well as a race!! *BUT* I was *NOT* aware of the horrible tragedy that historically preceded years ahead of our "entertainment!"
This has become one of my favorite channels. I eagerly await each new video, and I am practically guaranteed to learn something I did not know, either from the video itself, or some of interesting comments people leave. Keep up the good work!
This is one of those disasters that I've been fascinated by since reading about in in a book many years ago when in junior high school. Thank you, FH, for covering it here.
Congratulations on the 1 million subscribers! That was fast but more than deserved!
👍👍❤️
I haven't started the video yet, but the intro music and your voice instantly calm me down....after a day straight from hell.
As a motorsports fan, watching this footage today with the shear lack of safety and ‘she’ll be right’ attitude is absolutely absounding to comprehend.
The fact this story stands out among all others is a testament to the carnage witnessed by survivors. These events are tragic but witnessing them leave people scarred for generations.
I’ve been to Le Mans, learning a few years ago that there was one of the deadliest racing disasters in history there (and knowing exactly where on the track it happened) has left me with a somewhat Erie memory of it all. In contemporary footage you can see the layout and exactly where it would be today. Just incredibly sad, but as with many videos on this channel - something like this was, unfortunately, required for change.
There is a very small memorial plaque somewhere in that area. I think the wooden fence its nailed is the same one from 1955. At least thats what I heard.
Many have died there since. Allan Simonsen , died in 2013. He hit a guardrail. The guardrail was so close to a tree it had to give. It is still a dangerous circuit.
What does Lake Erie have to do with the Le Mans disaster?
You've covered this in a calm and sincere way as you always do . Congratulations on your landmark subscriber numbers . I was number 100 😁
I've been expecting you to do this one, and you delivered as always!
Just made my morning! Thx 4 all u do!! 👑
Agreed. Even though I know I'm in for a sad story...the intro music and his voice calm me down and make my world a lil more upright.. not so crazy. I've had a day from hell & thought there's nothing.... nothing that could produce this feeling. I hope he never changes the format he's using.
Now to actually watch the story. Le sigh...
It is understandable that massive changes happen after spectators are killed, moreso than the drivers. I happened to attend another such event, the 1998 US 500 at Michigan, where three spectators lost their lives (this race also continued to completion). Big changes were made after that to make sure wheel assemblies couldn't fly off the main body of the car.
We enjoy your channel. We've never heard of some of the historical events that you talk about. We're never to old to learn. Thank you.
Thank you for making these videos and making sure these disasters and the victims are never forgotten ❤
I was hoping to find a video explaining the events - and was delighted to find that my favourite channel had made one. Thanks so much for your continued effort in bringing us knowledge about disasters that I would otherwise, in many cases, never had known about!
The ban on motorsports is still in effect in Switzerland. It was only recently modified to allow races with electric vehicles.
which is kinda funny because ECars burn SO MUCH hotter and worse than ICE powered cars..
it was virtue signalling then by the swiss and its the same now..
last week i was in a games shop,,,, i heard Glass Pond by Public Memory start playing. I froze. My heat skipped a beat and started pounding. I went to the front counter and asked the owner. 'Is this song a normal part of your soundtrack?' He asked why? I told him "dude, im about 3 seconds away from running out of this shop and shopping center!" He burst out laughing and said "You must be a fan of Fascinating Horror on TH-cam like me!' hahah, the legend gave me 40% off my purchases. Legit freaked me the F out!
Something similar almost happened in Talladega during a nascar race in 1987. Bobby Allison's car flew into the air after being turned on it's side, and almost flew into the stands. he barely missed by hitting a barrier before the fence, which slowed him down enough to be deflected off the fence & not blow through it
Same Thing Happened To Call Edwards At Talladega In 2009 And Also To Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, And Ryan Newman At Daytona. However In These Instances The Catch Fence Held.
Fantastic report, I remember this clearly. Thank you for this accurate and thoughtful report. Your informative videos never disappoint!
Back in the 70s my Dad bought a book about disasters,natural ones and ones caused by humans. This one was in the book and it was truly horrific and completely preventable. Interestingly enough,I think,there was no condemnation of Hawthorne. Used to wonder(the book was still around my folks' place for decades) if this may have been due to the fact that it was a British publication. Just speculating.
Been following this channel for a long time. Keep up the great work!
this is so weird, I was just watching a documentary about the le mans disaster but I was looking for a fascinating horror ep on it (I figured it had already been done) and then not two days later this comes out. Spooky. Great work as always.
Yah I could’ve sworn he already covered this. Maybe not.
I'm super certain that he already covered this
Excellently made and presented as always. You always take the high road and give a well-researched, respectful accounting of times when people are at their best, or at their worst.
Possibly in future might you look at the Indianapolis 500, specifically the 1964 or 1973 races?
👏Thanks FH! I love your vids, always brief, yet interesting enough that a lot of the time makes me further look into the story, or subject. Sometimes you shine a light on things that I never knew happened.
*Fun fact: We have a game show here in the US called Jeopardy, more than once I knew answers because it was something I had learned from Fascinating Horror!😄👍
Quite unbelievable in today's racing environment, thankfully
The Isle of Man TT continues to be deadly to this day though. there's only one year in the sport's history where no one died.
@@zvenafnazbalji7539 1982
One factor that doesn’t get mentioned was the practice of allowing automobiles of vastly different capabilities to compete in the same race. Macklin was driving an Austin-Healey - essentially a production car anyone could buy that was then modified for racing. It was much slower than the purpose-built factory racers such as Mercedes, Jaguar, Ferrari, Maserati and the like. Hawthorn was told to pit and appears to have decided to pass the slower 26 car driven by Macklin before doing so. That made it necessary for him to brake strongly causing Macklin to hit the right edge of the track. His car then swerved, apparently out of control, into the path of the fast-closing Levegh. It seems to me that the practice of allowing cars of all classes to compete in the same race was a major factor in the disaster. Arguably, Macklin and his Austin-Healy should never been allowed in the race at all.
I love your videos, and It’s kinda interesting being a car enthusiast I know about this story very well so any chance to learn more is very intriguing
To add to Hawthorn winning the race, the next year Hawthorn had a camera on his car in practice. He did a lap around the track and did commentary while driving and mentions safety improvements made to the track after "the terrible accident last year". The one that he caused. That videos on TH-cam
he didn’t cause the accident …
@@peterf.229 slowing down and pulling suddenly (and without warning) to the right side of the track, into the path of Lance Macklin causing him to swerve and make contact with a much faster Pierre Levegh is not causing the accident?
Hawthorne seems to have been a pompous twit but how is anyone in that situation supposed to foresee the outcome of merely slowing down on the pit straight when all you can see is a few blurry cars behind you in a shaking mirror? Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. There are so many "what if"s that Hawthorne can't be blamed totally. For example what if Macklins car didn't have a sloped rear? Then Le Veigh's car wouldn't have been launched and there would have likely been far less carnage, possibly none. You can say Hawthorne was guilty of reckless driving, but not directly responsible for 84 people dead.
@@John-k6f9k I said he caused the accident, not the he's directly responsible for 84 people dead
I love all of your videos! Watching this triggered a thought I had, what about doing a short doc/video on the Ramstein Air Base where all of those spectators were killed when that plane crashed into the crowd? It's an idea... Super-long-time-subscriber, I've watched your entire library of videos! 😊
In the 60s it was more dangerous to be a racing driver than to be an astronaut. 50s were not much better. Fragile cars, no seat belts, no pitlanes, no helmets, no fireproof overalls, no safety on the racetrack, no designated hospitals and doctors, cars that were deathtraps and could spontaneously combust after a crash, no marshals and no trackside safety. It's truly a miracle there were not more accidents like LeMans 1955 or Monza 1961.
Oh snap wasnt expecting an upload while looking through old videos!
My friend's uncle was killed by a flying tire at a Nascar race. I was shocked because i had never considered something like that. And that was just a single fatality accident 😳
It wasn't on a NASCAR race for sure - Tyres have killed people in CART/Indycar though
What some people don't fully appreciate is that there's always been an element of "motor racing is dangerous, if you don't accept the risk then don't participate or spectate" but over the years we've seen just how much risk is acceptable to the general public. More recently, safety has also been mandated because of the risk of litigation. For example the court case after the death of Ayrton Senna dragged on for many years.
We still hear of occasional spectator deaths in motor racing, notably rallying. Le Mans was on a different scale though. I doubt anyone in 1955 imagined there could possibly be such a massive death toll from a single accident until that day.
In my town, there's a memorial plaque to Mike Hawthorn outside the local library. Just thought I'd mention it as its on a similar subject.
Been waiting for this one! The worst disaster in auto racing history. So glad you did this!
Imagine going to a race with your loved ones because you both like motorsport, and then by the end of the day, one or both of you aren’t going home because you ended up in something that could come strait out of a Final Destination movie. Absolutely horrifying to just think about.
or you could be asleep and never wake up due to a house fire, gas leak , co poisoning or a heart attack , people love to talk about terror and are afraid to live.
It’s 6:45am here in Virginia and as I was fixing my breakfast, I was like ooohhh Fascinating Horror should have uploaded this morning! ❤️. This accident was horrific 😔
How did your breakfast break?
@@cplcabs very nicely…
Motor racing used to be so insanely dangerous! This wouldn't be the last time the long straights at Le Mans would cause a Mercedes to take flight (1999) but the drivers would survive the flight into the trees.
Auto racing of all kinds has always been something I love to watch. F1 isn't my favorite, but it is still fascinating to watch. I'm surprised it made it into the 50's without realizing they needed more safety features. I'm glad they didn't blame any one person, but put some focus on the set up of the track and the cars as well. It is sad that this had to happen to make the sport safer, and also sad that some of the drivers were so traumatized they quit racing. That part about this I had not known before.
Thank you for being so respectful in your narrative. I appreciate the lack of drama in your videos.
Speaking of motorsport incidents that had far reaching implications, I would suggest the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Italy. So many incidents occurred that weekend that it would fill a book by itself. It was more than just the death of Ayrton Senna, the various incidents left not just the motorsport community, but people around the world in shock and anger at what had been allowed to happen. After the major incidents that either left drivers, mechanics or spectators injured or killed, the governing body of the Formula One World Championship, the Federation International de l'Automobiles (FIA), made a series of dramatic changes in the wake of what happened that weekend, including modifying the track layout at Imola, improving the overall safety of the cars, and most lasting, the implementation of a pit lane speed limit.
The reason for the latter was graphically shown in the closing stages of the race as Michele Alboreto accelerated down the pit lane after his last tyre change and topping up of fuel. As his car approached 90MPH, his right rear wheel came off and ploughed through mechanics from other teams, knocking down two mechanics each from Ferrari and Lotus, leaving them requiring hospital treatment. Another change resulting from Imola 1994, mechanics from every team had to wait in the comparative safety of their team garage until called upon.
A lot of people overly simplify that weekend as being the weekend where Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna were killed (the former was the first driver fatality at a race weekend since 1982 and the first at the wheel of then contemporary F1 machinery since 1986)
It's insane that not only do we have an video of the car/engine block flying across the grandstands, but also a video of the car jumping over the hay barrier at a camera for it to suddenly freeze. That's basically unheard of at that time.
This story is horrific! Just when you think it can't get any worse... it does, big time... 😔
Dude I've been scouring the entire internet for this video. Right on for re posting it
I have been involved in motorsport in Australia since 1991. It took me 15 years to see my first accident that caused deathm then ot have someone die at another event a couple of months later was really eerie.
Are you referring to the marshal killed by the flying tyre at Albert Park?
@@carlodifabio7991 No both the people i was reffering to were competitors. Kirk McCarthy Australian Superbike rider had an accident then a couple of months later a Driver at the Festival of Speed on Tweed passed away after rolling his historic car without a roll bar on both events were in 2004.
I actually thought you already did this video but I was confusing you for Qxir. Would love to see you guys collab in the future
Great video as always
It appears that Hawthorne's tasteless celebrations weren't an aberration. From the girlfriend of Hawthorne's teammate and rival (who had just died):
"After visiting the mortally injured Musso in hospital, Breschi returned to her hotel, where she and the rest of the Ferrari team were informed by the team manager that afternoon that Musso had died. Within thirty days Collins too was dead, and the following January, Hawthorn. Breschi could not suppress a feeling of release: "I had hated them both", she said, "first because I was aware of certain facts that were not right, and also because when I came out of the hospital and went back to the hotel, I found them in the square outside the hotel, laughing and playing a game of football with an empty beer can. So when they died, too, it was liberating for me. Otherwise I would have had unpleasant feelings towards them forever. This way I could find a sense of peace."
I put the accident completely at Hawthornes fault. He should've taken responsibility for his actions, and the fact that he did not follows him into eternity....
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 why? He did what was required, he signalled what he was about to do.
@@cplcabs Because he let his ego get the better of him...
He already had instructions from the lap before to go into the pits, he could've prepared that pit stop accordingly in a safe way. Instead he made a split second decision going into the pits, after considering going another lap. With new technology comes a responsibility. He was the only one in the field with disc brakes, he should've taken into consideration no one else in the field could break that fast. He didn't look into the rear view mirror, because if he had he would've known that the car behind would crash into him. So, Hawthorn was riding high on his big ego, considered doing another lap, changed his mind, hand signalled, put the foot on the breaks and swirved into the pitlane. The signal was obviously too little too late for anyone to react in a safe way thus leading to the crash. Without Hawthorns actions there wouldn't have been a crash.
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 cope. he didn't do anything wrong. And the fact that you try to pin everything on one person instead of acknowledging that everything design wise in the race (car design, track design, safety, spectator seating, etc) was a shit show is ridiculous.
@@dddgaming885 Yeah, well, I'm not alone pinning this disaster solely on Hawthorn. He was a careless, reckless driver....
Lance Macklin's Austin Healey was quite literally ramp shaped in the back: a special drag reducing sloped tail had been fitted. This made an extra 'convenient' ramp for Pierre Levegh's racing Mercedes to zoom up the ramp and into the crowd. His Mercedes' body and wheels were also largely made of magnesium: Magnesium burns white hot and cannot be put out by water. BTW, Magnesium and phosphorous were 2 of the main ingredients in WWII Incendiary bombs.
Terrific content creator, the best part is that you tell us measurements in both metric and whatever the other one is. Thank you!!
We call it "standard" and we use feet and inches, although metric is the standard for most people
3:40 Re: Disk Brakes -- Period disk brakes did not allow faster stopping than comparable drum brakes. That is incorrect. Disk brakes cool much more efficiently than drum brakes and are more resistant to brake fade during prolonged braking. In period DBs didn't stop a car faster or in less distance, but they did allow a driver to brake more aggressively over a longer time, and they are easier to service (pad replacement), resulting in quicker pit stops during a long endurance race. One only needs to observe that the Jags were not drastically outbraking the drum-equipped cars in the race's early stages to come to this conclusion.
It was such a tragedy for all motorsports fans, but ultimately it made racing safer. RIP
Sadly, this kind of thing is what it takes to make it better. In Nascar, Earnhart's crash made the cars leaps and bounds better. Also in drag racing, Kalita's crash brought many improvements to drag car's.
@@HellmuthsHotRods Didn't Dale Earnhart's old-style racing helmet also contribute to his death? While the other NASCAR drivers, including his son Dale Jr., wore the full-face helmets, he wore a style of racing helmet that he wore since he started racing that didn't cover his whole head area. It looks like a football helmet without the face mask.
Sadly many safety rules and procedures are written in blood.
@@arnoldhenry Partially but it was also due to a number of other reasons. Less restrictions on safety gear (the HANS or Hutchens device wasnt mandatory) led to several driver deaths in 2000 and 2001. His death was the 4th in a row caused by a basilar skull fracture (besides Tony Roper who I believe suffered a neck injury which restricted blood flow to his brain). Even after Dales death these devices weren't mandatory until Blaise Alexanders death later in 2001 in which he also died of a basilar skull fracture. Not only was the lack of a safety device responsible for his death but so was concrete walls still being used and no SAFER barrier existing at this point in time.
I have seen the video of the crash and the disintegrating parts hitting the stands...it is truly horrific to see. We researched, and well presented, DF.
Well yes, they did not stop the race immediately to avoid panic, but it went on for other 18 hours, including night time when a lot of spectators left anyway, so... it was not a decision simply based on safety.
By the way if you like animation, here is a short film about the event (taking artistic liberties)
th-cam.com/video/22I7yJiOu0s/w-d-xo.html
This is the best event coverage yet! I'm impressed.
6:56 "Not only did Mike Hawthorne survive but he also aged 40 years by the end of the race..."
I wrote about this crash for a book chapter in TAFE many years ago, actually part of an assignment about the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in general. Still an insane story in the history of motor racing. There is a beautifully animated short film about the disaster told from the perspective of the Mercedes team that came around the same time as that Ford v. Ferrari film. Worth checking out since it's available on TH-cam.
Oh, and as an addendum to this story, Mercedes did pull out of racing after the crash but they wouldn't return to sports car racing until the late 1980s when Mercedes paired with Sauber to build a car to compete against Porsche and Jaguar. Mercedes did win the 24 Hour race in 1989 and by that time, the speeds at Le Mans had skyrocketed with the fastest ever speed recorded at an astonishing 405km/h (252mph) the previous year. The next year, two chicanes were finally built to reduce top speeds. Mercedes returned off and on to Le Mans and sports car racing, the last time that they did at Le Mans was also the year that saw the Silver Arrows cars take off... and land with a thud.
Fantastic video
I just heard about this, I knew you would have a video about it already, and you do. Nice!
Of course this is just one of many devastating accidents involving F1 it comes with the territory I guess when you're going 200 mph around a bend the risk is also there but so does getting into any car imo
Scary thing is, the philosophy that it's better to be thrown from your vehicle persisted in hydroplane racing up until the late 80s. It took two high-profile deaths in the early 80s to finally start turning that notion around.
This sounds like the beginning of one of the Final Destination movies that took place at a racetrack. I wonder if the script writer used this as inspiration. Gruesome. ☹️☹️
I've watched a lot videos about the le mans accident. This is the best one by far, thank you
Driving and surviving back in those days wasn't a question of talent, it was a question of luck.
Respect to the drivers such as Jackie Stewart who had enough of the deaths and wanted to stop it for good.
It goes right back to the start of the 20th Century and even the end of the 19th. They got away with it for a few years right at the beginning as they were lucky and the cars were not very fast. But it didn`t take them long to build bigger and faster cars and create a disaster, (see 1903 Paris to Madrid Road Race).
Damn I remember watching this channel all the way back in 2020 or so
happy to see the channel is still doing good. Would always make my morning every wednesy ong
Man, that one picture reminds me of that Mercedes CLK GTR that went airborne in 1999 I think it was
Mark Webber remembers
it was a CLR
Another disaster classic! While we’re on large event disaster, maybe do Rammstein air show or the 2014 new taipei water park dust explosion?
“WWII on the tracks”. Some serious foreshadowing there.
um no
ww2 1939-1945
lemans disaster 1955
that or you dont know what foreshadowing is..
@@ripvanwinkle2002 Foreshadowing the crash, not WWII. How could you interpret that comment any other way.
id interpret it as you wrote it
since ww2 in NO WAY resembled this wreck
HTF am i supposed to think YOU think its foreshadowing a car wreck? when NOTHING about ww2 resembles in ANY WAY, a car wreck?
@@ripvanwinkle2002 still doesn't explain how you interpreted my comment wrong
@@adamjohnson2914 well since the task of making the message clear, is on the messenger not the recipient. id say thats a YOU problem since i was quite clear how youre comment was structured wrong..
but since youve proven quite a dullard..
NOTHING about the race resembles ww2 so what happened in ww2 was in no way any kind of "foreshadowing" of a random wreck in the 1955 LeMans race WW2 on the track refers to the fact the car makers were british german and italian..
btw, do you have the number to the public school you went to? id like to call and tell them they let you down quite badly in the area of sentence structure and reading comprehension.. and a quick word with your history teacher would be swell too..
Motorsport was and still is one of the most dangerous sport out there. Fatal crashes and accidents paved the way for better safety equipments and regulations for the participants and spectators.
We might still hear fatalities on motorsport nowadays, but it'll less likely to happen like it was 30-40 years ago.