12/03/24
June 11, 2004
The Guardian pulls a 1955 story from its archives: the gruesome accident at Le Mans that killed a driver and around 80 spectators, the worst accident in auto racing history. One footnote: the race continued and the driver who caused the accident won. More on the crash [warning: content].
From the last link: After striking barrier the car somersaulted for about 85 yards, spewing flaming parts into crowd behind the fence. My god, what a horrible scene! Very sad.
posted by NoMich at 11:35 PM on June 11, 2004
I just can't believe they let the race continue.
posted by dusted at 12:21 AM on June 12, 2004
dusted: They were concerned a mass exodus of people would make it even harder to cope with the crash - emergency vehicles and whatnot would have been unable to get to hospital and so forth. It was essentially a safety concern. Also, it marked the exit of Mercedes from motorsport for decades.
posted by rodgerd at 01:09 AM on June 13, 2004
Justgary: Guessing you're not a motor racing fan. This crash is legendary, sadly. If I recall, Switzerland banned motor racing in the wake of this crash, a ban which still remains. Thank God we'll probably never see anything like that again.
posted by Drood at 05:05 AM on June 14, 2004
Wow. That's incredible. If there weren't multiple sources I probably would have thought it fake.