This was indeed one of the most terrible accidents in the early decades of motorsports. On the 11th of June 1955, about 300,000 spectators gathered at the Circuit de la Sarthe in Northern France for another endurance car race event. Much recrimination was directed at Hawthorn, saying that he had suddenly cut in front of Macklin and slammed on the brakes near the entrance to the pits, forcing Macklin to take desperate evasive action into the path of Levegh. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. The deadliest crash ever in motor sports history happened in Le Mans, France, on June 12, 1955. Fast forward two hours and 26 minutes later, and disaster struck. 312 Le Mans 1955 Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE EDITORIAL All Sports Entertainment News Archival Browse 312 le mans 1955 stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Cole was killed when his Ferrari left the road, impacting one of several farm houses lining the road at Maison Blanche. It shows you not only how the crash happened, but how little stood between those watching and the flying wreckage. An American soldier at the race, Jimmy Prickett, was at the scene and took pictures immediately following the crash. That said, the circuit had been resurfaced and widened after the Second World War. [42] The car retained the original engine SPL 261-BN,[41] but was reported to be in 'barn find' condition. Levegh rear-ended Macklin at high speed, overriding Macklin's car and launching his own car through the air. The accident happened at 6:26 pm, at the end of lap 35, when the first pit stops for the leading cars were starting. Here is a full view of the crash site from the nearby stands. Macklin moves over to the right to let him pass. Large. As a result, Macklin's car veered across to the centre of the track, apparently briefly out of control. I'll try and give an explanation of how it happened, why so many people died, and why the organizers didn't cancel the race after the crash. At the 24 Hueres Du Mans in July 1955, the inevitable finally happened. (AP Photo/Jimmy Prickett). The driver (Pierre Levegh) was killed, as were 83 spectators. "There was a doctor who was carrying his young son on his shoulders," Raymonde Galisson, a Le Mans resident who was among the spectators that day, told Sports Illustrated. [30], Most countries lifted their racing bans within a year after the disaster. The behemoths of sports racing all featured their sports cars with their respective drivers for another car racing festival. 1950s, accident & disaster, event & history, footage & video, france, Le Mans, sports, vehicles They argued that if the accident was announced, panic might sweep through the spectators and flood the streets, and that will make crowd control extreme and might have made rescue efforts very difficult. However, an inopportune press photograph showed Hawthorn smiling on the podium swigging from the victors bottle of champagne. It commemorates the deadliest accident in motorsport history, which took place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race on June 11, 1955. The death toll led to an immediate temporary ban on motorsports in France, Spain, Switzerland, West Germany, and other nations, until racetracks could be brought to a higher safety standard. . World Sports Car Championship.During the race, Pierre Levegh crashed into a crowd of spectators, killing 84 (including himself) and injuring 120 in the deadliest accident in motor racing history. The final verdict assigned blame to no one. Andr Guilbert was the first driver to die in June 1925 during the race's third year, although this was due to a collision with a van while en route to the race,[1] but is classified by race historians and authors of the official yearbooks, Christian Moity and Jean-Marc Teissedre. An estimated attendance of between 250,000 and 300,000 crammed together to witness one of the most spectacular driver line ups ever assembled to contest the venue's iconic 24-Hour race. Tony Rolt and other drivers had been raising concerns about the pit straight since 1953. I stood as if in a dream, too horrified to even think., Mike Hawthorn and the Jaguar team kept racing. The wreckage was examined and tested and, finally, returned to Mercedes-Benz nearly 12 months after the catastrophe. Three years ago, another Audi crashed and nearly careened over a low wall into a large row of photographers. (AP Photo/Jimmy Prickett), A man holds a child in the left background while a woman bends over a lifeless body following the racing car crash and explosion during the 24 hour endurance race at Le Mans, France, June 11, 1955. The first media accounts were wildly inaccurate, as shown by subsequent analysis of photographic evidence conducted by Road & Track editor (and 1955 second-place finisher) Paul Frre in 1975. Neubauer limited himself to suggesting improvements to the pit straight and making pit-stops safer. Fourteen people were decapitated with the death toll in the crowd recorded at 83 - though more were believed to have succumbed to their injuries in the weeks and months afterward. The next round of the World Sportscar Championship at the Nrburgring was cancelled, as was the non-championship Carrera Panamericana. outstanding team of sports writers. Behind these fleeing spectators is the scene where many were killed when hit by flying pieces of the racer which exploded after crashing into a retaining wall. [9][14], The critical kink in the road put the car on a direct trajectory toward the packed terraces and grandstand. Macklin swerved out from behind the slowing Jaguar into the path of Levegh, who was passing on the left in his much faster Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. When he finally made it into the pits again, past what was then the scene of the crash, tears were streaming down his face. Cole was thrown from the car and died at the scene. The crash happened only a few hours into the race, just as the leaders started making their first pit stops. It had been Levegh's unprecedented solo drive in the 1952 race that failed in the last hour, which allowed Mercedes-Benz their first Le Mans victory. It became part of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012 after previous stints in the Sportscar Championship and the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. [25], Opinions differed widely amongst the other drivers as to who was directly to blame for the crash, and such differences remain even today. With his eyes shut, Fangio with his own quick reflexes squeezed through the carnage and brushed Hawthorn's then-stationary Jaguar in the pits, allowing him to pass unscathed. Fitch explained that he only got an idea of how bad things were when he overheard a journalist friend of his reporting news that some 65 people were reported dead. This would be unbelievably flippant today. then went back and tried to rescue others.". Jaguar concentrated their racing almost exclusively on Le Mans and had a very experienced driver line-up, including Formula 1 (F1) Ferrari driver Mike Hawthorn. He lost control of the car three hours later in the early morning whilst approaching the Arnage esses and veered off the track on the left side and collided with an oak tree, killing the driver almost instantly with massive head and chest injuries. [3], Jaguar driver Duncan Hamilton, watching from the pit wall, recalled, "The scene on the other side of the road was indescribable. Le Mans Motor Racing Disaster (1955) | British Path Watch on At least 83 spectators were killed and over a hundred more injured in the 1955 Le Mans Disaster. Catastrophe aux 24 heures du Mans en 1955 (France 3 Ouest, 2008), Apokalypse in Le Mans Das Rennen in den Tod (2010), Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster (Programme Website), "Crash and carnage at 150 mph This is how the worst racing accident happened", "1955 24 Hours of Le Mans - History, Profile, Information and Photos", "Mike Hawthorn & the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans: The Cause and the Effect", "BBC Four - The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster", "1956 Sebring 12 Hours Grand Prix - Race Photos, History, Profile", "Switzerland Officially Lifts 67-Year Ban On Circuit Racing", "Sir Jackie Stewart and Halo: No stranger to F1 safety ridicule", "Historic Austin-Healey car in Le Mans disaster to fetch '1m at auction", "1953 Austin-Healey has been restored to its former glory", Le Mans 1955 from The Mike Hawthorn Tribute Site, Newsreel footage of the 1955 race and crash, Life Magazine report of the 1955 Le Mans Disaster, 1955 Le Mans Disaster depicted and analyzed in depth by a witness (currently available only in French), Deadliest Crash: The Le Mans 1955 Disaster, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1955_Le_Mans_disaster&oldid=1142738568, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2017, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, that if the huge crowd of spectators had tried to leave, that firms participating in the race could have sued the race organizers for huge sums of money, that "the rough law of sport dictates that the race shall go on"; Faroux specifically pointing to the, that he did not, in fact, have the authority to stop the race at all, and that, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 02:57. With the Mercedes team withdrawn and the Ferraris all out of commission, Jaguar's main competition had gone. On 10 June 2009, the Stnderat (upper house of the Swiss parliament) defeated a proposal to lift the ban for the second time. The crash was right in front of a densely packed crowd and grandstands, protected by nothing more than a few hay bales. Your email address will not be published. It was an appalling tragedy that shocked the world and changed the face of motorsports forever. Shortly after midnight Mercedes retired its cars from racing were running first and third. Levegh died in the 1955 Le Mans disaster which also killed 83 spectators during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans automobile race. Entering the straight, his Matra veered off the inside of the track and exploded into flames. Even after modifications had been made to the Circuit de la Sarthe after 1955, Louis Hry was killed on his own just a year later. The greatest carmakers in the world were competing, as were the best drivers. [31] In contrast, Switzerland's ban, which also extended to the running of timed motorsports such as hillclimbs, was not quickly lifted. Norman Dewis ventured the opinions that Macklins move around Hawthorn was careless and that Levegh was not competent to meet the demands of driving at the speeds the 300SLR was capable of. Accounts put the death toll at 80 to 84 (spectators plus Levegh), either by flying debris or from the fire, with a further 120 to 178 injured. Levegh was thrown from the car and killed, while burning pieces of the car were flung into the crowd and caught fire, killing 83 others. The crash started when Jaguar driver Mike Hawthorn pulled to the right side of the track in front of Austin-Healey driver Lance Macklin and started braking for his pit stop. Chief engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut had gone to the Jaguar pits to ask if the Jaguar team would respond in kind, out of respect for the crash victims. [37][15][38] Track safety technology and practices evolved slowly until F1 driver Jackie Stewart organized a campaign to advocate for better safety measures ten years later. The car split into three pieces. The circuit goes through a dedicated section of the racing track too. Showing Editorial results for le mans 1955. The 1955 Le Mans tragedy was deemed a terrible accident but in truth was the end of an era that would never come again. In his biography, Hawthorn said he was "momentarily mesmerized by the legend of the Mercedes superiority Then I came to my senses and thought Damn it, why should a German car beat a British car. 1955 - the Le Mans Crash in 90+ pictures from the Mike Hawthorn Tribute Site. Other observers estimated the toll to be much higher. Pierre Levegh, aged 49, had been hired by Mercedes-Benz . These roads are not predictable and can have so many unforeseen dangers. "The hood decapitated tightly jammed spectators like a guillotine. And the car's magnesium body burst into flames like a torch, burning others to death.. The car landed on the earthen embankment between the spectators and the track, bounced, then slammed into a concrete stairwell structure and disintegrated. Even at the scene, it doesn't look like anyone knows what's going on. "I believe he wanted to turn the car over at his stop, still in the lead. It smacked the barrier and the road shoulder rolling at hurtling speeds through 85 yards and over a further 100 yards, the engine, radiator, and suspension already ablaze were flung through a cluster of spectators destroying everything and anything in its part. [14] The bonnet lid scythed through the air, "decapitating tightly jammed spectators like a guillotine. The car, lying on the track, was then hit by the Ferrari of, As the car was thrown off balance over the hump on the. June 11, 2020 The opening hours were a fast and furious affair with drivers battling for early supremacy. Levegh's Mercedes flipped into the air and struck the sandbank at the side of the track. 2023 Getty Images. . The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Just as the race was having the average pedestrian pace for a car race, there was an accident that changed the cause of motorsports history. On lap 35, Hawthorn and Fangio were racing as hard as ever. The 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 23rd 24 Hours of Le Mans and took place on 11 and 12 June 1955 on Circuit de la Sarthe.It was also the fourth round of the F.I.A. Tap into Getty Images global-scale, data-driven insights and network of over 340,000creators to create content exclusively for your brand. Le design Getty Images est une marque de Getty Images. Police managed to drag the Austin-Healey to the other side of the track. Dveloppez votre marque de manire authentique en partageant son contenu avec tous les crateurs Internet. Dewis ventured the opinions that Macklin's move around Hawthorn was careless and that Levegh was not competent to meet the demands of driving at the speeds the 300SLR was capable of. The dead and dying were everywhere; the cries of pain, anguish, and despair screamed catastrophe. Irish Examiner Ltd, Linn Dubh, Assumption Road, Blackpool, Cork. Jaguar went on to win the race. [2] Sixteen during the race itself, five during pre-race practice and testing sessions, and one en route to the race. The Mercedes crashed into the embankment that bordered the track, killing Levegh instantly. [14] Half an hour after the crash Fitch realised that news was probably being broadcast on the radio, and he needed to telephone his family to reassure them that he was not the driver of the crashed car. "But by overtaking me and braking sharply he forced me to overtake him again, which meant I had to pull out in front of Levegh and Fangio. A police officer helps carry out an injured man, dazed. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In all, a total of 22 drivers have died in and around the Circuit de la Sarthe,[1] with more than half occurring along the circuit's Mulsanne Straight. Jaguar team manager "Lofty" England declined. 312 Le Mans 1955 Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE EDITORIAL All Sports Entertainment News Archival Browse 312 le mans 1955 stock photos and images available or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The Ferraris, current champions at the time, were very fast but fragile and prone to mechanical failure. This is a list of 24 Hours of Le Mans fatal accidents, which consists of all the drivers who have died during a 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend, or in pre-race testing or practice sessions in preparation of the event. This newsreel without sound shows the crash as it actually happened. During preliminary tests on a wet track on Saturday morning, April 2, 1966 he lost control and drove down an escape road. Browse 311 le mans 1955 stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The official government inquiry into the accident called officials, drivers, and team personnel to be questioned and give evidence. 63 1955 Le Mans Disaster Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 63 1955 LE MANS DISASTER Premium High Res Photos Browse 63 1955 LE MANS DISASTER stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Jaguar driver Duncan Hamilton, and a teammate of Hawthorn, watched the tragedy unfold from the pit wall. Showing Editorial results for le mans 1955. D-Type Jaguars won the Le Mans 24hr endurance race in 1955, 1956 and 1957. The 1955 Le Mans disaster was a major crash that occurred on 11 June 1955 during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, Sarthe, France. Going into the second hour, Castellotti started dropping back, but Hawthorn and Fangio continued the duel, swapping the lead and dropping the lap record further and further, lapping most of the field.[4][5]. Hawthorn and Bueb won the race by a margin of five laps from Aston Martin. Racing fuel exploded. I stood as if in a dream, too horrified to even think. Being 98 years old, it is the oldest endurance racing event. In the United States, the American Automobile Association (AAA) dissolved their Contest Board that had been the primary sanctioning body for motorsport in the US (including the Indianapolis 500) since 1904. Everything slows right down as if you were watching a slow-motion film. The Mercedes trucks were packed up and gone by morning. 312 Le Mans 1955 Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images EDITORIAL All Sports Entertainment News Archival Browse 312 le mans 1955 stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The accident caused, Just ten minutes into the race, Simonsen spun off the kerbs and into the Armco barrier on the exit of Tertre Rouge where it joined RD 338 (, This page was last edited on 19 February 2023, at 23:30. Flying metal following the explosion killed some 80 and injured many spectators. The car rolled over during the incident. Look at how dense the crowd was. This forced Swiss racing promoters to organize circuit events in foreign countries including France, Italy, and West Germany. These were the days of patriots racing Red, Blue, Green, White and Silver cars for the national glory of their country. French magazin L'Auto-Journal published the image with the sarcastic laden caption, votre sant, Monsieur Hawthorn. ("To your health, Mr Hawthorn."). The only people on and around the podium that day who had mixed emotions at the race end were either race officials who were trying (and failing) to put on a faade for the camera and were grateful for an end to a disastrous race or other workers at the Le Mans circuit who had no stake in the race. 0. Levegh's car skipped over a protective earthen berm at 200km/h (125mph) and made at least two impacts within the spectator area, the last of which caused the car to disintegrate, throwing him onto the track where he was instantly killed. Also, there is the small matter of unconventional circuits, which unlike other competition which is held on private roads (which are consistently maintained), the Le Mans were held on long stretches of a public highway. Mercedes-Benz won both of these events, and was able to secure the constructors championship for the season. The French press, who knew better than most how awful the crash had been, scorned Hawthorn, blamed him for the crash, and in disgust carried pictures of him celebrating after the race, as the BBC reports. Here, a man holds the body of a child. The cars touched, Bonnier's was launched over the barriers and ended up in the trees. It's hard to say just how many people died in the crash. The weather had closed in on Sunday morning and there was no victory celebration. The Jaguar boss didn't have to report back to the factory, and when Mercedes came up to him to say they weren't going to finish the race, they asked if he would too. The engine and front axle cut a swath like an artillery barrage. A single accident that caused death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. It was a sort of victory for motorsports somehow, a pyrrhic victory, albeit. Mercedes team manager Alfred Neubauer assembled a multinational team for the race: pairing his two best drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss in the lead car, 1952 race-winner Karl Kling with Frenchman Andr Simon (both also in the current F1 team) and American John Fitch with one of the elder statesmen of French motor-racing, Pierre Levegh. [41] In December 2011, the car, estimated to raise 800,000 before the auction,[41] was sold for 843,000. "I felt the heat of his exhaust as he went by me, no more than three feet over my shoulder. Eighty-four. Ivor Bueb and Norman Dewis, both Le Mans debutants, had to step into their respective cars for their first driver stints. Most spectators at the race were still oblivious to the accident that just happened. 2023 Getty Images. [8][9] What caught Macklin out though was that Hawthorn, using the Jaguar's advanced disc brakes, braked hard enough to slow his Jaguar from such a speed in time.[10][11][12][13]. The Mercedes' body was partially made of a magnesium alloy. A special Mass was held in the morning in the Le Mans Cathedral for the first funerals of the victims. Additional details emerged when the stills reviewed by Frre were converted to video form. The official inquiry cleared all drivers of any fault. Showing Editorial results for le mans 1955. [3] Levegh was thrown out of his tumbling car and hit the ground, crushing his skull upon impact and killing him instantly. Macklin survived the incident without serious injury, jumping out of the wreck and over the bank. He wrote a book saying so, and Macklin then sued Hawthorn for libel. Supposedly they were concerned that crowds of people leaving the track would keep ambulances from getting to those in need. died when he crashed into an insufficiently protected tree, crashed and nearly careened over a low wall into a large row of photographers. When he pit stopped during the next lap, he staggered out of the car completely distraught, adamant that he had caused the catastrophe. Bueb in particular was very reluctant, but given Hawthorn's condition had no choice, as Dewis firmly pointed out to him.[3]. The dead and dying were everywhere; the cries of pain, anguish, and despair screamed catastrophe. Macklin claimed that Hawthorns move to the pits was sudden, causing an emergency that led him to swerve into Leveghs path. The Austin-Healey spun into the wall, killing one spectator but leaving its driver unharmed. "The man was not injured by the flying debris, but his son was killed. A major crash caused large fragments of debris to fly into the crowd, killing 83 spectators and French driver Pierre Bouillin (who raced under the name Pierre Levegh) and injuring nearly 180 more. The investigation zeroed in on Hawthorns attempt to overtake British driver Lance Macklins Austin Healey and a sudden catastrophic decision to pit. "[16] Spectators who had climbed onto ladders and scaffolding to get a better view of the track, and those crowding to use the underpass to get to the pits, found themselves in the path of the lethal debris. [36], The official government inquiry into the accident called officials, drivers, and team personnel to be questioned and give evidence. The 1955 Le Mans disaster occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race, when a crash caused large fragments of racing car debris to fly into the crowd. Fifty-nine years ago, the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour race started like any other. In the history of racing disasters, the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans tragedy still exists in a category of . The grandstand was demolished and rebuilt with new spectator terraces and a wide ditch between them and the racetrack. In picture, car numbered '17' (Equipe Los Amigos, XKD 513, 'short-nose') was third at Le Mans in 1957. [32][33] In 2015, the ban was relaxed for electric vehicles only, such as cars involved in Formula E electric racing. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. On Sunday morning, Bonnier approached the Indianapolis bend before Arnage and tried to avoid the slowly driven Ferrari 365GTB4 #35 of Florian Vetsch. [34] The ban was lifted in May 2022.[35]. Here he is, still in his car after crossing the finish line, reaching up for a kiss from a local girl. Its sloping back acted like a ramp for Levegh's Mercedes, however, which flew into the air. Eighty-three spectators and driver Pierre Levegh died and 120 more were injured in the most catastrophic accident in motorsport history. Many other drivers tried to describe the whole crash as a blameless 'racing incident,' but Hawthorn blamed Lance Macklin, the driver of the Austin-Healey. It might have been the case that determined who was at fault once and for all, but Hawthorn died before the case could be resolved. Fangio and Moss were the lead pairing for the German company who had pinned their hopes on a new 300 SLR which boasted an ultra-lightweight magnesium alloy body. Putting another lap on Macklin coming up to the main straight, Hawthorn then raised his hand to indicate he was pitting and pulled across to the right (from Hawthorn's testimony). He tried to avoid a collision with Macklin but he was too close and too fast. I should say that the 'pits' were completely undivided from the racetrack back then. The pits and grandstands had been reconstructed, but there were no barriers between the pit lane and the racing line, and only a 4ft (1.2m) earthen bank between the track and the spectators. RELATED: 10 Of The Coolest Le Mans Prototypes No One Remembers. This put him into the path of Levegh's Mercedes, closing in at over 200km/h (120mph), intent on doing another lap and in front of Fangio, who was patiently waiting to pass. The rear of Leveghs car landed on the berm and exploded into flames. The official inquiry held none of the drivers specifically responsible and criticised the layout of the 30-year-old track, which had not been designed for cars as fast as those involved in the crash. 58 men, 15 women, and 6 children were reported dead at the time, but there was a further casualty of 5 people after later findings, with 170 (approximate figure) people suffering injuries of varying degrees. But I am not fully convinced that everyone was as cold to the crash then as they are now. On that date, the Ministry of the Interior released new regulations for racing events and codified the approval process that future racing events would need to follow. In the middle as many as 130 died in the most horrific disaster in motorsports history. Filmmaker Quentin Baillieux paints a picture of sport and tragedy at Circuit de la Sarthe. [15] The initial media accounts were wildly inaccurate, as shown by subsequent analysis of photographic evidence conducted by Road & Track editor (and 1955 second-place finisher) Paul Frre in 1975. "It's a most extraordinary sensation," Macklin said when recalling an incident that spun his car around and sent it skittling down the track backward. Bianchi decided to start early as organisers were speculating a wet session later in the day. Exiting the Tertre Rouge corner, Larivire lost control of his car and launched over a sandbank along the. As callous as that might sound, there was a justifiable reason. I am including all of his pictures preserved by the AP, as well as all of the photographs taken by the AP itself. Only two cars were involved in the disaster. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. Thirty-five laps in the worst disaster in motorsports history unfolded. "As I was rolling along backward I saw Levegh's car following me in the air, with Levegh sort of hunched over in the cockpit. The action was still unresolved when Hawthorn was killed in a non-racing crash on the Guildford bypass in 1959, ironically while overtaking a Mercedes-Benz in his Jaguar. . France in particular, as the host of Le Mans, lifted their complete ban on 14 September 1955. In 1969, it was bought for 155 (equivalent to 2,714 in 2021). With Levegh dead, Macklin presumed that Hawthorn's implication was that he (Macklin) had been responsible, and he began a libel action. Within hours of the crash, the local police reported sixty five dead, as one racer remembered, and now the death toll is usually reported as something in the 80s. [15][16], Prior to the crash, the car was involved in a previous incident with partial damage to the front bodywork, as photographic evidence shows. On the other hand: damn those Jaguar D-types look nice. With two other drivers still in the race, Mercedes-Benz continued, but after so many calls for them to abandon the meeting and with the desire to avoid a PR disaster, they pulled out of the race in the wee hours of the morning and went home.