What caused the accident was Macklin suddenly swerving across in front of Levegh. What made a nasty accident into a tragedy was (a) a too-narrow track and (b) spectators too close to the edge of the track. I guess poor Levegh would probably have died anyway, but no one else need have. As to the "why didn't they stop the race?" controversy: because they didn't want the roads so choked up with spectators leaving that ambulances couldn't get through. That was the reason given at the time.
@ballsthatclank That's not poor Levegh's body; if you look carefully, you can see him flying through the air at 0.06 or thereabouts. He was thrown about 100 metres from the car and died instantly of a fractured skull. Levegh was a fine, brave man. It's such a pity that no one now remembers him except in relation to this awful tragedy.
i just read that in the paper today about the car being sold for a million pounds! The proceeds should go to create a memorial for one of the worst race car crashes in History!
Who would stay to watch that race? Idc if they've lived through WW: The Sequel (imo the best of the series) over a hundred people were MUUUUUUURDERED by cars! Seems a bit ironic they'd still want to see who wins.
I mean, it's a *bit* anti-climactic now knowing Mercedes-Benz is out of the running. lol Don't you think?
The decision to go on with the race was made to avoid the huge traffic jams and not to disturb the ambulances and security services. There was 86 dead and hundreds of wounded people.
The race didn't stop on that day in order to prevent spectators to leave and create traffic jams on the roads so that the paramedic cars could bring injured people to the hospital easily. However Mercedes, Fangio and some others gave up this race.
After this deadly crash, race were banned from France for 1 year and Mercedes only came back to race decades later.
Well all I can say is that I am happy about how much safer motor racing is these days. The last fatality was Roland Ratsenburger and Arton Senna. Obviously Massa was injured but that is a freak. We want good racing but no injuries
@steveevh1 That's only in F1. Le Mans had a practice-race fatalty in 1997 and Dale Earnhardt died in 2001 in NASCAR. Many more people have died, I am sure, in less public races. Racing is the world's most dangerous sport.
This color film somehow doesn't look all that disastrous; you see nothing of the debris plowing through the crowd, killing so many people. Instead you see a fire which doesn't appear to be all that significant - "And rightly, the race goes on" is the narrator's dismissive comment in summing up the incident.
To all the supporters of Mike Hawthorn. Thanks for setting the record straight. One thing though. Its says that Lance Macklin had to make an evasive move to avoid hitting Mike as he pitted. If you look at it from a another angle Lance's car catches some grass or dirt and so instead of passing mike the car stepped out for a split second but it was enough to sends his car into the middle of the track and into the path of Pierre Levegh. My verdict? No ones fault apart from the track design.
this crash was hardcore, i heard the bonnet of the the car that crashed flew of and decapitated people, and the engine flew out of the car and landed on people. terrible accident.
@bananabomb1987 The comment is certainly inappropriate, but really it was sensible to keep the race going, because there was still a massive crowd, even after the accident. Everybody leaving would have slowed down the ambulances. The toll may have been much higher as a result. However, Jaguar should have definitely withdrawn. And as for blame, no driver has any real blame in this. Hawthorn and Macklin made a simple driver error. The track was basically the same as it was in 1923.
All these people in this video were within strong living memory of the 2nd world war. Many had seen death and lost loved ones in the war that ended in 1945. So only ten years later (1955) It does not suprise me that the authorities and the fans would continue on with the race despite the deaths. They had a completely different mind set in comparison to the people of today in Europe.
The race didn't stop on that day in order to prevent spectators to leave and create traffic jams on the roads so that the paramedic cars could bring injured people to the hospital easily. However Mercedes, Fangio and some others gave up this race.
After this deadly crash, race were banned from France for 1 year and Mercedes only came back to race decades later.
according to recent doc. the footage shows macklin locking up and swerving across to avoid rear ending hawthorne, if hawthorne was slowing down to pit stop, macklin should have been aware that was a possibility as the pits were in front of the stand and to the right of the corner and moved out earlier. Poor skills and a too powerful car were to blame, not hawthorne.
Don't blame Mike Hawthorn as responsible for this tragic accident. I suggest you watch BBC4s " The Deadliest Crash" There were a lot of other factors involved. One of them being the track itself was not up to vehicles travelling at nearly 190mph. Look at how narrow it is between the pits and main grandstand
If they stopped the race directly after the accident then the mass exodus of spectators clogging up the small country roads near La Sarthe would have stopped ambulances arriving to care for the wounded.
@DonaldBumsfeld A different world, wasn't it? The thing you have to remember of course is, not only that the safety regimes we take for granted were entirely alien to that generation, but that most people in the crowd had lived through events in their lifetime involving far far more deaths and destruction than this
Fans get hurt and killed all over the world,all the time. Most are tragically avoidable but if we play with fire we get burned. They often just get TOO close. It's sad but many come for the crashes. Airshows can be just as bad. At the bottom of the first comment,I mentioned bikes. Boardtrackers had no brakes,no clutch,and no throttle. Killswitch only. It was wide open or nothing(pull-start from a car) over 1000cc,alcohol,basically on bicycle tires. The boards would often pop-up impaling riders.
i ahve remioved all my comments as i am tired of getting unwarranted abuse and insults from ignorant uneducated morons who see it fit to abuse me for stating historical facts. thanks to the guys who gave me constructive replies. to the other ones, go and research this race, it will be for your own good!
apologies to any who got intimitaded by my posts. i enjoy posting on subjects i have studied for years, some people find this arrogant! thanks again and bye!
@paulboggan ok will do, now, more important, you need to calm yourself down because you are going to give yourself a heart attack, are you ok? take ten deep breaths
as well as totally ignoring my valid points, insulting me, name calling at the level of a primary school kid and generally being an arse, you now have decided to patronise me too! my word, you are proficent in the use of the english language arent you. shame you missed the point of my posts, you must have, how otherwise would you have said i was a bully? all i said was why the race organizers didnt stop the event, a well knowwn fact, and i got a shit load of abuse for it..... no excuses!
But I don't have any excuses, I only, and in good honest terms I may add, only made a few suggestions on my own views and you just seemed to blow up on me, why? We all have opinions and you have yours too and I totaly respect your views too and do so for all the kindness that you have shown me too.
"your just an arrogant idiot and a complete tool at that, your head is so far up your backside that you can't even see your own stupidity here,everytime you post here I can smell the crap, go away,"
that was your first response to my stating facts of the event! doesnt sound like respect to me!
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
I understand they continued the races when drivers were killed. But over 80 FANS were killed, THAT is the difference. Anyone who thinks a race should go on with 86 people lying dead next to the tack is a FUCKING MORON.
the race went on because they feared that if they stoped it, all the fans would leave the racetrack, and it would have been hard for the paramitics to get through the traffic FACT
As I undersand it, they deliberately kept the race going to avoid having thousands of spectators trying to leave whie ambulances and the like were trying to get in to get the injured to hospital.
The guy who was responsible for the crash, Brit Mike Hawthorn, drove on and won the race. He smiled at the end of the race and never showed any sign of liabilty for what he did. An unbelievable asshole.
@paulboggan You are not a retard whatever that means (sounds like tartare sauce or something) your just an arrogant idiot and a complete tool at that, your head is so far up your backside that you can't even see your own stupidity here,everytime you post here I can smell the crap, go away, 86 fatalities whether 1955 or 2055 is a massive problem, the race should have been stopped, end of, now go away and think of something sensible to say next time, end of
@paulboggan ok dumpling head, you have asked me the question "why" about 7 times in just one sentence! you must be highly strung! you don't need to sound so paranoid you know! ok knucklehead,I will enlighten you, you are a mindless bully, you are wrong and you "think you are right" which makes this quite funny actually, all I am saying is, before you come on here again losing your temper, just think before you open your big mouth, think! think! think! and go chill out granny basher.
@Maggot309 That is just simply not true. If it is, if you could point me to the source of your info I would be pleased to read it. The accident was not "caused" by him on purpose, and he was not at all liable for the accident. To think that is to totally misunderstand motorsport. Many people smiled at the end of that day, happy that they had survived. All drivers smiled when they finished with their lives intact. This was in 1955, not 2010.
@Maggo309 Mike hawthorn was only protecting his family, if he had lost that race, he wouldn't have got paid for it and he would have missed at least a months wages, what would you have done?
@Maggo309 Racing incident. No pit wall cars virtually slowed to enter their pit box. The Austin Healy swerved left to avoid the Jag slowing to his pit box, the Mercedes could not stop in time (drum brakes) and hit the back end of the Austin which catapulted the Mercedes. I would say thats a racing incident. But no matter what you call it... alot of people were killed. That came with the territory back then. Levegh's co-driver, John Fitch became
Mike Hawthorne didn't cause the crash per se, its just that the brakes on his D-Type were disc brakes, wheras Macklin's car had inferior drum brakes meaning he couldn't slow down in time as Hawthorn braked to enter the pits.
I would say the blame lies 60-40 with Macklin. Hawthorn was also incredibly upset when he came in to switch drivers after the crash.
Made up "facts". I watched a documentary about this accident today and it was said by an eye witness that Mike Hawthorn came into the pits as "a broken man in tears". I think i believe an eye witness rather than some random youtube poster.
@Maggo309 It is wrong to pin blame on any one person involved in this accident - the pit lane at that time was part of the race track - Macklin was behind Hawthorne and got caught on the inside of the track. Macklin shot across the track in front of Levegh and the accident went from there. It was a racing accident. Too easy to lay blame when the principle players are dead. The racing at that time was so dangerous. No seatbelts, no crumple zones, no body or neck armour.
@mousehound35 but having no seat belts was better for them as they would be flown out of the car, to safety, whereas with belts they would be stuck in a dangerous car. or so drivers from that era say. Either way the crash was probably unavoidable, something was bound to happen when the track is built for cars going well over half a slow.
I beg to differ. I think this is the BEST crash in all of motorsports... The accidents are what I look forward to and pray for. So this, based on the number of lives ended and maimed, is the pinnacle of all motorsports. I hope some situation tops this racing gem soon. :-)
hoping that people lose their lives for your entertainment. If there is ever a situation to top these statistics, lets hope your one of them watching in the crowd
......YES!!!! I sure do hope and pray that I am one of them watching in the crowd! I am glad that we are on the same page here! Praise Jesus and Baby Jesus!!! :-)
cant belive the race carried on i can just imagine them now "we will clean up the corpse's after the race theres only another 14 hours left to do!" or however many hours there were left
"The race was continued, officially in order to prevent departing spectators from crowding the roads and slowing down ambulances" -wikipedia. Don't know if that's a good enough excuse though...
@pikeymutt - Yeah its a better idea to risk more people dying by not allowing ambulances to get to a hospital. I can see the logic in your post. Note the sarcasm.
@pikeymutt I don't buy it for a second. Security personal and race officials could have taken steps to keep a path cleared for ambulances to come in. They could have even everyone to remain in a certain area or undamaged parts of the grandstand or even asked any able bodied men to assist where they could. I just do not see any legitimate justification for continuing the race after such a horrific scene.
this is 1955, probably only had single lane road, better to keep it simple i reckon than try to organize some relief operation on the spot. atleast if the race is continued there is minimum chance of something hindering the ambulances
The race didn't stop on that day in order to prevent spectators to leave and create traffic jams on the roads so that the paramedic cars could bring injured people to the hospital easily.
After this deadly crash, race were banned from France for 1 year and Mercedes only came back to race decades later.
A long-in-the-tooth Pierre Levegh was planning to drive the entire 24 hours by himself, win, and retire from racing. Switzerland banned racing after this tragic accident, and their beautiful Bern circut no longer hosted F1.
There was a good reason to continue the race. If they had stopped it, the spectators would all have left, clogging up the roads for miles around and delaying the ambulances.
Mercedes pulled out of the race in respect. In fact, Mercedes didn't have an official racing team until the late 1980's because of this crash. The car was very light and aerodynamic, it basically became a wing and took off once it hit the rear of the other car.
yeah, its unbelievable to think how races would just continue back then when tragedies were taking place on the track. They didn't even bring out a red flag and any type of caution flag was basically non existent back then. If something like this were to happen today, the race would be haulted immediately.
The race had to go on. If the race stopped, then the crowd would leave. So no ambulances would be able to get in. That's why they felt they had to keep the race going.
there was 250,000+ spectators at this race, and word spread slowly of the magnitude of the accident, Mercedes-Benz respectfully dropped out of the race while they had the lead after learning of death toll, but the main reason for continuing the race was so that they could keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles, they did the right thing.
Before you call anyone stupid, you really should look at the title of this video where it says people were killed. This is also a famous wreck, and anyone that knows anything about motorsports knows how this was one of the worst wrecks in history and killed a great driver and 86 spectators.
No-I meant the video is kinda dumb because it doesn't mention the dead spectators. HORRIFIC. I saw photos on google of dead bodies strewn all over. That's the risk you take going to stupid car races and jet shows. I know there was a HUGE accident in Germany when I was there about a jet slamming into the crowd. I'll stay home and watch it on Youtube!
I got the feeling this video was cut off, and went on afterwards with the rest of the race. Maybe they would announce the dead at the end of the race footage?
The Engine, Front Axle, and Hood all separated from the car and tore into the crowd. Multiple people were decapitated by the hood, since they were packed in so tightly. Between all the parts and the intense fire, they never had a chance.
Leveighs body was thrown 50 feet into the air and came down in the crowd. It is hard ot see, but after the impact, if you look closely, his body can be seen coming down amongst the crowd.
oh just neraly 90 death but why not still continue race with 300kmh when pass the crash zone.. my godness they where so stupid that years .. even when they continue races in F1 where drivers where killed RIP
Attitudes were different back then. The "show must go on" mentality was much stronger in those days. Even today, though, they generally don't stop the races, the just slow everyone down, even when fatalities occur (ref. Earnhardt).
OMG！！！ It is horrible!!!!
BBBBut the audiences seem to act nothing!!!!!!!!!
rs93034 1 week ago
What caused the accident was Macklin suddenly swerving across in front of Levegh. What made a nasty accident into a tragedy was (a) a too-narrow track and (b) spectators too close to the edge of the track. I guess poor Levegh would probably have died anyway, but no one else need have. As to the "why didn't they stop the race?" controversy: because they didn't want the roads so choked up with spectators leaving that ambulances couldn't get through. That was the reason given at the time.
GojuBob 3 weeks ago
0:35 , he wasn't waving a flag...he was simply fanning the charred corpse of levegh.
ballsthatclank 1 month ago
@ballsthatclank That's not poor Levegh's body; if you look carefully, you can see him flying through the air at 0.06 or thereabouts. He was thrown about 100 metres from the car and died instantly of a fractured skull. Levegh was a fine, brave man. It's such a pity that no one now remembers him except in relation to this awful tragedy.
GojuBob 3 weeks ago
Is that Kenneth Williams narrating?
staporinac 1 month ago
i just read that in the paper today about the car being sold for a million pounds! The proceeds should go to create a memorial for one of the worst race car crashes in History!
snowboardinal 1 month ago
why would anyone buy this car for £1 million that had an impact on the crash?
hksubaru 1 month ago
11.6.1955, Swizerland?
Sir the 24h of Le Mans is on the Circuit de la Sarthe'-circuit.
Thats located in France since 1921.
Peugootje22 2 months ago
well
DailyTerror666 2 months ago
86 ????? for god sake... how ?
Rozkos 2 months ago
@Rozkos car parts flew into the crowd and many were decapitated and such like, not good
Scaura90 2 months ago
DAmn!
PainlessTragedy 4 months ago
@762SLR762 Read it again and get back to me sport, we'll work through this.
BitchesLoveHardstyle 5 months ago
@762SLR762 Sarcasm: Could you be anymore oblivious in recognizing it?
BitchesLoveHardstyle 5 months ago
I am born in Le Mans. Rest In Peace Pierre Levegh
arckelone 6 months ago
Those were some beautiful cars.
gyro231995 6 months ago
Not helped by the fact the Mercedes was magnesium bodied
panzr 6 months ago
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adamyunos 6 months ago
0:08, Jaguar?
koopashells21 7 months ago
@koopashells21 Yes, a D Type Jaguar, drive by Mike Hawrthorn
officialraf 5 months ago
@officialraf Thank you.
koopashells21 5 months ago
Most of the spectators didn't even know the accident was that bad. Besides, the roads needed to be clear for ambulances.
schmeer885 8 months ago
Who would stay to watch that race? Idc if they've lived through WW: The Sequel (imo the best of the series) over a hundred people were MUUUUUUURDERED by cars! Seems a bit ironic they'd still want to see who wins.
I mean, it's a *bit* anti-climactic now knowing Mercedes-Benz is out of the running. lol Don't you think?
BitchesLoveHardstyle 8 months ago
Mercedes Benz caused it...
Clay3613 9 months ago
The decision to go on with the race was made to avoid the huge traffic jams and not to disturb the ambulances and security services. There was 86 dead and hundreds of wounded people.
jagxk120 9 months ago
pause at 0:06 and you can see him fall out of the car.
KGzCLAN 10 months ago
@KGzCLAN That is horrendous, but true.
7RossW 9 months ago
THAT was real racing!! Deadly crash and 80+ people killed..
"The race goes on!"
KirkTheGod 10 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
The race didn't stop on that day in order to prevent spectators to leave and create traffic jams on the roads so that the paramedic cars could bring injured people to the hospital easily. However Mercedes, Fangio and some others gave up this race.
After this deadly crash, race were banned from France for 1 year and Mercedes only came back to race decades later.
marcanb28 10 months ago
holy fucking shit, 86 got killed! =O
geppegep 10 months ago
84* not 86 spectators
MRoesterreicher1 10 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
just shows how fucking stupid the sport is
YouJussGotCurbed 1 year ago
i can't believe so many people died. the vid show something that looks deadly but not on that extent
TheViolenceMan 1 year ago
Well all I can say is that I am happy about how much safer motor racing is these days. The last fatality was Roland Ratsenburger and Arton Senna. Obviously Massa was injured but that is a freak. We want good racing but no injuries
steveevh1 1 year ago
@steveevh1 That's only in F1. Le Mans had a practice-race fatalty in 1997 and Dale Earnhardt died in 2001 in NASCAR. Many more people have died, I am sure, in less public races. Racing is the world's most dangerous sport.
ArchdukeJames 1 year ago
@ArchdukeJames THE INTIMIDATOR GOT TERMINATED LOL
phxxr650r 11 months ago
bet he fell asleep
onomatopoetikon97 1 year ago
This color film somehow doesn't look all that disastrous; you see nothing of the debris plowing through the crowd, killing so many people. Instead you see a fire which doesn't appear to be all that significant - "And rightly, the race goes on" is the narrator's dismissive comment in summing up the incident.
hebneh 1 year ago
To all the supporters of Mike Hawthorn. Thanks for setting the record straight. One thing though. Its says that Lance Macklin had to make an evasive move to avoid hitting Mike as he pitted. If you look at it from a another angle Lance's car catches some grass or dirt and so instead of passing mike the car stepped out for a split second but it was enough to sends his car into the middle of the track and into the path of Pierre Levegh. My verdict? No ones fault apart from the track design.
VysexThexLegend 1 year ago
this crash was hardcore, i heard the bonnet of the the car that crashed flew of and decapitated people, and the engine flew out of the car and landed on people. terrible accident.
texaspete33 1 year ago
with 1999 crach we will never see Mercedes-Benz in le mans agin
casawi1986 1 year ago
"but rightly the race goes on"!?!?! 86 people have been killed!!!!!
Motorsport has changed a MASSIVE amount since then!
bananabomb1987 1 year ago
@bananabomb1987 The comment is certainly inappropriate, but really it was sensible to keep the race going, because there was still a massive crowd, even after the accident. Everybody leaving would have slowed down the ambulances. The toll may have been much higher as a result. However, Jaguar should have definitely withdrawn. And as for blame, no driver has any real blame in this. Hawthorn and Macklin made a simple driver error. The track was basically the same as it was in 1923.
TheRacer120 1 year ago
Mercedes took a lot of crap for something that wasn't their fault. Stupid traffic in front caused this.
nforspeed91 1 year ago
55 ans aujourd' hui.
lycopolis 1 year ago
All these people in this video were within strong living memory of the 2nd world war. Many had seen death and lost loved ones in the war that ended in 1945. So only ten years later (1955) It does not suprise me that the authorities and the fans would continue on with the race despite the deaths. They had a completely different mind set in comparison to the people of today in Europe.
9Barry009 1 year ago 65
@9Barry009
The race didn't stop on that day in order to prevent spectators to leave and create traffic jams on the roads so that the paramedic cars could bring injured people to the hospital easily. However Mercedes, Fangio and some others gave up this race.
After this deadly crash, race were banned from France for 1 year and Mercedes only came back to race decades later.
marcanb28 10 months ago
I was searching for this because it was the dvd of the month on top gear mag, this is the worst crash ever in motorsport
HawkyJason 1 year ago
The mercedes was made of magnesuim. Its no wonder it burnt like it did.
zenoist2 1 year ago
@zenoist2 stfu lol
zacatetas 1 year ago
according to recent doc. the footage shows macklin locking up and swerving across to avoid rear ending hawthorne, if hawthorne was slowing down to pit stop, macklin should have been aware that was a possibility as the pits were in front of the stand and to the right of the corner and moved out earlier. Poor skills and a too powerful car were to blame, not hawthorne.
gordongate 1 year ago
Don't blame Mike Hawthorn as responsible for this tragic accident. I suggest you watch BBC4s " The Deadliest Crash" There were a lot of other factors involved. One of them being the track itself was not up to vehicles travelling at nearly 190mph. Look at how narrow it is between the pits and main grandstand
bigcat178 1 year ago
sick ppl the race should be stopped. wtf
joes3803 1 year ago
@joes3803
If they stopped the race directly after the accident then the mass exodus of spectators clogging up the small country roads near La Sarthe would have stopped ambulances arriving to care for the wounded.
royc1 1 year ago
I love that,
86 people just died "but rightly the race goes on"
DonaldBumsfeld 1 year ago
@DonaldBumsfeld A different world, wasn't it? The thing you have to remember of course is, not only that the safety regimes we take for granted were entirely alien to that generation, but that most people in the crowd had lived through events in their lifetime involving far far more deaths and destruction than this
gingashields 1 year ago
Last one first:
The workers would often hammer madly under the track during the race to hold it all together because of all the vibration.
The boardtrack bikes and cars were so bad that the press called the tracks "Murderdromes" instead of Motordromes(old term for a race track).
The Brickyard at Indy and other tracks rendered these wood deathtraps obsolete.
Search board track racing on Wikipedia.
Death and disaster were more common than safety concerns back in the day.
This race changed it all.
jetpoweredgriffin 1 year ago
jetpoweredgriffin 1 year ago
I think that the Euros saw this as nationalistic automotive warfare.
After WW1 and WW2,most of the crowd probably would have had it continue anyway.
Personally,I wouldn't.
Fans can be gruesome.
6 out of 10 Indy winners died board track racing
between 1916-1926(approx.)
One was Gaston Chevrolet about a month after his Indy win.
It happened numerous times that the pileups would catch fans poking their heads through the rails playing chicken with the oncoming pack.
Motorcycles were even worse.
jetpoweredgriffin 1 year ago
i ahve remioved all my comments as i am tired of getting unwarranted abuse and insults from ignorant uneducated morons who see it fit to abuse me for stating historical facts. thanks to the guys who gave me constructive replies. to the other ones, go and research this race, it will be for your own good!
apologies to any who got intimitaded by my posts. i enjoy posting on subjects i have studied for years, some people find this arrogant! thanks again and bye!
paulboggan 1 year ago
@paulboggan I think you just answered your own questions for yourself,thanks
knutfheifer 1 year ago
whatever! i dont care for the shit i received for stating facts! im not arsed anymore. go and lie in your bed of sheer ignorance!
paulboggan 1 year ago
@paulboggan ok will do, now, more important, you need to calm yourself down because you are going to give yourself a heart attack, are you ok? take ten deep breaths
knutfheifer 1 year ago
as well as totally ignoring my valid points, insulting me, name calling at the level of a primary school kid and generally being an arse, you now have decided to patronise me too! my word, you are proficent in the use of the english language arent you. shame you missed the point of my posts, you must have, how otherwise would you have said i was a bully? all i said was why the race organizers didnt stop the event, a well knowwn fact, and i got a shit load of abuse for it..... no excuses!
paulboggan 1 year ago
But I don't have any excuses, I only, and in good honest terms I may add, only made a few suggestions on my own views and you just seemed to blow up on me, why? We all have opinions and you have yours too and I totaly respect your views too and do so for all the kindness that you have shown me too.
knutfheifer 1 year ago
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"your just an arrogant idiot and a complete tool at that, your head is so far up your backside that you can't even see your own stupidity here,everytime you post here I can smell the crap, go away,"
that was your first response to my stating facts of the event! doesnt sound like respect to me!
paulboggan 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
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You're a fucking moron, when 86 people die you stop the fucking race.
drak1212 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
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I understand they continued the races when drivers were killed. But over 80 FANS were killed, THAT is the difference. Anyone who thinks a race should go on with 86 people lying dead next to the tack is a FUCKING MORON.
drak1212 1 year ago
track*
drak1212 1 year ago
the race went on because they feared that if they stoped it, all the fans would leave the racetrack, and it would have been hard for the paramitics to get through the traffic FACT
breaktrap0307 1 year ago 31
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paulboggan 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
As I undersand it, they deliberately kept the race going to avoid having thousands of spectators trying to leave whie ambulances and the like were trying to get in to get the injured to hospital.
mattythemig 1 year ago 2
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paulboggan 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
great vid , I usually go here and watch sexy clips - tiny[dot]cc/gapingpussy
LexosiDiwuxyw 2 years ago
The guy who was responsible for the crash, Brit Mike Hawthorn, drove on and won the race. He smiled at the end of the race and never showed any sign of liabilty for what he did. An unbelievable asshole.
Maggo309 2 years ago 2
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paulboggan 2 years ago
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hey retard ur supposed 2 stoP! a win isnt worth a death!
phantom0111 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
@paulboggan You are not a retard whatever that means (sounds like tartare sauce or something) your just an arrogant idiot and a complete tool at that, your head is so far up your backside that you can't even see your own stupidity here,everytime you post here I can smell the crap, go away, 86 fatalities whether 1955 or 2055 is a massive problem, the race should have been stopped, end of, now go away and think of something sensible to say next time, end of
knutfheifer 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
@paulboggan ok dumpling head, you have asked me the question "why" about 7 times in just one sentence! you must be highly strung! you don't need to sound so paranoid you know! ok knucklehead,I will enlighten you, you are a mindless bully, you are wrong and you "think you are right" which makes this quite funny actually, all I am saying is, before you come on here again losing your temper, just think before you open your big mouth, think! think! think! and go chill out granny basher.
knutfheifer 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
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paulboggan 1 year ago
@knutfheifer
A politely patronizing troll is still just a troll.
He's right-
you insult and mock him and then claim respect.
Your mouth will cause you pain-
beware.
Go back to your cave.
jetpoweredgriffin 1 year ago
@Maggo309 i think you should maybe get your facts correct your comments on hawthorn are pathetic
andyj288 1 year ago
@Maggo309 yes it is good that he died a few years after this accident.
imperatorcaesar100 1 year ago
@Maggot309 That is just simply not true. If it is, if you could point me to the source of your info I would be pleased to read it. The accident was not "caused" by him on purpose, and he was not at all liable for the accident. To think that is to totally misunderstand motorsport. Many people smiled at the end of that day, happy that they had survived. All drivers smiled when they finished with their lives intact. This was in 1955, not 2010.
DaiJonesful 1 year ago
@Maggo309 Mike hawthorn was only protecting his family, if he had lost that race, he wouldn't have got paid for it and he would have missed at least a months wages, what would you have done?
knutfheifer 1 year ago
@Maggo309 Racing incident. No pit wall cars virtually slowed to enter their pit box. The Austin Healy swerved left to avoid the Jag slowing to his pit box, the Mercedes could not stop in time (drum brakes) and hit the back end of the Austin which catapulted the Mercedes. I would say thats a racing incident. But no matter what you call it... alot of people were killed. That came with the territory back then. Levegh's co-driver, John Fitch became
JuergenGDB 1 year ago
@JuergenGDB a safety advocate... and championed many of the safety regulations that are still in place today.
JuergenGDB 1 year ago
@Maggo309 What did he do to cause the crash? How do you know this? Very curious.
theivory1 1 year ago
@Maggo309 I don't think you can call someone "guilty" of a racing incident.
lotwyo 1 year ago
@Maggo309
Mike Hawthorne didn't cause the crash per se, its just that the brakes on his D-Type were disc brakes, wheras Macklin's car had inferior drum brakes meaning he couldn't slow down in time as Hawthorn braked to enter the pits.
I would say the blame lies 60-40 with Macklin. Hawthorn was also incredibly upset when he came in to switch drivers after the crash.
royc1 1 year ago
@Maggo309
Made up "facts". I watched a documentary about this accident today and it was said by an eye witness that Mike Hawthorn came into the pits as "a broken man in tears". I think i believe an eye witness rather than some random youtube poster.
paulosio 1 year ago
@Maggo309 It is wrong to pin blame on any one person involved in this accident - the pit lane at that time was part of the race track - Macklin was behind Hawthorne and got caught on the inside of the track. Macklin shot across the track in front of Levegh and the accident went from there. It was a racing accident. Too easy to lay blame when the principle players are dead. The racing at that time was so dangerous. No seatbelts, no crumple zones, no body or neck armour.
mousehound35 1 year ago
@mousehound35 but having no seat belts was better for them as they would be flown out of the car, to safety, whereas with belts they would be stuck in a dangerous car. or so drivers from that era say. Either way the crash was probably unavoidable, something was bound to happen when the track is built for cars going well over half a slow.
harednuta 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I beg to differ. I think this is the BEST crash in all of motorsports... The accidents are what I look forward to and pray for. So this, based on the number of lives ended and maimed, is the pinnacle of all motorsports. I hope some situation tops this racing gem soon. :-)
waterfordjim 2 years ago
@waterfordjim
what kind of little prick are you?
hoping that people lose their lives for your entertainment. If there is ever a situation to top these statistics, lets hope your one of them watching in the crowd
robbieleeson 2 years ago
......YES!!!! I sure do hope and pray that I am one of them watching in the crowd! I am glad that we are on the same page here! Praise Jesus and Baby Jesus!!! :-)
waterfordjim 2 years ago
@waterfordjim
God there is some real lowlife on this planet.. I can understand why we had slavery now, some people are fit for nothing more...
ElcocoSiete 2 years ago 2
Just another ass provoking.
DeusExM4ch1n4 2 years ago
cant belive the race carried on i can just imagine them now "we will clean up the corpse's after the race theres only another 14 hours left to do!" or however many hours there were left
thetreadingbehemoth 2 years ago
"The race was continued, officially in order to prevent departing spectators from crowding the roads and slowing down ambulances" -wikipedia. Don't know if that's a good enough excuse though...
pikeymutt 2 years ago 22
@pikeymutt - Yeah its a better idea to risk more people dying by not allowing ambulances to get to a hospital. I can see the logic in your post. Note the sarcasm.
Zadan 1 year ago
@pikeymutt I don't buy it for a second. Security personal and race officials could have taken steps to keep a path cleared for ambulances to come in. They could have even everyone to remain in a certain area or undamaged parts of the grandstand or even asked any able bodied men to assist where they could. I just do not see any legitimate justification for continuing the race after such a horrific scene.
CombatSportFan 1 year ago
@CombatSportFan Agreed! :(
andy7666 1 year ago
@CombatSportFan
this is 1955, probably only had single lane road, better to keep it simple i reckon than try to organize some relief operation on the spot. atleast if the race is continued there is minimum chance of something hindering the ambulances
GauntV 1 year ago
@CombatSportFan
The race didn't stop on that day in order to prevent spectators to leave and create traffic jams on the roads so that the paramedic cars could bring injured people to the hospital easily.
After this deadly crash, race were banned from France for 1 year and Mercedes only came back to race decades later.
marcanb28 10 months ago
@pikeymutt i think slowing down ambulances is a good excuse
YouJussGotCurbed 1 year ago
He flew out of the car nearly 20-30 meters away from it. On this time they did not wear any seat belts.
aure232 2 years ago
even the commentary there says "and rightly the race goes on" !! Yeah only 86 dead - don't let that ruin a good race!
Shows how far we have come.
domdonald 2 years ago 2
Were those idiots just walking around the track? What a bunch of fucking morons.
IMBLUESTREAK23 2 years ago
@IMBLUESTREAK23 People still do that in rallying today though.
david181993 2 years ago
A long-in-the-tooth Pierre Levegh was planning to drive the entire 24 hours by himself, win, and retire from racing. Switzerland banned racing after this tragic accident, and their beautiful Bern circut no longer hosted F1.
ratmotor396 2 years ago
This is the crash that caused MBenz to retire from racing for a long time right?
quasiphatpaul 2 years ago
@quasiphatpaul
correct.
Till 1988.
In 1999 their wonderful new Lemans car became unstable,backflipped and went airborne into the trees.
The crowd was speechless(Flashbacks!).
It was a bit touchy till they got driver out (he was OK).
The other was taken out of the race and Mercedes was humiliated.
They shut the program down,sold the surviving car to an anonymous collector
(no mercedes museum for THAT one)and really don't like to talk about it.
Can't blame them,really.
jetpoweredgriffin 1 year ago
the reason they kept the race going was that they didnt want the people leaving and cuasing a huge amount of traffic
mikethenascarfan 2 years ago
ehhem 82, worst crash (death wise) in all of motorsport history
mikethenascarfan 2 years ago
his skull crushed on that crash. That was a really bad crash!!!
flatout2fani 2 years ago
JUST 86 VICTMS... LET'S KEEP THE RACE ON !!!!
Sarcastic ideas of old time racing...
jerryaltman 2 years ago
they continued so that spectators wouldnt leave and block the exit roads and thus blocking the ambulances out
T1carus 2 years ago 8
I'm guessing they may not have had an idea of the death toll, but it did sound pretty cold-blooded.
Boubala24 2 years ago
that's Raymond Baxter comenting?
esjclipes 2 years ago
"But rightly the race goes on" says the commentator lol.......oh how things have changed.
PhantomMark 2 years ago 4
There was a good reason to continue the race. If they had stopped it, the spectators would all have left, clogging up the roads for miles around and delaying the ambulances.
jdb47games 2 years ago 25
@jdb47games Not to mention, there was less than an hour remaining to a 24 hour event. :s
NarutoNdGaara 1 year ago
@jdb47games
u got that from wikipedia lol
Tha0men 1 year ago
Stiff upper lip old chap!
mmmbilly 2 years ago 3
Le Mans is in France though...
maef 2 years ago
@maef
Vive La France!
Nationalism can be soo brutal...
jetpoweredgriffin 1 year ago
@jetpoweredgriffin it is just the good old spanish way and leonardoism
knutfheifer 1 year ago
Mercedes pulled out of the race in respect. In fact, Mercedes didn't have an official racing team until the late 1980's because of this crash. The car was very light and aerodynamic, it basically became a wing and took off once it hit the rear of the other car.
lsdeedee 2 years ago
@lsdeedee
More like disgrace-
came on pretty hard after losing two world wars in a row.
Their cars were some of the only pride they had left.
that's why they stayed out for so long.
In 1999 they did it again-
flipped and went airborne.
This time it was a single car backflip into the woods but nobody got hurt(fortunately).
jetpoweredgriffin 1 year ago
sheesh just keep going on, pay no attention to the fact there's 86 DEAD PEOPLE IN THE STANDS AND A DOA DRIVER! bloody officials...
SBfanXIV 2 years ago
yeah, its unbelievable to think how races would just continue back then when tragedies were taking place on the track. They didn't even bring out a red flag and any type of caution flag was basically non existent back then. If something like this were to happen today, the race would be haulted immediately.
jbracer86 2 years ago
They even continued the race after and DURING this.
qwasd0r 2 years ago
You know F1 qwasd0r? They still have fatal crashes and they don't immediately abandon the race.
But I guess they at least slow down.
Bones2196 2 years ago
there hasn't been an F1 driver killed racing since 1994 where Ayrton Senna and roland ratzenburger were killed on the same weekend
Mirozenx 2 years ago
Roland Ratzenberger
R.I.P
blasterml 2 years ago
WHAT A BRITISH TOFF ACCENT "AND RIGHTLY THE RACE GOES ON" he says heartless git !!
watabunchaplonkas 2 years ago 5
is there a human body flying out of the car at 0:06 / 0:07
Axelga2112 2 years ago 5
it seems like and thank u for giving me an idea how did they die (spectators)
NASCARWWEclubpenguin 2 years ago
Car parts went flying into the crowd killing people
MisanthropeAlex 2 years ago
mainly the whole power-/drivetrain assembly,which apparently got ripped away from the rest of the car as a result of the crash
ma55aracin9 2 years ago
yea it was the driver pierre levegh.he was thrown out of the car and landed on his skull and died instantly :(
R.I.P
rolaholic 2 years ago
There are two things flying out. Piere and slightly higher is the cars axle which flew into the specators
welshman30 2 years ago
how did 86 spectators get killed? and how did the car go head on?
NASCARWWEclubpenguin 2 years ago
have no clue, but it wasnt the car, it was the parts flying out of it
Spect8er1 2 years ago 2
@NASCARWWEclubpenguin
Search it out for more details.
One car swerved into the pit,another avoided him and the Merc catapulted over the second car and went EVERYWHERE.
They did it again in 1999 but they backflpped alone into the woods.
Major flashback.
Major blow to german pride.
At least nobody got hurt that time.
jetpoweredgriffin 1 year ago
i havent seen sh*t like that before 0.0
were that people flying aroud?! omfffg
Lurer187 2 years ago
my god
TiagoWakabayashi 2 years ago
pretty nasty
iliveforcrash333 2 years ago
Just horrendous.
LongLiveOx 3 years ago
The worst and sadest moment in motorsports history
SeakIstOne 3 years ago
agreed! and I also agree with commentator, they did the right thing by continuing the race.
nocovercharge 3 years ago
The race had to go on. If the race stopped, then the crowd would leave. So no ambulances would be able to get in. That's why they felt they had to keep the race going.
alexholowczak 3 years ago
lol 'rightly the race goes on' theres some maverick spirit.
jack1986mkII 3 years ago
Haha, I was just thinking about the same thing - 80 spectators and the driver killed, and all the commentator says is 'Rightly the race goes on!'.
I mean seriously, they're even covering up a dead body on the track without even blinking.
Athaeus 3 years ago 2
Yeah i guess its a reflection on the times, shocking really.
jack1986mkII 3 years ago
This was only ten years after world war 2. I'm sure they had seen it all before, sadly.
THEkendarkness 2 years ago
there was 250,000+ spectators at this race, and word spread slowly of the magnitude of the accident, Mercedes-Benz respectfully dropped out of the race while they had the lead after learning of death toll, but the main reason for continuing the race was so that they could keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles, they did the right thing.
nocovercharge 3 years ago 4
It doesn't say ANYONE was killed. STUPID!
crossy70 3 years ago
Before you call anyone stupid, you really should look at the title of this video where it says people were killed. This is also a famous wreck, and anyone that knows anything about motorsports knows how this was one of the worst wrecks in history and killed a great driver and 86 spectators.
laughytaffymofo 3 years ago
No-I meant the video is kinda dumb because it doesn't mention the dead spectators. HORRIFIC. I saw photos on google of dead bodies strewn all over. That's the risk you take going to stupid car races and jet shows. I know there was a HUGE accident in Germany when I was there about a jet slamming into the crowd. I'll stay home and watch it on Youtube!
crossy70 3 years ago
I got the feeling this video was cut off, and went on afterwards with the rest of the race. Maybe they would announce the dead at the end of the race footage?
alexholowczak 3 years ago
The Engine, Front Axle, and Hood all separated from the car and tore into the crowd. Multiple people were decapitated by the hood, since they were packed in so tightly. Between all the parts and the intense fire, they never had a chance.
thornwithin81 3 years ago
"... but rightly the race goes on..." Crazy times...
Steffano2002 3 years ago 5
Leveighs body was thrown 50 feet into the air and came down in the crowd. It is hard ot see, but after the impact, if you look closely, his body can be seen coming down amongst the crowd.
frostyis007 3 years ago
Actually, it was the engine block that separated from the car... that's what went through the crowd.
Gamezalot 3 years ago
the reason so many died was because apparently the axle flew off of the car when it crash and flew like a frisbee beheading lots of the crowd.
230legolas0 3 years ago
oh just neraly 90 death but why not still continue race with 300kmh when pass the crash zone.. my godness they where so stupid that years .. even when they continue races in F1 where drivers where killed RIP
Tobiiimnrw 3 years ago
Attitudes were different back then. The "show must go on" mentality was much stronger in those days. Even today, though, they generally don't stop the races, the just slow everyone down, even when fatalities occur (ref. Earnhardt).
saskabush2006 3 years ago