Le Mans 1955 accident: Raw footages of the crash in HD (Read description)

[elroyjsherwood]

the driver died and 82 people

[2ndAveLine]

Also, with the axle, you can clearly see the wheels attached. As for the hood, holy shit...flying guillotine is an understatement!!!

[lewishamiltonchamp09]

So the car hit a wall and parts flew off and hit the crowd, right? Then it blew up

[johannes914]

@lewishamiltonchamp09 Yes. The car was airborn and actually fell in the spectators zone. Then the Mercedes hit a concrete wall with the bottom of the chassis. This is when the engine, front axle and hood got separated from the rest of thecar. The remains of the car bounced and fell next to the track. This is when the gas tank broke and exploded.

[huSkYd00Dy]

83 people died 120 were injurde

[terratrema]

Did them deathed??

[cambiechan]

who is the people jumping out at 0:19? Why he is not even injured? And I want to ask is it the wreck in 0:19 also the Mercedes which has fly over the spectators? Thz

[N0T0RI0US555]

@cambiechan wikipedia(DOT)org/wiki/1955_Le­_Mans_disaster tell yous every thing and he jumps on the wall so he dosent get run over

[N0T0RI0US555]

@cambiechan of wiki

"Austin-Healey, which was now skidding to the right of the track, across his path. Macklin then hit the pit wall and bounced back to the left, crossing the track again. He impacted the barrier near the location of the now burning 300 SLR, causing the death of another single spectator, although Macklin survived the incident without serious injury."

[fatshit6008]

To be fair, it would just be instant death

[MichaelPolios]

@fatshit6008 A lot of people burnt to death.

[ItalianBandit]

holy fucking shit. What a painful way to die....

[MrPlaguedeath]

Did the driver survive?

[MichaelPolios]

@MrPlaguedeath No, he died along with 83 spectators.

[razrX]

amazing...O_O

[JVC1103]

Damn!

[dickcheese663]

thats fuckin sad dudes

[manbearpigonabike]

*kill 83 people with one car*

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[WillJPalmer]

wow that sucks :(

[schon74]

FLD sent me here,

[johannes914]

@schon74 May I ask what FLD is ?

[The4wheelfreak]

@johannes914 FLD is "FastLaneDaily" the best car show in youtube! search them up youtube!

[johannes914]

@The4wheelfreak Thanks

[25Celtics]

83 people..... so sad :(

[jlmknight]

spine chilling

[TheShafro]

FLD sent me here, LIKE A BAUS

[Ncharlop]

FLD LIKE A BOWS

[alexander1485]

but that 49 year old sure knows how to jump out of a race car O_O

[mikejam90]

FLD sent me here...

[AcidRaul]

Press 9 to see driver fly through upper right...  O___O

[Machiave11i]

Is the object cart-wheeling along the fence line the hood or the engine block? I can't tell.

[2ndAveLine]

@Machiave11i I believe it's the engine block- it's the heaviest part, and tho the slower than the hood or axle, has the most inertia so will be harder to stop. In fact, you can see people ducking to try to avoid its path, but it mowed them down, literally "riding the wave" of human flesh, as if they were nothing. The 3rd footage is terrifying in its clarity!

[LongRangeBullet]

Damn...........

[MajesticObama]

Man, that's so sad! I cant believe that the front axle, hood, and engine block flew and hit those people!

[HackneyShark]

Aren't you glad this is in black and white?

[bloodhit1]

Whot the 85 idiots, who LIKE this?

[ptuku]

@bloodhit1 do you prefer that footage like will never be shown to the world ever again?

this shit has better video quality than most of the vids here on YouTube

[pirincho48]

Guess what happened with the first shot´s cameraman.

[cataloni10]

where was that ? and what happened to the driver ? did he died ?

[SuspiciousMinds2009]

The Austin Healey that hits the Levegh's Mercedes was auctioned yesterday for 975k €

[cataloni10]

@SuspiciousMinds2009 actually for 1.000.000

[nblBer]

the guy was 49 years old, guess his reactions was not up to par

[sweetypie000]

@nblBer that's a bit ageist but never mind

[johannes914]

@nblBer you must be 16....

[Rexart35]

@johannes914 HEY! am 16 and am know this was a disater to the driver and the audiance!!

[seroyer2]

@nblBer I knew a guy who was 82 and raced a comp coupe viper. he had to have help getting into his car because he had a hard time getting over the roll cage bars. The guy was fast as fuck, and ever won a race at my local track

[evnejg]

@nblBer who are you to judge?

[Testafyer2]

8 hours later

Man watching tv: WTF there should be a fence

Today:

Here lies the guy who invented catch fences

He was watching tv when he thought of it.

[CrashDrumz]

@Testafyer2 I don't uderstand anything :(

[melodyintrance]

Damn!

[ThePwig]

Just realized you can clearly see the mangled driver flying through the air and landing on the wall and falling onto the track. Wow.

[johannes914]

@ThePwig But that's not him. Looks like unbelievable but this is a spectator. I saw a copy of the police report in a french magazine. The driver was found in the ditch. You can see him striking a policeman that was standing in the ditch. The other person found on the track next to the car was also a spectator

[sweetypie000]

@ThePwig yeah i noticed that thought it was the driver :(

[SadicuCostica]

Still I don't understand how the car broke into pieces. In what struck first ? The pieces were scattered at very high speed. My opinion is that the car was hit in the bottom and thus broke.

[johannes914]

@SadicuCostica The car was airborn and actually fell in the spectators zone. Then the Mercedes hit a concrete wall with the bottom of the chassis. This is when the engine, front axle and hood got separated from the rest of thecar. The remains of the car bounced and fell next to the track. This is when the gas tank broke and exploded.

[SadicuCostica]

@johannes914 I did't know of the existence of that concrete wall. This may explain the strange way in which the car was broken.

[Ploppertello100]

You can clearly see the bonnet/hood of the car spinning straight into the crowd at head height, which decapitated a number of spectators. Terrible tragedy.

[TheShenmoki]

@ 4 and a bit more you can see lote... and lots... of blood, and dead bodies :(

[3windowcoupe]

What a horrendous accident. The clip showing what appears to be the engine cartwheeling through the crowd is most ghastly. Those not crushed or crippled

directly were scalded by the coolant spraying out of the spinning block.

[jackal59]

I have "Fangio: My Racing Life" here, and he doesn't say he closed his eyes and kept driving in it (though he may have said so elsewhere). Instead, he says he was not aware of the extent of the accident until he was out of the car two laps later. He does say that he likely accelerated to get past Macklin's Austin, and that when he made it to the pits his Mercedes had front-end damage--a broken headlamp and dents abraded with green paint--that likely came from hitting debris from the Austin.

[jetnoir]

When asked about how he avoided the debris Fangio (car 21) said: "I just clenched the steering wheel and closed my eyes".

You can see his reaction when returned at the same spot a lap later:

7CBingL4Ia0

[HaXX0rZisT]

0:47 ....

[otharennaur]

0:36 is the scariest thing I've ever seen in youtube :c

[Hornet85]

The 3rd footage gives a clear view of the horror that was unfolding, we could see the debris rolling across the crowd of spectators =(

[gcrav]

Macklin can be seen moving to his right at 0:26-0:27. His right wheels are kicking up dust from a narrow strip of dirt between 0:27-0:31. Braking hard with two wheels in the dirt made him lose control. Levegh moved towards the centerline just as Macklin was careening across the track. Hawthorne is making a smooth, routine move toward the pits during the whole sequence. The claim that he made a sudden rash move was completely unjustified. Thank you for posing this slow motion sequence.

[AHMmotoring]

Health and safety wasn't an option back then. In fact motor racing has we know it has been around since 1909 and health and safety has been around since 1995, after aryton senna's death. Since then there hasn't been a death.

[johannes914]

@rodrigogea3 Front axle and engine are the parts that killed and injured most people on their path. About 50 killed by parts alone. I have read a report and seen some schematics from the report in a 1955 magazine. Car took off and flew in the crowd killing 14. This part of the accident was not recorded on camera. Then the car hit a concrete wall. This impact threw the engine and axle out of the car. Pilot was also ejected at this time.

[gurlsingerfan]

@johannes914 I have also read accounts that more people were killed than the 85 or 86 number commonly given, because the French only counted French people killed. One estimate said the number killed was easily over 100 to 120 counting non French. Is any one else familiar with this argument and whether it has any supporting evidence?

[johannes914]

@gurlsingerfan I have never read something like this. Reports give from 79 to 86. I have seen an early list of people killed in this accident and there is a man from London. By the way I don't think there was such a high percentage of foreigners. In 1955 people didn't travel as much as today.

[senorkaboom]

There should have been a fence in front of the crowd. Someone messed up.

[TheMotionMan112]

where is the pictures from the photographers? do they even exist anymore? i've heard they are very graphic

[vitamingrin1]

i heard the enquiry is still open,pending some little known facts regarding the healey...looks to me like he got a bit loose trying the overtake and that guy had no chance,that thing was really moving ..

[foowillow]

@rodrigogea3 the things being thrown from the car are apperently the axel and bonnet of the car, the engine was also thrown into the crowd

[MrBowsmith]

@rodrigogea3 Hi, I understand them to be the front crossmember/suspension assembly and the engine/ gearbox assembly. Doubtless someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Regards.

[atkboyful]

OMG :S pauvre personne :S

[microair01]

Those images are, indeed, terrifying. Safety for motorsports spectators became more of a priority on a global scale after this race...unfortunately, it took a disaster to make the changes happen.

[SuperTruth77]

First shoot was used in the official inquiry, and has been suppressed until recently as it was too graphic. Recently only this small segment was released- the rest remains under wraps.

[johannes914]

@SuperTruth77 The last image of the first shoot (seems to be amateur 8mm) shows that film has been torn apart. I doubt there is any more to see. It has been said the cameraman has been injuried. 

[chrisdobiedotcom]

Wow, I dont think I have ever seen that first snippet of footage

[jacbrest]

terribles images

[donohue100]

Good work for the upload

[rossiribz]

Really bad thing to happen in a great sport. Good quality clips