Motorsport deaths :(

[valfaw]

[MN6845]

JD Mc Duffies' death was the worst one that I've seen live, it was extremely violent. It caused significant changes to the track to slow the cars down to a somewhat sane speed.

From wiki:

McDuffie was involved in an accident on the fifth lap of the 1991 Budweiser At The Glen race at Watkins Glen International. On the straight between the Esses and the Loop-Chute, at 170 mph, McDuffie and Jimmy Means touched wheels. McDuffie's driver's side outer tie rod end dropped from the front wheel spindle, which caused him to lose control of the position of the right side tire/wheel. Further, the impact caused the front wheel assembly to completely fall off the car, starting a chain reaction that resulted in all of McDuffie's brakes failing.

[C4 A6]

This one always gets to me, it's the sheer desperation as Purley comes to terms with the fact he can't save his friend.

This one is easily the most powerful one to me. There really is no feeling worse in the world than coming to the realization that no matter what you try, nothing is going to help.

[choochoo]

This one doesn't involve death, but is equally disturbing.
Tetsuya Ota's crash and fire at Fuji Speedway 1998.
WARNING!!! not for the faint of heart Starts with the rescue. Crash seen at 2:35.


You would think they pulled out a dead person.

His helmet


still involved in motorsports in Japan


here he is discussing, the then new, Ferrari 430

[Chipped B6]

I had no idea there were this many fatalities in the last 15-20 years

[DerSpiegel]

Ah wow, this is the bad memories thread.

So in September of 1999 I rally with some buddies to Laguna Seca to catch CART. We show up at the track and were confused by total inactivity when there should have been a practice going on. Word soon filtered through that Gonzo had a bad and possibly fatal accident at the corkscrew. We couldn't believe it....first Krosnoff just a couple years back and now Gonzo. Greg Moore followed a scant 6 weeks afterwards. Awful.

I always wished I'd printed a copy of the practice session times when Gonzalo Rodriguez left us. He was turning heroic times in a bad Lola chassis that team Penske simply didn't have a handle on...way ahead of what Little Al was doing with it. What a shame, Gonzo had the potential to be a great one.

Edit - This was the incident that prompted Stefan Johanssen to quit CART at the end of that year.

this one affected me as a kid. i was a greg moore/players fan during the cart days, and when this happened it was hard to accept.

I was at Fontana for this, and despite an entire grandstand full of people the accident was shielded from view by the backstretch wall and motorhomes. The crowd was really rocking, this race was the championship showdown between Juan Montoya and Dario. After the wreck all we knew is that Greg Moore had stacked it in turn two, no news after that. I thought it was weird that the track screens didn't replay the wreck....they just kept showing an in-car feed from Mikey's car.

Anyway, after a while they fired up the copter, wheeled Greg into it and took off. At that point, the seriousness of it set in a little but we were all still assuming he was probably dinged up pretty good but still alive.

Then, in the middle of the race the flag was lowered to half mast and the whole place just deflated.

[RobMarkToo]

So what did cause the first crash in the thread?

[DerSpiegel]

So what did cause the first crash in the thread?

I'm not sure, but from the looks of it I'd surmise left front tire or suspension failure. He was clearly out of the gas before he hit the hill, which probably eliminates stuck throttle.

Who knows, maybe someone can fill in the blanks here.

[Cubster]

I stumbled upon a website a few years ago that was nothing but unedited raw footage of race crashes....all fatal. I joined the site because I am a little morbid but they had a member that went all CSI on the crashes and his breakdowns were very informative and revealing.

[UFO007]

To be fair to the marshalls in this case, they were not wearing fire resistance suits like Purley was. It's a shame it takes situations like this to make people see that maybe a suit and tie is not good attire for someone who is expected to assist at the scene...

You have to remember that this was the early 70s and fire protection, even for drivers, was minimal at best. Even if the drivers were protected, you can see numerous cars drive by without stopping; their excuse was that they didn't see Purley's car parked off to the side and thought it was his own car that was on fire. There was also a fire truck parked nearby but, rather than drive against the flow of traffic, it did a full lap of the circuit before it could assist.

The marshalls were poorly equipped and less than willing to help. Fans tried to climb the barriers to assist but were beaten back by police. Williamson died from asphyxiation. He could have been saved if someone other than Purley had helped to extract him from the car. The absolute worst part of all this is that Purley recalls that he could hear Williamson pleading for help inside the burning car.

[derekjl]

This one doesn't involve death, but is equally disturbing.
Tetsuya Ota's crash and fire at Fuji Speedway 1998.
WARNING!!! not for the faint of heart Starts with the rescue. Crash seen at 2:35.


You would think they pulled out a dead person.

His helmet


still involved in motorsports in Japan


here he is discussing, the then new, Ferrari 430

Every time I see that impact it amazes me how in the world someone could survive it, let alone that fire.

[Lupo TDI]

I'm not sure, but from the looks of it I'd surmise left front tire or suspension failure. He was clearly out of the gas before he hit the hill, which probably eliminates stuck throttle.

Who knows, maybe someone can fill in the blanks here.

I don't know what happened, but I wouldn't rule out a driver's mistake, like mistaking a corner for another. You might know the crazy Lancia Delta S4 that races in the Berg-Cup circuit, just like Plasa, and his driver, Bruno Ianniello, crashed his Delta pretty bad in a race in Luxembourg. His explanation was: "I thought it was the corner you can take with the throttle fully opened, but that's the next corner..."

Sad thread... I am somewhat happy there aren't vids or pictures of Cevert's crash as it really has to be an ugly sight. Wasn't this the crash that made Jackie Stewart retire from racing?

[Porsche Whisperer]

Rally crash of Ford RS200

The driver survives but the navigator was tragically killed. They were leading the rally - shows how quickly things can go terribly wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sj9yTWP1fA

[DerSpiegel]

Sad thread... I am somewhat happy there aren't vids or pictures of Cevert's crash as it really has to be an ugly sight. Wasn't this the crash that made Jackie Stewart retire from racing?

Indeed it was. Although Stewart planned to retire at the end of 1973 anyway, the Cevert crash saw Jackie park the Tyrrell after the session and that was it. He didn't start that US GP.

[ATL_Av8r]

Morbid thread. I remember watching way too many of those live.

I highly recommend Dr. Sid Watkins book if you haven't read it.

[Lupo TDI]

Three other crashes came into my mind the last hours:

Attilio Bettega, 1985 Rallye Corsica Lancia 037
Henri Toivonen + Co-Driver Sergio Cresto, 1986 Rallye Corsica, Lancia Delta S4
Kieth Ódor, 1992 STW-Cup in Berlin, Nissan Primera
Michael "Beef" Park, co-driver of Markko Märtin, WRC England 2005, Peugeot 307 WRC

Kieth Ódor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3fWlVZ0mAI

His death could have been avoided if Nissan had used LHD Cars for the german touring car championship (STW) instead of using cars made for the british championship. I remember seeing that one live

[RobMarkToo]

Having trouble feeling sorry for the people that got hit here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3JaO...eature=related

[C4 A6]

Having trouble feeling sorry for the people that got hit here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3JaO...eature=related

Same. They're just ****ing morons for standing so close to on the course.

[Nubbin]

Having trouble feeling sorry for the people that got hit here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3JaO...eature=related

There were also reports of cars coming back with severed fingers stuck on their grilles. Those spectators were truly stupid.

[GTE77]

I don't know what happened, but I wouldn't rule out a driver's mistake, like mistaking a corner for another. You might know the crazy Lancia Delta S4 that races in the Berg-Cup circuit, just like Plasa, and his driver, Bruno Ianniello, crashed his Delta pretty bad in a race in Luxembourg. His explanation was: "I thought it was the corner you can take with the throttle fully opened, but that's the next corner..."

Sad thread... I am somewhat happy there aren't vids or pictures of Cevert's crash as it really has to be an ugly sight. Wasn't this the crash that made Jackie Stewart retire from racing?

Stewart was going to retire anyways, but the crash was in Qualifying and Stewart just stopped there, did'nt run what was suppost to be his last race.

I made a post a in page one talking about Ceverts crash. Stewart was one of the first drivers at the scene, he just walked back horrified and crying.

[C4 A6]

To be fair to the marshalls in this case, they were not wearing fire resistance suits like Purley was. It's a shame it takes situations like this to make people see that maybe a suit and tie is not good attire for someone who is expected to assist at the scene...

Imagine what could have been done if other racers stopped.

[C4 A6]

Can't ever forget this one, just last year.

[choochoo]

i just happened to catch it on TV. They kept showing the replay from his onboard cam. Once you realized that the cockpit hit the fence, you knew it was going to be ugly
Felt so bad for his wife and young children.
I happened to be in Vegas the next week for business and I had to drive by. By then all the tributes and flowers had been taken down.

[derekjl]

Paul Dana's was extremely shocking, the sheer speed and impact was like nothing I've ever seen. How Carpenter didn't die is a miracle. Crash at 0:40.

[RobMarkToo]

That last video was like "excitement and cool stuff, but first here is a video of someone getting killed. Oh and Danica has a nice ass"

[J.Owen]

No fatality (thankfully), but I was always amazed by Joey Hand's Grand-Am accident. It is truly amazing to think that sometimes its your day, others its not.

[Southern Jetta]

I'll never forget the Swede Savage crash at the '73 Indy 500. A crew member running to the scene was hit by a fire truck and killed. In a wierd twist of fate Savage survived the crash and was expected to recover but died a month later of liver failure.

[3Letter]

Morbid thread. Making me sad.

1:35 is the replay.

My cousin was a crew member of Arciero-Wells Racing that season, so of course I was a big fan of that team and of Jeff.
He gave me one of his crew shirts and I still have it hanging in the closet. I haven't worn it since the accident. To add to the tragedy of that day one of the corner workers also died in that accident.