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. Eighty-three spectators and driver Pierre Levegh died and 120
more were injured in the most catastrophic accident in motorsport
history. There was much debate over the
apportioning of blame. To reach his pit-stop, Mike Hawthorn had had to cut
in front of Lance Macklin, causing Macklin to swerve into the path of
Levegh in his much faster Mercedes. The collision propelled Levegh’s car upwards
and into a concrete stairwell, where he was killed, and the wreck exploded in
flames. However the inquiry held none of the drivers responsible, and blamed the
layout of the 30-year old track, which had not been designed for cars of this
speed. Before the accident
Pierre Levegh, aged 49, had been hired by Mercedes-Benz as a factory driver
that year. Part of his appeal to Mercedes was his determination shown in
the 1952 race when he had driven for 23 straight hours, even though the team had
a driver who could have replaced him. He failed to win only because of a missed
gear change, due to exhaustion, with just 45 minutes remaining, resulting in
a failed connecting rod in his Talbot-Lago.
Mercedes-Benz had debuted its new 300 SLR sportscar in the 1955 World
Sportscar Championship season, with some notable success, including a win at the
Mille Miglia. The 300 SLR featured a body made of an ultralightweight
magnesium alloy called Elektron with a specific gravity of 1.8. This new
material reduced the weight of the car and thus improved its performance.
However, the car lacked the more efficient state-of-the-art disc brakes
featured on the rival Jaguar D-Type, employing instead the traditional drum
brake system. The high power of the car forced Mercedes' engineers to
incorporate a large air brake behind the driver that could be raised to increase
drag and slow the car with sufficient rapidity for most conditions.
Safety measures commonly in place today were relatively unknown in 1955. Aside
from two layout changes to make the circuit shorter, the Le Mans circuit
itself had remained largely unaltered since the inception of the race in 1923,
when top speeds of cars were typically in the region of 100 km/h. By 1955 top
speeds were in excess of 300 kilometres per hour. The cars had no seatbelts, the
drivers reasoning that it was preferable to be thrown clear in a collision rather
than be either crushed beneath an overturned car or trapped in a burning
car. The 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans began on 11
June 1955, with Pierre Levegh behind the wheel of the #20 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR
run by Daimler-Benz. American John Fitch was Levegh's assigned partner in the
car, and he would take over driving duties later. Competition between
Mercedes, Jaguar, Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Maserati was close,
with all the marques fighting for the top positions early on. The race was
extremely fast, with lap records being repeatedly broken.
Accident = Immediate cause=
Towards the end of Lap 35, Levegh was following Mike Hawthorn's leading Jaguar
D-type. Approaching the pit straight, Hawthorn passed Lance Macklin's slower
Austin Healey 100S. Seeing the Jaguar crew signaling him for his first pit
stop, Hawthorn moved across Macklin's path and slowed suddenly to enter the
pits. Attempting to avoid Hawthorn, Macklin's car briefly remained on the
right side of the track behind Hawthorn, kicking up dust with its right wheels,
then swerved across the center of the track. Macklin was apparently out of
control as he started to swerve, but regained direction after crossing the
centerline. But by then Macklin was in the path of Levegh, still at speed) in
front of Fangio. Levegh did not have time to react. Levegh's car made contact
with the left rear of Macklin's car as he closed rapidly upon the slowed car.
= Collision= When Levegh's 300 SLR hit Macklin's
Austin-Healey from behind, his car became airborne, soaring towards the
left side of the track. It skipped the earthen embankment separating the
spectator area from the track, bounced through spectator enclosures, then hit a
concrete stairwell structure head-on. That impact disintegrated the front end
of the car, which then somersaulted high, pitching debris into the spectator
area, and landed atop the earthen embankment. The debris included the
bonnet, motor, and front axle, which separated from the frame and flew
through the crowd. The bonnet decapitated tightly jammed
spectators like a guillotine. With the front of the spaceframe chassis—and thus
crucial engine mounts—destroyed, the car's heavy engine block also broke free
and hurtled into the crowd. Spectators who had climbed onto ladders and
scaffolding to get a better view of the track found themselves in the direct
path of the lethal debris. Levegh was thrown free of the tumbling car, but his
skull was fatally crushed on landing. When the rear section of the car landed
on the embankment, the fuel tank exploded. The ensuing fuel fire raised
the temperature of the remaining Elektron bodywork past its ignition
temperature, which was lower than other metal alloys due to its high magnesium
content. The alloy burst into white-hot flames, sending searing embers onto the
track and into the crowd. Rescue workers, totally unfamiliar with
magnesium fires, poured water on the inferno, greatly intensifying the fire.
As a result, the car burned for several hours. Official accounts put the death
total at 84, either by flying debris or from the fire, with a further 120
injured. Other observers estimated the toll to be much higher. Whatever the
total, it was the most catastrophic accident in motorsport history.
Fangio, driving behind Levegh, narrowly escaped the heavily damaged
Austin-Healey, which was now skidding to the right of the track, across his path.
Macklin then hit the pit wall, striking three people and killing one, and
bounced back to the left, crossing the track again and striking the barrier.
Macklin survived the incident without serious injury.
Aftermath = Conclusion of the race=
The race was continued, officially in order to prevent departing spectators
from crowding the roads and slowing down ambulances. An emergency meeting of the
Daimler-Benz board of directors was convened by midnight at the request of
Levegh's co-driver, John Fitch. Mindful of sensitivities involving German cars
in a French race just 10 years after the end of World War II, the board decided
to pull out from the race as a sign of respect to the victims. Eight hours
after the accident, while leading the race, the Mercedes team withdrew the
cars of Juan Manuel Fangio/Stirling Moss and Karl Kling/André Simon. Mercedes
invited Jaguar to also retire, but they declined.
Mike Hawthorn and the Jaguar team, led by motorsport manager Lofty England,
kept racing. Hawthorn won the race with teammate Ivor Bueb.
= After the race= Funeral services were held the next day
at the cathedral in the town of Le Mans. The French press carried photographs of
Hawthorn and Bueb celebrating their win with the customary champagne and treated
them with scorn. The rest of the 1955 World Sportscar
Championship season was completed, with two more races at the British RAC
Tourist Trophy and the Italian Targa Florio, although they were not run until
September and October, several months after the accident. Mercedes-Benz won
both of these events, and were able to secure the constructors championship for
the season. After winning the Targa Florio, the last
major race of the 1955 season, Mercedes-Benz announced that they would
no longer participate in factory sponsored motor-sport in order to
concentrate on development of production cars. The self-imposed ban on circuit
racing lasted until the 1980s. Several drivers, including Fangio and Jaguar's
Norman Dewis, never raced at Le Mans again.
Opinions differed widely amongst the other drivers as to who was directly to
blame for the accident, and such differences remain even today. Macklin
claimed that Hawthorn's move to the pits was sudden, causing an emergency that
led him to swerve into Levegh's path. Years later Fitch claimed, based on
"what I saw and what I heard" that Hawthorn caused the accident. 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. Macklin, on reading Hawthorn's autobiography
Challenge Me The Race in 1958, was embittered to find that Hawthorn
disclaimed all responsibility for the accident without identifying who had
actually caused it. With Levegh dead, Macklin presumed that Hawthorn's
implication was that he had been responsible, and he began a libel
action. The action was unresolved when Hawthorn was killed in a crash on the
Guildford bypass in 1959. The official inquiry into the accident
ruled that Hawthorn was not responsible for the crash, and that it was merely a
racing incident. The death of the spectators was blamed on inadequate
safety standards for track design. The Grandstand and pit areas were demolished
and rebuilt soon after. The death toll led to a ban on
motorsports in France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and other nations,
until the tracks could be brought to a higher safety standard. In the United
States, the American Automobile Association dissolved their Contest
Board that had been the primary sanctioning body for autosport in the US
since 1904. Switzerland's ban did not allow for the running of timed
motorsports such as hillclimbs. This forced Swiss racing promoters to
organize circuit events in foreign countries including France, Italy and
Germany. In 2003 the Swiss parliament started a lengthy discussion about
whether this ban should be lifted. The discussion focused on traffic policy and
environmental questions rather than on safety. On 10 June 2009, the Ständerat
defeated the proposal to lift the ban for the second time and thus
definitively, which meant that the ban would stay.
= Legacy= John Fitch became a major safety
advocate and began active development of safer road cars and racing circuits. He
invented traffic safety devices currently in use on highways.
Macklin's Austin-Healey 100 was sold to several private buyers before appearing
on the auction block. In 1969, it was purchased for £155. In December 2011,
the car was sold at auction for £843,000. The car retained the original
engine SPL 261-BN and was valued at £800,000 prior to the auction. Its
condition was reported to be 'barn find'.
See also 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans
Deadliest Crash: The Le Mans 1955 Disaster
1961 Italian Grand Prix References
Le Mans 1965 in Automobile Historique n°48 May 2005
24 heures du Mans 1973 in Automobile Historique n°49 June/July 2005
Further reading Hilton, Christopher. Le Mans '55: The
crash that changed the face of motor racing. Derby: Breedon. ISBN 1859834418.
External links Remember Le Mans 1955
Newsreel footage of the 1955 race and crash on YouTube, from Pathé News
Le Mans 1955 from The Mike Hawthorn Tribute Site – extensive 1955 Le Mans
coverage, including reports, analysis and photos
Life Magazine report of the 1955 Le Mans Disaster
1955 Le Mans Disaster depicted and analyzed in depth by a witness
BBC: On This Day: 11 June 1955 Pierre Levegh at motorsportmemorial.org
Catastrophe aux 24 heures du Mans en 1955 on YouTube
Apokalypse in Le Mans - Das Rennen in den Tod on YouTube