CAR KILLS 85

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27683, 13 June 1955, Page 11

CAR KILLS 85

Disaster At Le Mans

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 12.30 a.m.) LE MANS, June 12. The German Mercedes Benz team forfeited almost certain victory in the Le'Mans race when it withdrew its remaining cars today because of a disaster in which 85 persons were killed. A Mercedes somersaulted through the rails, in the 24-hour race yesterday and exploded, killing the driver and 85 of the packed crowd of spectators. More than 100 were injured, several of them gravely.

The silver Mercedes driven by the 50-year-old Krench racing veteran Pierre Levegh, overturned after a triple crash and burst into flames. “Like a magnesium bomb,” an eyewitness said. It collided with a British Austin - Healey and another Mercedes.

The leading car, Mercedes number 19, driven at the time by the British ace Stirling Moss and Mercedes number 21, lying in third place, with the French driver Simon driving, were signalled off the track by the team manager, Mr Alfred Neubauer. “There are too many dead,” Mr Neubauer said.

The Mercedes when withdrawn were in close competition with British Jaguars which carried on. Le Mans organisers tried to induce the Germans to continue but after two hours’ discussion the withdrawal order came from the Stuttgart headquarters. The police said they could not give a definite figure as !,ome people were so badly hurt that they might not survive. An eyewitness said that as the powerful Mercedes crashed against the embankment its axle and engine catapulted through the air into the crowd. The car exploded in a mass of whitehot sparks and was enveloped in flames. Screams and groans from the injured and dying mingled with the roar of exhausts as the rest of the 60 competing cars roared past the stand. Volunteers carried away the dead and injured on ladders. Engine Hits Spectators The engine and back axle of the Mercedes sliced like a razor through the packed spectators. Some were decapitated. Spectators fainted at the scene ol carnage alter what is the worst accident in the 32 years’ history of the gruelling race. The race until then had been a thrilling duel betwen a British Jaguar, driven by Mike Hawthorn, and the Mercedes with the Argentine world champion Juan Manuel Fangio at the wheel. The race had been going about two hours, the cars travelling more than 160 miles an hour with Hawthorn just in the lead from Fangio and both men breaking lap records time and again. The crowd rushed to the blazing car and the wounded but were soon forced back by the flames from straw bales and wooden track railings. Loudspeakers called on spectators to give blood for transfusions. Priests moved among the dead laid out behind one of the main stands performing last rites. Karl Kling, the leading “second string” driver in the Mercedes team, who was involved in the crash, was unhurt and carried on with the race. Lance Macklin, the Austin Healey driver, was reported to be only slightly hurt. Late last night as doctors and first aid workers tended the injured, the cars continued to thunder around the circuit, their headlights piercing the darkness and making a fairyland of arching, flashing lights that contrasted with stark tragedy among the spectators. The worst racing disaster previously is thought to have been at Frankfurt, Germany, on September 9, 1952, when a racing car hurtled off the track into the crowd killing 13 and injuring 27. Telephoned Order' Early today the remaining two Mercedes cars were withdrawn from the race on telephoned orders from Dr. Fritz Koeneche, general manager of Daimler Benz in Stuttgart, Germany. A Mercedes spokesman said: “Al] (he pride of the constructors and drivers must bow to the cruelty of this frightful accident.” The Mercedes spokesman explained that the cars had not been withdrawn earlier because the managers had no idea of the extent of the disaster until a late hour. Also it took two hours for a telephone call to go through to Stuttgart, where Daimler Benz directors, after hearing a report on the situation ordered: “Stop immediately.” After five hours the Mercedes with Stirling Moss at the wheel had a threelap lead on a Jaguar with J. Davis at the controls. Tightly bunched in third, fourth and fifth places were a Jaguar with Duncan Hamilton driving, a Ferrari with Phil Hill and a Jaguar driven by Ivor Bued.