At 6:26pm, race leader Mike Hawthorn pulled off the road and into the pits at a very slight right hand kink in the front straight. Though his Jaguar wasn’t the fastest car in practice, it was most certainly the fastest car still running competitively. Lance Macklin was running behind Hawthorn’s car in an Austin Healey, and he was startled by Hawthorn’s maneuver. Though Hawthorn had raised his hand according to Macklin, what had caused Macklin to panic was that Hawthorn’s car used disc brakes, a new invention at the time. The disc brakes slowed Hawthorn’s car much more abruptly than most other cars on the grid, including Macklin’s Austin Healey and the Mercedes of Pierre Levegh, both of whom used drum brakes. Speaking of Levegh, he was approaching Macklin fast.
Macklin braked hard. There’s still debate over whether Macklin swerved to the left on purpose, deciding to bail out of the way and into traffic rather than possibly slam into Hawthorn and send him careening at full speed into the pit area, or whether his car shot out of control, a rather frequent occurrence when drum brakes such as those on his Austin Healey are applied quickly. In any case, Macklin’s car darted to the left, in front of a rapidly closing Levegh. Levegh, seeing the collision as imminent, did his best to swerve. According to Juan Manuel Fangio, who was trailing Levegh, the old Frenchman raised his hand to alert Fangio to a potential accident.
Levegh hit Macklin’s car at about 125mph, sending Macklin’s car out of control and Levegh’s car airborne. He struck the earth wall protecting the spectator enclosure while and the Mercedes began a horrible set of cartwheels. Without a seatbelt, Levegh was ejected from the car and flew free, being instantly killed when he crushed his skull against a stairwell.
The car’s engine was ejected from its mount and mowed down several spectators, and the car itself plowed over more. The hood of the car, however, caused the most destruction, becoming a guillotine’s blade and beheading a long line of bystanders who were standing there. The car’s magnesium body exploded, killing yet more people. When fire crews arrived, they sprayed the car down with water, unaware of the car’s composition and that, like many chemical fires, magnesium fires need to be smothered instead of extinguished. The water just made the fire more intense, its white embers jumping about.
Macklin’s car swerved out of control, struck a barrier, and plowed into the pit lane, barely missing several cars in the pits. It mowed over a policeman, a photographer, and a pair of officials, all of which were badly injured, though none of them are known to have perished. Macklin’s car eventually came to a rest, and he was physically not hurt.
Hawthorn had overshot his pit stall in the mess. Rules of the 24 Hours Of Le Mans said that anyone caught reversing their car without the permission of a marshal would be disqualified, so Hawthorn made another lap and hopped out. Ivor Bueb was reluctant to relieve Hawthorn, but did after some convincing, as did Norman Dewis, who, with Don Beauman, was also running a Jaguar D-Type. Reportedly, Hawthorn at first believed he had caused the accident.
Officials looked upon the scene, weighing whether to red flag the race. After a couple of minutes, the decision was made for the race to continue. Ambulances and fire trucks were arriving on scene, and if the race was called off, the departing spectators would have both clogged surrounding roads and alerted spectators at the other side of the track to the crash, which could have caused further crowding.
The official death toll has never been determined, but it’s usually placed at either 80 or 84, both figures including Levegh. 79 spectators could be identified. Those killed mostly came from France, though one is known to have been from Belgium and two from the United Kingdom. In fact, one of the killed Britons, Robert Loxley of Worcester, was in Le Mans celebrating his birthday. One French fatality, Constant Gandon, was a baker who was only at Le Mans because he had agreed to bring some spectators from Erce-Tres-Liffre, in Brittany, to Le Mans. Another Frenchman, Emile Robert, 31, of Cavaillon, shares his details with Robert Emile, also 31 and also of Cavaillon. Whether or not this is an error is unknown.
About 150 were severely injured, including a serviceman from the United States. Many were burned, many more had suffered blunt force injuries, and yet more suffered other injuries.
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The French government immediately banned motorsport for the foreseeable future. Spain, Germany, and Switzerland quickly followed. The American Automobile Association, which presided over the Indianapolis 500, decided to end their motorsport involvement, effective at year’s end, in the crash’s aftermath. Several Grands Prix were called off after the crash. July 3’s French Grand Prix was first pushed off to September, then cancelled altogether. The German Grand Prix, to be held late July, the Swiss Grand Prix, to be held in September, and the Spanish Grand Prix, to be held in October, were also called off. Over the course of the next couple months, racing returned to France, Germany, and Spain, however Switzerland kept their ban. In fact, Switzerland still does not allow circuit racing even to this day. It does, however, permit rally cars and hillclimbs, which, ironically, are even more dangerous for spectators. Switzerland eased up on their ban in the late 2010s, permitting circuit racing for electric cars, as to permit Formula E. According to their government, the motorsport ban is still in effect due to environmental concerns.
As for the sports cars, the next World Sportscar Championship race at the Nurburgring was cancelled, so was the Carrera Panamericana, a non-championship event through the Mexican mountains. Making things worse was the fact that, when the series returned to the track at Dundrod in September, it was on a public street course possibly even more antiquated than Le Mans. Three drivers were killed during said race, Jim Mayers, William Smith, and Richard Mainwaring.
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