Formula One fatalities.

[munudeges]

The marshals made no effort to help David Purley, and that shouldn't be forgotten. A few drivers helping would have had a better chance of getting the March upright.

It shouldn't be forgotten that members of the crowd were trying to come down and help but were prevented from doing so by police. Not much changed when Ronnie Peterson sat in his Lotus in 1978 and Italian police prevented him from getting medical attention. The length of time he wasn't treated directly contributed to the eventual outcome.

I don't blame the marshals so much as I blame the utterly moronic organisation of running Formula 1 races. Nothing had changed since 1955 when that race stupidly continued amid the tragedy. There was no one in charge and marshals were expected to deal with very intense fires with no direction, no training and no equipment. It's easy to criticise but you can only do so when you're putting your own neck on the line.

A person is smart. People are dumb and panicky and you can only change that with better organisation.

[kaller]

2011: Allan Mcnish's crash. The fact that he walked away basically unscathed is a testament to Audi's engineering, but that incident could have been very nasty. First of all, notice how the car skipped across the gravel trap barely losing any speed; this is why some gravel traps should be replaced with paved runoff, despite the objections of martin brundle and others. Second, notice the tire that comes falling back down about a second after the car comes to a rest. That kind of thing kills people.

This is not so much due to Audi's engineering but rather for the specs of LMP, track safety and lot of luck. I find it plain disgusting that Audi used this incident as a marketing campaign to suggest that their cars are safe upon high speed impacts and even implictly tried to link it to safety of their road cars as well. Disgusting and irresponsible.

[strad]

Senna...what's happened with Michael they prove my point. Senna was wearing the safest of helmets and God, fate, or whatever conspired to shove a wishbone thru the eye opening and killed him...Michael was weariing a state of the art helmet and managed to fall just so a rock could smash his head anyway.
All this safety is an illusion to make ya feel better when something still happens.

[langwadt]

FIA sure have made F1 safe but I also think that it has been a natural progression of the western society as a whole towards occupational health and safety. F1 was lacking in it in the 90's, senna's accident was an avoidable wake up call to the FIA which was preoccupied in selling F1 rather than governing it.

On the other side hats of to NASCAR and Indycar for continuing with ovals, making cars and circuits as safe as possible while reminding drivers of the risks when they get it wrong.

Gravel traps were an integral part of a racing circuit, it was a mistake to remove it.

The cars tended to just skip over them and lose very little speed or roll over, I believe them tarmac run offs are considered safer though I'm not sure that it is as clear in the wet

[langwadt]

Senna...what's happened with Michael they prove my point. Senna was wearing the safest of helmets and God, fate, or whatever conspired to shove a wishbone thru the eye opening and killed him...Michael was weariing a state of the art helmet and managed to fall just so a rock could smash his head anyway.
All this safety is an illusion to make ya feel better when something still happens.

It means you can say it is down to bad luck and not neglecting to take prober precautions, I'd say than is good

As for Senna if the wishbone hadn't got him (if it did) the broken neck would

[Pierce89]

I'm not one of the old timers, but I got into car racing because, when I got my drivers license, I discovered taking curves at speed was just as exhilarating as jumping my motocross bike 60 feet through the air. Why were they both exhilarating? Risk, plain and simple. Now, as a live show F1 is still fairly thrilling, but on TV.... I watch to support Ferrari not because slot cars are fun to watch.

[mnmracer]

FIA sure have made F1 safe but I also think that it has been a natural progression of the western society as a whole towards occupational health and safety. F1 was lacking in it in the 90's, senna's accident was an avoidable wake up call to the FIA which was preoccupied in selling F1 rather than governing it.

On the other side hats of to NASCAR and Indycar for continuing with ovals, making cars and circuits as safe as possible while reminding drivers of the risks when they get it wrong.

Gravel traps were an integral part of a racing circuit, it was a mistake to remove it.

The cars tended to just skip over them and lose very little speed or roll over, I believe them tarmac run offs are considered safer though I'm not sure that it is as clear in the wet

The problem with gravel traps is that they work perfectly for the more heavy cars, such as touring cars, that can really dig into the gravel. When you have a combination of light and fast, like F1 and LMP, it doesn't work quite as well.

[GitanesBlondes]

Gravel traps are better for motorcycles.

[autogyro]

I designed a flexible run off covering that the cars would suck up to slow down.
FIA liked it but it was too expensive.
Safety always has cost considerations.
They even offered me F3 cars to throw at the idea to develop it.

[Callum]

I designed a flexible run off covering that the cars would suck up to slow down.
FIA liked it but it was too expensive.
Safety always has cost considerations.
They even offered me F3 cars to throw at the idea to develop it.

Out of interest are you able to elaborate?

[timbo]

Michael was weariing a state of the art helmet and managed to fall just so a rock could smash his head anyway.
All this safety is an illusion to make ya feel better when something still happens.

Actually this disapproves what you day.
Had Michael not wear a helmet he'd be not here already. He maximized his chances.

[autogyro]

I designed a flexible run off covering that the cars would suck up to slow down.
FIA liked it but it was too expensive.
Safety always has cost considerations.
They even offered me F3 cars to throw at the idea to develop it.

Out of interest are you able to elaborate?

I would sooner not elaborate.
The idea still has potential.

[GitanesBlondes]

Is the fifth picture in your last post really necessary, gitanes?

Absolutely it was for the reasons two other members stated.

It's a part of the history of F1 regardless of whether people like it or not. I posted it for the same reason I posted the picture of Tom Pryce's out of control Shadow with Tom already dead behind the wheel. Gruesome as it may be, it needs to be seen to understand one aspect of F1's past. We hear far too much about Senna, and not nearly enough about the many others who were killed.

[SectorOne]

Gruesome as it may be, it needs to be seen to understand one aspect of F1's past.

Oh but people do. This is F1T remember. Watching dead people in cars with an anecdote is not the best source on the planet when it comes to understanding one aspect of F1´s past.
(in my opinion).

[GitanesBlondes]

September 10, 1961, Monza. In a race that had intriguing storylines --Hill and Von Trips battling for the championship and Ricardo Rodriguez becoming the youngest front row sitter in F1 history-- the focus was instead on the fatal accident that occurred. Wolfgang Von Trips was killed along with 15 spectators when his Ferrari 156 clipped the front wheel of Jim Clark's Lotus-Climax on the second lap as they were on the run down to the Parabolica. The contact sent Von Trips spinning off into the banking on the left side of the circuit where the crowd was, and into the spectators who were just behind a chainlink fence. The Ferrari ejected Von Trips from the car before coming to rest on the circuit.