Thread: The Worst Motorsport Accident in History

The accident happened during the 1955 Le Mans race when Pierre Levegh became airborne after driving into the back of Lance Macklin's car, who had moved to the left of the track to avoid a collision with the slowing Jaguar of Mike Hawthorn.

Levegh's 300 SL Mercedes disintegrated above the spectators, killing him and 82 spectators

Following the accident, Germany, Switzerland and France imposed a ban on motorsports. Switzerland has not lifted the ban to this day.

The attached image shows the remains of Levegh's car after the accident.

Another 100+ were injured in the accident as well.

Also Mercedes withdrew from all frontline motorsports following this accident and would not return for many decades sticking mostly to small touring car operations.

They returned to LeMans in 1985 with Peter Sauber, and to F1 in 1993, also with Peter Sauber.