This is a list of 24 Hours of Le Mans fatal accidents, which consists of all the drivers who have died during a 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend, or in pre-race testing or practice sessions in preparation of the event. It does not include track marshals and spectators other race attendees, including the 1955 disaster which claimed the lives of 83 spectators. In all, a total of 21 drivers have died in and around the Circuit de la Sarthe, with more than half occurring along the circuit's Mulsanne Straight. Fifteen during the race itself, five during pre-race practice and testing sessions, and one en route to the race.
André Guilbert was the first driver to die in June 1925 during the race's third year, although this was due to a collision with a van while en route to the race, but is classified by race historians and authors of the official yearbooks, Christian Moity and Jean-Marc Teissedre. Marius Mestivier was the first race fatality, occurring only a few hours after Guilbert's death. The most recent death was Sebastien Enjolras, who died in a practice session in May 1997. Two drivers total died in the 1920s, with another two in the 1930s, one in the 1940s, five in the 1950s, five in the 1960s, two in the 1970s, two in the 1980s, and one in the 1990s.
Read more about List Of 24 Hours Of Le Mans Fatal Accidents: By Year
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, hours, mans, fatal and/or accidents:
“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The City is of Night, but not of Sleep;
There sweet sleep is not for the weary brain;
The pitiless hours like years and ages creep,”
—James Thomson (1834–1882)
“Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos:”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“We are the men of intrinsic value, who can strike our fortunes out of ourselves, whose worth is independent of accidents in life, or revolutions in government: we have heads to get money, and hearts to spend it.”
—George Farquhar (1678–1707)