Death
On the 17th lap of the 1928 Italian Grand Prix held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Materassi lost control of his Talbot 700 when he tried to overtake Giulio Foresti’s Bugatti T35C on the main straight at over 200 km/h. The Talbot swerved to the left, jumped over a three-meter deep and four-meter wide protection ditch and a fence and crashed into the grandstand.
Materassi was killed instantly along with twenty spectators and a large number of people were injured. The other drivers of the Scuderia Materassi withdrew from the race immediately after the accident, but the event continued and it was won by Louis Chiron. Three days later one of the injured spectators died in hospital, making the total death toll 22. Other sources state that 27 spectators were killed all in all.
By either estimation this is the worst accident, with respect to the number of lives lost, to occur at a Grand Prix and it is only surpassed by the 1955 Le Mans disaster in the history of motor racing. As a result the Italian Grand Prix was cancelled in 1929 and 1930.
Read more about this topic: Emilio Materassi
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“Poor fellow never joyed since the price of oats rose, it was
the death of him.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“‘Tis no extravagant arithmetic to say, that for every ten jokes,—thou hast got an hundred enemies; and till thou hast gone on, and raised a swarm of wasps about thine ears, and art half stung to death by them, thou wilt never be convinced it is so.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)