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
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“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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“I shall die as my fathers died, and sleep as they sleep; even so.
For the glass of the years is brittle wherein we gaze for a span;
A little soul for a little bears up this corpse which is man.
So long I endure, no longer; and laugh not again, neither weep.
For there is no God found stronger than death; and death is a sleep.”
—A.C. (Algernon Charles)