CAR LEAPS ON CROWD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 456, 11 September 1928, Page 11

CAR LEAPS ON CROWD

TERRIBLE RACING SMASH SPECTATORS MOWN DOWN (United. IP.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and. N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) MILAN, Sunday. The Monza disaster, in which 19 persons were killed, is believed to be the worst in the history of motor racing. Materassl had changed a wheel on his Talbot car in the second lap, but a stupendous effort enabled him to make up much of his lost ground. He had forced his way into fifth place when he came Into the straight near the grandstand. There Materassi made a desperate attempt to overtake Foresti, who was driving a Bugatti car. He had accelerated to 125 miles an hour when the near front wheel of his Talbot touched the offside of the Bugatti. Materassi’s car swerved violently to the right, then leapt to the left. Finally it shot like a giant projectile across a 10ft. ditch into the spectators massed in front of the grandstand. “Men, women and children, many of whom had waited all night to secure a favoured place, were mown down like reeds,” said an eye-witness of the tragedy. Materassi was hurled from the car and died on the track in a few minutes. Eighteen spectators were killed.

The spectators were panic-stricken. They broke through the barriers and stampeded on to the track in spite of the fact that the other motorists, who were unaware of the accident, continued racing. The ambulance men were totally unprepared for an accident of such magnitude, and it was a long time before the injured were conveyed to hospital.

Chirch (France) won the race with a Bugatti car. His average speed was 100 miles an hour. Leonardi was killed on the Monza track in 1925, and Sivocci and Pordino were killed there In 1927. Materassi won the Grand Prix de San Sebastian in 1927 when he drove 433 miles at an average speed of 80 miles an hour.