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De gevaren van de weg: reflecties op een vroeg ongeluk
Foto's duiken soms op de meest onverwachte plaatsen op, en deze foto kwam zeker als een verrassing toen hij werd gevonden op een motorbeurs in Europa door lezer Luc Ryckaert. Zoals zoveel foto’s uit de beginjaren van de auto roept ook deze veel vragen op.
Het is waarschijnlijk zinloos om te vragen wat de auto zou kunnen zijn, omdat we er zeker van zijn dat zelfs onze meest deskundige lezers hem niet kunnen identificeren, maar we zullen blij zijn als iemand ons ongelijk kan geven. Wat de locatie betreft, denken we dat het ergens in Europa moet zijn, mogelijk Frankrijk of België. Een meer relevante vraag zou zijn: hoe is dit ongeluk gebeurd? Wat veroorzaakte dit vreselijke tafereel?
Er zijn tientallen plausibele antwoorden op die vraag. De begindagen van het reizen per auto waren vol gevaren, vooral op ruwe, onverharde wegen door landelijke gebieden. Ongelukken konden worden veroorzaakt door kuilen en andere gebreken in de weg, stofwolken, of wilde dieren en zwerfhonden op de weg, om enkele veel voorkomende gevaren te noemen. Het zou kunnen dat dit ongeluk het gevolg was van een mechanisch defect, dat mogelijk het gevolg was van een eerder ongeluk. Een botsing met een zwerfhond zou bijvoorbeeld niet direct catastrofaal zijn, maar als de besturing van de auto daardoor beschadigd was, zouden er later wel problemen kunnen ontstaan. Aan de andere kant zou het ook heel goed veroorzaakt kunnen zijn door een probleem dat zeker niet minder is geworden naarmate auto's en wegen zich hebben ontwikkeld: dat van bestuurdersfouten, of het nu gaat om onoplettendheid, uitbundigheid of een onschuldige inschattingsfout.
Wat opvalt is de afwezigheid van mensenmassa's die zich om de auto of de inzittenden bekommerden, noch om te helpen noch om te kijken, hoewel ten minste één van de inzittenden enige aandacht heeft gekregen. Dat zegt ons niet veel, behalve dat het ongeluk waarschijnlijk niet plaatsvond tijdens een race, en het moet op een redelijke afstand van het dichtstbijzijnde dorp zijn gebeurd om niet alle lokale roddelaars te hebben aangetrokken, voor wie zo'n morbide scène een goede week aan speculatieve praatjes had kunnen opleveren.
We denken dat een passerende reiziger, misschien een boer of landarbeider, het ongeluk zag gebeuren en zo snel mogelijk naar de dichtstbijzijnde politieagent ging. Iemand van de plaatselijke politie nam de foto waarschijnlijk voor officiële doeleinden en 120 jaar later belandde deze op onze website.
Woorden: Zack Stiling; foto: Luc Ryckaert
Gepubliceerd:
dinsdag april 23rd, 2024
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Reacties
David Grimstead
29 April 2024, 16:31
Michel Pilette
03 Mei 2024, 17:46
Correct. The accident occurred on the return journey of my grandfather to Belgium after maintenance of the car in Germany. Thanks for the additional information, of which I was not aware.
Kind regards,
Michel Pilette
Lees verder
Kind regards,
Michel Pilette
Luc Ryckaert
25 April 2024, 09:27
Thanks to Nick Jonckheere (The Automobile contributor), I know what happened before this sad photograph was taken. Théodore Eugène Pilette was a Belgian racing driver, that started racing in 1913 and was the first Belgian to race at the Indianapolis 500. Located in Brussels, he was the Belgian importer for Bugatti and Mercedes. In 1921, his Mercedes was entered for a race at Brooklands, that took place on May 15th. The week before, he and his mechanic Bruyère drove the car to Stuttgart, to have the final preparations done at the factory. The journey back started on Thursday, and on Friday 13th they arrived in Luxembourg, where it all went wrong around 10.00 a.m. Near Steinfort, the Mercedes left the road and hit a tree. The driver and passenger were thrown out of their car and later found unconscious. They never regained consciousness and died on the way to the hospital . Nevertheless, the passion for car racing remained in the Pilette family. Théodore was the father of auto racer André Pilette and grandfather of racer Teddy Pilette. Enclosed a picture of Pilette and his mechanic Bruyère taken at the Grand Prix de l'A.C.F., circuit de Lyon 1914.
Lees verder
Michel Pilette
03 Mei 2024, 17:54
Thank you for the useful information. My grandfather's full name was Théodore Jean Henri Pilette, not Eugène. He started racing at the turn of the century, starting with a De Dion tricycle.
Lees verder
Graham Edwards
24 April 2024, 08:15
Perhaps a ’staged’ photograph? I hope so! It appears well composed. Does look like a Mercedes radiator. Some kind of motorsport ’health and safety’ campaign shot??
Lees verder
Michel Pilette
03 Mei 2024, 17:56
This is the copy of the original picture of the death of my grandfather.
Lees verder
Stuart Griffin
23 April 2024, 21:48
Hi. A really interesting photo. I am concerned the two men I see in the photo are not in the best of health, and in fact may have departed this mortal coil, of their presumed injuries.
The bottom of the rolled car looks rather like the bottom of the 1908 Mercedes racer, in the Models of Yesteryear range, I played with as a child—possibly played with a little too much bearing in mind the time it spent upside down. Chain-drive with mighty drive sprockets, hefty and large diameter wheels and the underbody fairings throughout. It also featured a massive Left Hand external exhaust system and was right-hand drive.
Its has to be sobering to realise the carnage the early motorists endured, with awful roads, frequent punctures and mechanical reliability, brakes which were marginal at best and really no human protection.
No seat belts even, and yet it took a long time to realise being thrown from a couple of tons of high speed steel could rarely have a good outcome. Most sobering is to realise too many folk still seem to thing the most basic of safety measures don't really need to apply to them.
I am intrigued to know more of the true story, and hope my interpretation is complete nonsense, and the passengers are merely resting after a truly lucky escape,
Regards,
Stuart
Lees verder
The bottom of the rolled car looks rather like the bottom of the 1908 Mercedes racer, in the Models of Yesteryear range, I played with as a child—possibly played with a little too much bearing in mind the time it spent upside down. Chain-drive with mighty drive sprockets, hefty and large diameter wheels and the underbody fairings throughout. It also featured a massive Left Hand external exhaust system and was right-hand drive.
Its has to be sobering to realise the carnage the early motorists endured, with awful roads, frequent punctures and mechanical reliability, brakes which were marginal at best and really no human protection.
No seat belts even, and yet it took a long time to realise being thrown from a couple of tons of high speed steel could rarely have a good outcome. Most sobering is to realise too many folk still seem to thing the most basic of safety measures don't really need to apply to them.
I am intrigued to know more of the true story, and hope my interpretation is complete nonsense, and the passengers are merely resting after a truly lucky escape,
Regards,
Stuart
Ben Collings
23 April 2024, 15:51
Looking at the picture I think it might be a Mercedes racing car from 1910/12 due to the distinctive front and rear axles, the narrow section chain with large sprockets, the outside exhaust collector tube and cable rear brakes.
It also appears to have a large vee-fronted radiator supported by a cross tube that drops down in the centre. I think it has wooden wheels (both of these things rule out the 1913 factory racers) as well as having a rear-mounted spare tyre. Maybe they were out road testing due to the front axle-mounted number plate?
Lees verder
It also appears to have a large vee-fronted radiator supported by a cross tube that drops down in the centre. I think it has wooden wheels (both of these things rule out the 1913 factory racers) as well as having a rear-mounted spare tyre. Maybe they were out road testing due to the front axle-mounted number plate?
Richard Smith
23 April 2024, 22:36
The starting handle remains in place the shape of which might help with identification.
Lees verder
Steve Diggins
23 April 2024, 09:12
It looks like the three people laying in the grass are alive and waiting for a medic.
Lees verder
Tony Press
24 April 2024, 04:06
I can only see two unfortunates and both look to be rather in trouble :-(
Lees verder
Luc Ryckaert
23 April 2024, 09:00
In the meantime, thanks to Nick Jonckheere, I know the true facts of this photo. I will send my comment later, but first I'm too curious to see what the other PreWarCar readers think...
Lees verder
Richard Smith
23 April 2024, 08:35
The car has chain drive, a full under tray, no wings and a side mounted exhaust pipe which suggests a racing car. Also notable for a smash-up of the day is that all four wheels appear to have survived the experience relatively intact.
Lees verder
“The day before the race Pilette, driving a Grégoire racer around the circuit for the last time before the contest, took a corner too fast at Longlier and crashed with terrific force against the roadside, which was made of rock. The automobile was broken to pieces and Pilette had his right arm crushed. His goggles were shattered into a thousand fragments and pieces of glass entered his eyes and forehead. His physician takes a hopeful view of his condition.”
Recovered from these injuries he competed there again in 1907 in a Vivinus (Liederkerke Cup) and a Mercedes (Circuit des Ardennes). From then he was a successful car agent and amateur racer for the latter until—déjà vu—May, 1921. Then, driving perhaps a version of the 9.2-litre 90 h.p. Type G-4F four-cylinder aero-engined and chain-drive G.P. Mercedes that he had driven to third place at Le Mans in 1913 and with little time left on the 13th of the month to get to Brooklands, he crashed near Steinfort/Capellen just 30 miles south-east of Longlier on the route back from Luxembourg to Brussels.
He and Bruyère died in futile preparation for a four-car wager race scheduled to run at the end of the May 16th, 1921, the Brooklands Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday meeting; to the winner, it was worth 80 guineas (approx. £5,153 today). It was unlikely that Pilette knew it had already been cancelled after Capt. John Hartshorne Cooper died crashing his Clerget-engined Mercedes in testing there on Thursday, May 12th, nor that Philip Rampon’s Martin-Arab (11.8-litre Sunbeam) had failed scrutineering, leaving just Count Zborowski’s Chitty-Bang-Bang. There was much reporting in Britain about Cooper’s demise but not Pilette’s, and much about the danger of hybrid aero-engined racers.