Tragic 10-Vehicle Nurburgring Accident Leaves 1 Dead And 7 Injured

We have sad news from the Nurburgring Nordschleife, where a driver lost his life on Monday during a pile-up thought to have involved 10 vehicles. His Mazda MX-5 collided with a tow truck dispatched to pick up a Porsche 911 GT3. The latter had stopped near Bergwerk during a public ‘Touristenfahrten’ session after starting to smoke and drop coolant over the track.

Seven others were injured, five of them seriously. Vehicles involved included a C7 Chevrolet Corvette and two motorcycles. The MX-5 hit the recovery vehicle with such force that went underneath and caught fire. One witness to the aftermath told Road & Track that the Mazda was left ‘unrecognisable’. Many following drivers pulled over to assist and multiple emergency service vehicles attended the scene, including an air ambulance. The session was ended and the track closed for the rest of the day.

“There weren’t many marshals on that day. There should be,” a driver and instructor told R&T, comments which were echoed by well-known Nurburgring vlogger Misha Charoudin in a video posted on Wednesday. “It could have been prevented if there was a marshal,” he said. Increased marshalling will cost money, but Charoudin says he’s in favour of Touristenfahrten price increases if it means a safer environment.

Charoudin also named the victim as Nikola, a Nurburgring regular. Details of how to support the man’s family have been posted in the video’s description.

The last major fatal crash at the track happened in 2016 when a pile-up at Kesselchen left two dead. In 2017, a man was struck and killed while on foot warning other track users of a fluid spill.