Porsche Test Driver Dies Testing Pre-Production 911
By Zack Newmark
February 13, 2009 1:34 PM
Filed Under: German, Porsche, Spy Photos
A 51-year-old died in Germany this morning following an accident involving a Porsche 911 cabrio prototype. The victim, a Porsche engineer, was driving the car on the A5 Autobahn when he lost control and slammed into a guard rail.
The one-car accident happened at 2:45am just past the Weiterstadt exit on the motorway. Photos of the scene show the sports car wedged under the barrier, with the rail making contact near where the driver's head and torso would have been.
A spokesman for Porsche said the engineer "was one of the most experienced test drivers." The company representative confirmed that the car was a camouflaged cabrio covered with foil to mask parts of the vehicle's appearance. He also noted that, although it did not rollover, the convertible does not have the same resilience as a coupe.
Police and fire department personnel responded to the scene from nearby Darmstadt. The public prosecutor there has taken charge of the ongoing investigation. The location of the accident was midway between Frankfurt and Heidelberg, in the German province of Hessen.
It is not yet known what caused the accident. Witnesses say the driver, who has worked for the German company for 25 years, was driving a prototype of a new Porsche 991 model at a high rate of speed. That stretch of road does not have a speed limit. He was being followed by a second Porsche testdriver in a camouflaged four-door Porsche Panamera prototype.
That driver successfully evaded the crash, and escaped unharmed. Although the accident did take place at an unusual hour, both drivers were working on a 10pm to 6am shift. An initial damage estimate is said to be several thousands of Euro.
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Comments
cars are designed to take frontal hits, but this one happened from the rear... worst case scenario.... no airbag... no nothing could have foreseen a freak accident like this one...
my deepest condolences to the family! what a tragedy!
And the Porsche was not driving at super high speeds! The high speed testing is done on closed circuits! Those test mules with new equipment normally don;t drive more than 250 km/h. And it was wet and snowing very lightly, so any experienced driver would not have driven faster than 140-150 km/h. My guess is this was a freak accident and the speed was around 120-130 km/h (75-80 mph) when he lost control of the 911...
i drive this stretch of the A5 weekly and it's very straight, but it has some ditching parts, which can be fatal if it's wet and there's not optimal grip on the asphalt...
very close by on the same stretch famous race car driver Rosemeyer lost control driving about 430 km/h, this was around 1936... this stretch of Autobahn was one of the first to be in service... many high speed records were broken back then. for those attempts the Autobahn was closed down...
I hope this doesn't interrupt the 998 development at all.
It is very sobering news. A test driver with over 25years of experience can do nothing to avoid can accident like that. Imagine how greater the risk a much lesser drivers like my self is taking when driving at high speeds on public roads. To think I drove at speeds over 160km/h in a light drizzle today...how foolish I've been...
In saying that, this test driver could have been travelling at 80km/h and have still lost control because of many other factors. However, removing excessive speed will reduce the risk of many other hazards, not the least being experience. Too many people are over-confident in their driving abilities simply because they've avoided accidents while driving dangerously.
I hope that more people can take lessons from this tragedy.
It just goes to show that with 25years experience testing supercars you cannot take anything for granted. He played a part in making Porsches some of the finest cars available and for that dedicated contribution he should be remembered appropriately.
Doing so will help Porsche not come across as a cold faceless corporation.
What a ridiculous barrier design. Bafflingly low. Surely standard armco would have greatly reduced the possibility of this being a fatal accident...
Rest In Peace.
God be with him and us all. R.I.P
Isaacu
I'm sure Porsche will go back to the drawing board with the engineers to make sure this never happens again.
R.I.P
RIP - may one life save many.
Edited by user on February 20, 2009 at 10:05 AM
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