Frank Williams - His Accident - R&T 1986
John D. Ford
I was going through the car mag collection and dug this up. For the
millions of times I had seen "What happened to Frank Williams?" type
threads, I thought I'd post an excerpt from the article which appeared in
Road & Track at the time:
From - Road & Track - July 1986 - By Alan Henry
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...
When Nelson Piquet won at Rio, he was winning for Frank.
Just over a fort-night earlier, Williams left a test session
at the Paul Ricard circuit and headed for Nice airport in a
rented Ford Sierra. The test of the new FW11 had gone well,
and Frank was in an optimistic mood when he left the track.
Less than a half-hour later, a local motorist burst into the
paddock to report to the Wiliams team members that their
boss had been involved in an accident just up the road. It
was serious.
Nigel Mansell and several others raced up the road to the
point where the Sierra lay, almost flattened, in a plowed
field. The car had somersaulted, landing on the roof, on
Frank's side. The only passenger was PR manager Peter
Windsor who, miraculously escaping unscathed, removed
Williams from the fuel-drenched wreckage. Frank continued to
complain, quietly, that he was unable to feel his feet . . .
Several days after a 6-hour spinal operation in a
Marseilles hospital, a jet air ambulance whisked Frank to
the intensive care section of the London Hospital, where the
FISA medical consultant, Syd Watkins, one of Britain's
leading neuro-surgeons, could keep a closer watch on his
progress. A telephone link to the team was installed, and
within a matter of days Frank was bravely trying to get back
into the swing of things. His always active mind went into
top gear, perhaps as a natural reaction to his lack of
mobility.
...
--
John D. Ford I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather...
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
Voice/FAX +1 613 728 1382 ...Not screaming and yelling like the passengers
jdf...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA in his car.
Steven Frizzell
There was an article by Peter Windsor in "F1 Racing - December 1996"
concerning Frank Williams crash and its aftermath.
Andrew Watson
John D. Ford <at...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote in article
<5d5ead$s...@freenet-news.carleton.ca>...
> Several days after a 6-hour spinal operation in a
> Marseilles hospital, a jet air ambulance whisked Frank to
> the intensive care section of the London Hospital, where the
> FISA medical consultant, Syd Watkins, one of Britain's
> leading neuro-surgeons, could keep a closer watch on his
> progress.
> ...
>
I've been in the ICU of the Royal London Hospital and a jolly nice place
it is too, just like MASH but without the humour. Great nurses and doctors
there, pity they're trying to get rid of the helicopter on cost grounds ..
bloody Government !
Roy Johnson
In article <5d5ead$s...@freenet-news.carleton.ca>, at...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (John D. Ford) says:
There was a very good article in Decembers F1 Racing on this subject,check it out.