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Anonymous
On lap 22, Jansen Van Vuuren, a 19 year old student, airline ticket clerk and safety marshal, was struck by Tom Pryce at high speed when crossing the track to extinguish a fire on Renzo Zorzi's retired Shadow. The impact killed both Pryce and Van Vuuren instantly, Van Vuuren from the impact of the collision, Pryce due to head injuries inflicted by the fire extinguisher that the marshal was carrying. The extreme forces involved in the collision resulted in Van Vuuren leaving no identifiable remains, and he was only recognized by exclusion after the race director gathered all of his colleagues. The impact from the fire extinguisher ripped Pryce's helmet from his head, causing the chin strap to nearly decapitate the unfortunate Welshman.
The sport reacted with genuine sorrow at the loss of two young men. Tyrrell mechanic Trevor Foster viewed the incident from a distance, later recalling; "I can remember quite vividly [Pryce's] teammate's car had already pulled off to the side of the track and it had started a small fire. Then the next thing I can remember is seeing Tom's car coming down the straight. I can almost remember now a momentary lift of the throttle much earlier than you would have expected and I looked and I saw something fly up from the car, which tragically turned out to be the marshal." [1] Elsewhere, David Tremayne, a veteran biographer and journalist, recalled the feelings of disbelief and horror following the aftermath of the incident; "The tragedy itself - the sheer randomness of it - is so hard to take and still is. You tend to focus your anger on someone and for a long time it would be focused on a 19 year old kid, called Jansen van Vuuren, who ran across the track. The tragedy there is that he was sent by the guy in charge of the marshals; it wasn't his decision. The tragedy is that a couple of feet either way it would have been a nasty scare for everyone and everyone would have got away with it."
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