A Report On The Accident That Killed Bill
Vukovich In The 1955 Indianapolis 500-Mile-Race
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A Report On The Accident That Killed Bill Vukovich In The 1955 Indianapolis 500-Mile-Race
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Ambulance Driver Was Key Witness To Vukovich Accident Logan Kelsey saw Vukovich go over wall directly in front of him: Was one of first people at the car: Says accident itself was non survivable: Heat of fire drove him back but Vukovich was already beyond help. While it may have looked to people viewing the movies, pictures and reading news articles that he somehow could have survived the accident, Bill Vukovich was almost certainly dead by the time his Hopkins special Roadster stopped spinning and flipping outside the backstretch fence upside down and in a mass of horrible flames. The photos, the movies – they are not enough to see and feel the speed, violence, emotion and tragedy of what took place that day. You had to be there. And if you were there it was very evident that the accident itself was totally unsurvivable. The fire was a post mortem event It was all over when the car skidded to a final grinding halt. These are some of the conclusions after interviewing a key eyewitness to the accident who was one of the first people to arrive at Vukovich’s burning car and who gave this web site a long, detailed slow and deliberate interview of almost everything he saw and knew of the Vukovich crash that fateful day. Logan Kelsey was a young 22 year old ambulance driver for Conkle Funeral Home who by a stroke of fate was assigned to cover the backstretch with his ambulance and was stationed just South of the golf course foot bridge. When the accident occurred and Vukovich’s car cleared the low wooden fence and started it’s wild end-over-end death ride, it came within six feet of striking the ambulance in which Kelsey was sitting in the drivers seat. The event left an indelible memory in his mind – some of it apparently still painful to recall, some that he may still want to keep to himself. Young, Ambulance Driving Was An Attractive Way To Make Extra Money Kelsey spent a lot of time at the speedway and had an interesting perspective of how things operated st the Speedway in those days. But his original intention for driving an ambulance was to supplement his income. "I was going to school and to make extra money we would work on the ambulance making ambulance runs. And I remember we were paid a dollar a run at the time. Of course with the GI bill and given -- I don’t know how much it was maybe a $100 a month -- was able to pay my tuition and make a car payment. Plus the money I could make driving ambulance in one week I could make 100 ambulance runs which.made me 100 dollars." And it didn’t take much training in those days to do it. "To become a driver – of course number one you needed a drivers license. Secondly, we were encouraged to have a first aid certificate. I don’t think it was a law or anything. We were all encouraged to do that because we were going to work in a funeral home we made sure to get a first aid certificate because at that time all the funeral homes had their own ambulances." "I Worked for two different private organizations in town – one of them was a guy named Jackson that used to be an ambulance driver for General Hospital ‘till he retired and got his own ambulance, Then I started working with Don Cales. He had started with an old Cadillac which was the one I was driving that day at the racetrack and then he got a new Pontiac ambulance which he was extremely proud of. He was friendly with John Conkle with Conkle Funeral Home in Speedway." While most race fans have never thought of it, the ambulance arrangement at Indianapolis Speedway was as unique as most anything else at the Speedway in those days. "Conkle was in the Hulman Group for the Month of May -- all hang out and drink together. So they gave him a contract for the ambulance work at the Speedway – don’t know how much they would pay – but he would sub it out to make sure he was covered with other ambulances." Conkle was not the only ambulance company contracted at the Speedway "Don would have two or three out there. I don’t think Jackson would have any. The old Liverly service that was on Pennsylvania would have two or three out there. And Conkle I think we had a couple from their funeral homes out there. And we may have some of them off West Washington." Kelsey remembers the Cadillac ambulance well. "It was an older one -- it was the late 40’s – six seven or eight some where in there maybe. (Note: The ambulance was a 1947) At that time the ambulances -- we called them a combination a lot of them – you put a siren and red light light on it, it was an ambulance – if you didn’t you called it a combination. You had your front and then your back on the right side you opened the door and you would have two seats there one facing each other and a cutout if it was used as a funeral coach it had a leg that folded down and that’s where your medic and your nurse would sit. You could basically only carry one person at a time on a cot. You could put one on the floor but you couldn’t put two cots up in those ambulances." Ambulances Carried Precious Few Medical Supplies But there was virtually no lifesaving equipment carried on board. That was years down the road. An ambulance driver had just street clothes. There was even very little medical supplies – the ambulance drivers job was to basically transport the victim to the track hospital or, if he needed further medical treatment, down to Methodist. "There was no medical equipment to speak of," Kelsey said. "The best you had a first aid kit. I think we carried some clean sheets, pillow, probably some thing to absorb blood was about it -- maybe pads or something -- but no in depth equipment like oxygen and defibrillators, any of that type was long before they were there. Normally about the only equipment a nurse would have would be a pair of scissors and maybe a stethoscope. Not sure who the stethoscope belonged to. We just wore street clothes. The only thing special was that gold badge that got us all around the track." The intern or the extern did carry a bag with morphine and other items. "I’m sure they had some (unintelligible) of examining equipment, stethoscope, items they carried with them and small bandages." Kelsey threw some light on how some of the Speedway worked in the 50’s, how organizations got contracts and well beyond Methodist for years were in there staff doctors would be in charge of the hospital out at the track. You have to remember this was on old drinking club at that time at that track with Tony Hulman, Tom Carnegie the announcer and some of the others. If you were in the drinking group you had a contract with the Speedway for race month -- the Month of May -- of doing something they needed -- your product or your business -- you had it. There were no written contracts -- it was all verbal with Tony Hulman. But like a lot of the workers at the Speedway, a lot of it was volunteers and if you did get paid it was very little. "I would work both time trial weekends at the Speedway and then on raceday. Trying to remember in May we got 10 bucks a day for time trial days and of course you got the gold badge which lets you get into the pits and into the garage area of the Speedway. You could intermingle with the workers there -- the drivers and crewmembers which is always quite interesting." The medical facilities at the Speedway in 1955 were pretty basic and a far cry from today’s standards. But they were at least at the beginning process of creating some of the same infrastructure setup they have today and some of what they were doing in 1955, particularly the use of volunteers, survived well into the late 80’s. Kelsey described some of the medical treatment facilities and some of how it worked. "They divided the speedway basically into areas to cover between the ambulance drivers – they had a hospital tent set up in the infield they had some hospital beds and some other equipment. They had the nurses from the Methodist Hospital donate their time at the hospital to get into the track for free and get a good seating area. I can’t remember the name of the old doctor that ran that was always in charge of it. (Note: His name was Dr. Bohner) But it wasn’t just the drivers on the track that Kelsey provided medical transportation to. Sometimes it was the unruly fans. "He dispatch us out to the various areas. That particular year I spent both time trial weekends working the grandstands which meant hauling drunks from between wooden bleacher seats down to the ground floor so they could arrest them. Those who were really sick we take ‘em down to Methodist Hospital Always had fun out of there because we could kick the sirens on those old ambulances and run wherever the hell we wanted --whichever side of the the road -- and we did. "As young kids we were willing to take chances to have fun and we had the fun." The Date With Destiny But the decision which led to his being stationed where he was on race day and witness history was the one that would go down in infamy. "The lucky drawing of the deal for me was raceday when you go to the golf course crossover bridge and that would be your station for the ambulance over there. I had a friend of Mr Cales in their with me who owned a service station across from where Don lived and we went out there and we had an intern or an extern with us -- I don’t remember which -- and we had a nurse in the ambulance with us also and we were sitting there truly enjoying everything. A good spot to see the race coming out of the south chute making the turn -- making the turn going into the backstretch. It was nice weather – no rain, not too cold, no high winds just an ideal nice place to be."
Picture Taken on Lap 39 shows Kelsey's Ambulance parked at its station just south of the footbridge just 18 laps from the time the accident took place. Another Speedway tradition in those days was the free meal. "We’d get a box lunch too which you didn’t get on qualification days. You pick ‘em up when you go out to your site with your vehicle and we had just opened them up at that time. They weren’t delivered. We had just opened them and started to eat. Fried chicken was in the lunch. Probably a cookie and a roll. Fried chicken was the standard.". And then it happened. "They were coming out of the south chute -- were all running pretty close there in a bunch – but they were all running in a pretty good group and they were all pretty much hot shots on the race track -- and you could see where you thought there was going to be an opening. I ‘m sure Vukovich saw the same thing because you could hear his engine rev up as he accelerated and he headed for that opening and sitting there watching it that opening closed up on him. On the track he saw an opening, you could hear him accelerate going for that opening, and then the opening closed up on him and everything went to hell." The accident continued before his eyes. "How many cars he hit I don’t remember but he became airborne and when he did he crossed the fence and he crossed very close to the hood of the old ambulance. Maybe a foot – looked like it was a quarter inch out of your face. When that car came through the air like it was going to come right in the ambulance, that’s when all the boxes went in the air and people were trying to get out – the old term haulin ass had a meaning in that situation. Didn’t hear any sounds when he went by. Went turning on down the roadway and ended up upside down. I’m thinking Vukovich might have also lit on a state vehicle along the line there, in the rolling coming across everything. I believe he did."
Vukovich catapults over the wall and starts heading toward Kelsey's ambulance.
This may be the closest the Vukovich car came to the ambulance -- somewhere between six and eight feet -- although at 175 miles an hour may have seemed closer. In this photo the photographer in the red shirt has been cloned out.
Although the Vukovich car seems closer to the ambulance here, is is further down the road traveling at a high rate of speed. Fuel is already being spewing out. These photos were taken from original 16mm film using special techniques that allows analyzing film and extracting photos which would be impossible otherwise. Films show Kelsey's ’47 Cadillac ambulance leaving his parked position almost before Vukovich’s car stopped. Films also show the ambulance approaching the burning car and being motioned back by a police officer. Kelsey remembers that and backing up. (See Video) It was then that he apparently got out of the ambulance and walked to the Vukovich car and was one of the first people there. "I went down there to see what the possibilities were after I told them (the other personnel in the ambulance crew) you check those on the track when they got out there and got them opened up where they could get to them. We could see the flames waving – burning that ethanol you could not see the fire but you could see the movement of the air. And there was nothing we do there."
To Kelsey and other observers Vukovich appeared beyond help, with the fire so intense it made it impossible to get within six feet of the race car. Kelsey said the flames were so hot he could not get within six feet of the burning vehicle and he didn’t hear any screaming. "No, I’m sure when he stopped there he was already dead. It’s probably when he went over the fence he did that. Just the amount of force that he had in the way the car had moved and the way it ended up. You have to remember at that time they had no roll bars. They had a seat belt on -- it was still flopping around in the car and their head was exposed every time they’d turn over. A leather type helmet. Nothing what you see today." This seemed to be same impression read about in the past and what the pictures show. There was nothing anybody could do. Kelsey was asked if the general perception around the accident scene was that Vukovich was dead in the cockpit. "We didn’t take time to comment on that. It was not a social occasion. Too much heat. I’m not about to get into it." But did he hear from anybody later what they found when they pulled Vukovich out? "No, no direct comments. Just that we assumed pretty well he was dead because of the shape everything was in. I didn’t talk to anybody. You’re asking the pretty impossible. I have no idea who turned it over and took him out." Kelsey repeated "Vukovich saw that opening he felt was starting to open – he got on it – and it closed up and he was between a car and a fence, rode the car up over the fence went rolling and tumbling down the road, across us, hit that state police vehicle and ended up upside down." From then on it was triage on the run. "It’s your priorities – you prioritize as you go". "Went back up and surveyed the scene of the rest of the cars and went to the golf course bridge crossed over and yelled at the spotter out there and said ‘get us some more ambulances over here’. Then we went onto the track and there was one driver – could have been Elisian it could have been Boyd – was so far out of it we were trying to hold him down. It took four or five of us so the medic could give him a shot – it probably being the intern or the extern riding in the ambulance – hit him with straight morphine wasn’t touching him so he gave him a second one -- got him him calmed down -- and the only thing he was interested in he was saying ‘where’s my helmet, where’s my helmet, I want my helmet’". Kelsey’s voice became tense. "Here’s a guy who skipped death worried about his stinking helmet." "Boyd’s car was pretty torn up too. We got Boyd put him on a stretcher he seemed to be in worse shape than all of then at the time loaded him in the ambulance and went back to infield hospital and the report on Vukovich was he had been killed up there which indeed he had been."
Boyd is loaded into Kelsey's ambulance for transport to the track hospital and ultimately Methodist.
Kelsey identifies himself as the taller ambulance attendant on the left as Boyd is prepared to be loaded in the ambulance. Off to his right could be the intern.
Another view of the Kelsey ambulance and Boyd's car. The question was posed that he heard Vukovich was dead when he got to the hospital but Kelsey later said. "I had not heard he was dead when I got to the track hospital. It was obvious he was dead. It was one of those you just don’t survive." "When we got back from Methodist the news was confirmed to the crowd when the track announcer announced it over the pa system – it was Tom Carnegie." "And they dispatched us on down to Methodist with Boyd took him on in and we went on back to the track and did our normal speedway gig helping folks in the grandstands." "Anybody that was injured and they could not treat in the field hospital went to Methodist." What impressed Kelsey’s was the deliberate fashion in which the rescues crew responded to the situation. "What was surprising, the people in the ambulances and the track workers out there. There was no crazy activity. Everybody just went in with something on their mind and that was to do the job and help the drivers as quickly as they could and get ‘em out of the vehicles and no one was screaming, cussing or carrying on. They were just reaching over and helping. It was a true act of cooperation and compassion." Kelsey remembers no apparent delay in help arriving at the scene such as the fire truck which seemed to take time to arrive. "I had no interest in the fire truck. My interest was in the race drivers. And that’s all I concentrated on. Track workers and the other people in our vehicle were in there. We had some State Police stationed out and they immediately jumped into it. And there were some Speedway Safety employees out there who immediately got involved in it. But what was amazing again, everybody melded together and there was no one out there yelling boss, boss, boss. They just went in and did a job." Kelsey then left the scene of the accident and took Johnny Boyd to the track hospital. "We unloaded Boyd at the track hospital -- take him in and put him on the table. The doctor said ‘get him to Methodist’. See there were no telephones or radios. I don’t know recall if they were calling ahead telling Methodist we are on the way or not. But the safety patrol got us out on 16th Street and we were on our own. Directed out of the track onto 16th street and to Methodist hospital and I don’t remember which exit I used – probably one of them that goes onto 16th street probably. The policeman tried their best to get us open and out. Once we got on 16th street they still had policeman at various intersections and they would try to help us through at that point. Travel 10 or 15 miles and hour because of people walking. "I was gone from 45 minutes to an hour getting to Methodist, getting the person unloaded, getting back, and getting back was the rough part because of the traffic that was west bound on 16th street. (could not understand on tape if he used lights and siren on the way back) "Well, when we got to the hospital, they used to have a power house on the back side and between that and the hospital they had a booth out there but you went down into a dip, and unloaded room for a couple ambulances and took them right in the doors you’d be headed east headed east and they had rooms, 1,2,3,4,5,6 or whatever on each side of the isle and that is how you’d take them into the various rooms which really are rooms. Took him into a room get him on the table, they might ask you a couple questions in there – what happened -- this and that -- and the other (unintelligble) get out of their load up and go back. If I did know about Boyd’s injuries I don’t remember. I probably heard like everybody else. I don’t know what he had unintelligble) injured also, I don’t know. (Note: Boyd was back at the track later in the day). > Did Kelsey return to his same position on the track.? "No. No. I think if I remember correctly I went down between turns three and four. On the outside of the track. Stationed there. I’m sure there was covnerage there from somebody." As far as discussing what had just happened the conversation with his fellow workers was extremely limited. "We just visited about it and that was it. It was just something that happened when you were busy. I had no concerns with safety afterwards. That’s just it. Pay your money, take your chance." Kelsey believes there is additional material on the accident at a local Indianapolis television sration. "Channel 8 in their archives probably has some footage of that accident. Because I remember seeing the entire thing, the accident, the ambulance pulling out on the TV. Don’t know how long they keep it but it was channel 8 out there." (Note have sources which say there are films like this. Some may be duplicates of available material but some may not. Several people claim to have seen films of the accident that were shown that night on local television but never again.) As the smoke cleared from the memories and the pain of going over that tragic day subsided, Kelsey was asked if he had ever talked to Vukovich in his travels around the track with the gold badge. "I had seen him before, spoken to him, not friends with him, but just knew who he was and would speak to him when I saw him – he would, you know, return the comment and go on. Boyd was more of an outgoing person. Roger Ward, was the other one involved, was an arrogant character – very arrogant. Vukovich was and he was -- I guess -- Dale Earnhardt reminded me of Vukovich. Just, he was who he was. That was it. He was not pretentious in any way at all. You saw him, you saw Vukovich."
Note: Thanks to Dan Kelsey and Sue Kelsey-Wheeler for going way above the call of duty on this -- their initial contact and initiating this, their work in recording the interview plus the followup questions and the time spent on making this happen. And thanks to Sue for showing her understanding of the importance of this information and the Vukovich Accident. |
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