Ayrton Senna Death: What Were Ayrton Senna’s Injuries?

Ayrton Senna sustained fatal skull fractures, brain injuries, and a ruptured temporal artery in the accident.

Racing at the San Marino Grand Prix in Italy, Senna died in a horrific crash.

Senna’s car was going 191 mph when it left the track and hit a concrete wall at 145 mph.

After Senna’s car stopped, he was initially motionless in the cockpit. After about ten seconds, as recorded by the close-up aerial footage, his head was seen to lift to the left before returning to its original position. Thereafter he did not move again.

The right front wheel had shot up upon impact and entered the cockpit, striking the right frontal area of his helmet. The violence of the wheel’s impact shoved his head back against the headrest (which was already far forward from the car’s impact with the wall) causing fatal skull fractures.

In addition, a piece of suspension attached to the wheel had also partially penetrated his Bell M3 helmet and caused trauma to his head.

Also, it appeared that a jagged piece of the upright assembly had penetrated the helmet visor just above his right eye. Senna was using a medium-sized (58 cm) M3 helmet with a new “thin” Bell visor.

Any one of the three injuries would probably have killed him.