<P> The situation caused two marshals from the pit wall on the opposite side of the track to intervene . The first marshal to cross the track was a 25 - year - old panel beater named William (Bill). The second was 19 - year - old Frederik "Frikkie" Jansen van Vuuren, who was carrying a 40 - pound (18 kg) fire extinguisher . George Witt, the chief pit marshal for the race, said that the policy of the circuit was that in cases of fire, two marshals must attend and a further two act as back - up in case the first pair's extinguishers were not effective enough . Witt also recalled that both marshals crossed the track without prior permission . The former narrowly made it across the track, but the latter did not . As the two men started to run across the track, the cars driven by Hans - Joachim Stuck and Pryce came over the brow of a rise in the track . </P> <P> Pryce was directly behind Stuck's car along the main straight . Stuck saw Jansen van Vuuren and moved to the right to avoid both marshals, missing Bill by what Tremayne calls "millimetres". From his position Pryce could not see Jansen van Vuuren and was unable to react as quickly as Stuck had done . He struck the teenage marshal at approximately 270 km / h (170 mph). Jansen van Vuuren was thrown into the air and landed in front of Zorzi and Bill . He died on impact, and his body was badly mutilated by Pryce's car . The fire extinguisher he had been carrying smashed into Pryce's head, before striking the Shadow's roll hoop . The force of the impact was such that the extinguisher was thrown up and over the adjacent grandstand . It landed in the car park to the rear of the stand, where it hit a parked car and jammed its door shut . </P> <P> The impact with the fire extinguisher wrenched Pryce's helmet upward sharply . Death was almost certainly instantaneous . Pryce's Shadow DN8, now with its driver dead at the wheel, continued at speed down the main straight towards the first corner, called Crowthorne . The car left the track to the right, scraping the metal barriers, hitting an entrance for emergency vehicles, and veering back onto the track . It then hit Jacques Laffite's Ligier, sending both Pryce and Laffite head - on into the barriers . Jansen van Vuuren's injuries were so extensive that, initially, his body was identified only after the race director had summoned all of the race marshals and he was not among them . </P> <P> The eventual race winner was Austrian Niki Lauda, his first win since his near fatal accident during the 1976 German Grand Prix . At first he announced it was the greatest victory of his career, but when told on the victory podium of Pryce's death, he said that "there was no joy after that". </P>

Man cut in half by formula 1 car