The official cause of death was determined to be a combination of these injuries, which led to cardiac arrest and ultimately, Cevert's passing.
Without the specific autopsy document, the medical literature on Cevert’s death comes from journalists, track officials, and his team boss, Ken Tyrrell, who saw the body.
The barrier uprooted and sliced through the cockpit. Witnesses and later reports describe the body being severed or cut in half between the neck and the hip. francois cevert autopsy report
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, a track where he had secured his only Grand Prix win two years prior . As he navigated the "Esses"—a high-speed, uphill right-left combination—his Tyrrell 006 clipped a curb on the left. The official cause of death was determined to
In the fast, sweeping uphill Esses section, Cevert lost control. Most accounts agree he touched the inside curb with his left wheel, sending the car into a violent snap across the track, where he struck the Armco barrier on the opposite side at full racing speed. The failure of the Armco system was the fatal variable. The nose of the Tyrrell wedged between two horizontal sections of the metal barrier. This created a "guillotine" effect: the car was suddenly decelerated from nearly 150 mph to zero almost instantly, while the chassis crumpled and was torn apart.
Fellow driver Jody Scheckter was the first on the scene; he and later track marshals left Cevert in the car because he was "so clearly dead" that medical intervention was impossible. Witnesses and later reports describe the body being
: The most consistent report is that the sharp metal of the guardrail, which had been uprooted by the car, cut his body nearly in half.
On January 13, 1973, François Cevert was involved in a fatal accident during testing at the Watkins Glen International circuit in New York, United States. He was 29 years old at the time of his death.