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| Pre's overturned car. May 30, 1975. |
I went to Eugene today with Nike's Product Costing team. Our last stop was Pre's Rock where I tell the story of Pre's death.
As I was speaking, a man who was cleaning the shrubbery along Skyline stopped his work, leaned against his rake, and listened. As I lead up to the point of the actual accident he raised his hand. I stopped and asked if he had a question.
He asked me, "Do you want to know what really happened?" .......
Arne said that he was at the accident scene while Pre was still alive and struggling to get out of the car. For minutes it was just he and Pre.
I believe him, even though it is a little different than the story in Oregonian which I posted below.
I'll reconstruct Pre's last day the best that I can and include Arne's story.
May 29, 1975: Mark Feig and I lived in the Walnut Street apartments just down the street from Hayward Field. It was a Thursday morning and Pre stopped by. I'm guessing Pre came to campus to do a morning jog and perhaps some strides on the Oregon track. He could also have been checking in on the Finns who were in town.
We had a track meet that evening.
For Pre, the meet featured the Finns who he brought to Oregon in defiance of the AAU. Kenny Moore and Sports Illustrated were covering the meet with a focus on Pre's attempt at an American record for 5000m.
Pre insisted that both Mark and I go to his house for the afternoon to play cards. I think Pre was so hyper that he needed others to keep him settled before an evening race. I remember trying to avoid going out to Pre's house because I planned to study for a final exam the next day. Plus my pre-race routine was to be alone. Pre told me to bring my math book to study and he talked Matt Centrowitz into coming as well.
When it was time to head to Hayward Field for the meet, Pre remembered a trophy that needed to be returned to a fraternity but he wanted a picture first. The 4 of us anchored the Great Race which we won ( story of the trophy ) so he grabbed his camera and asked his neighbor to take this picture.
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| (l-r) Matt Centrowitz, Steve Bence, Steve Prefontaine, Mark Feig |
There was a great turnout; about 7000 for the NCAA Qualifying meet. Kenny Moore was there to write a profile of Pre and document his effort to break his own 13:22.7 American record at 5000m.
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| Kenny Moore, Frank Shorter, Steve Prefontaine |
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| Bence and Prefontaine before the 800m Sports Illustrated photo |
We ran our races. Pre ran well (13:23.8) but missed his American record by about a second.
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| Steve Prefontaine's last race May 29, 1975 |
Below are the results of that meet (click on the image to be able to read):
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| Click on the image above to get a larger image. |
We went back to the apartment to shower and change. Mark and I went to our Oregon team dinner.
Pre stopped at the Oregon dinner for about 10 minutes (Pre graduated in 1973), reportedly stopped at the Paddock for a couple beers, and then went to Geoff Hollister's house the Finns farewell party. Kenny left the party early and Pre said he'd drive Frank up to Kenny's house later.
Some time after midnight, Pre drove Shorter up Skyline to Kenny's house. They talked.
Shorter knew that Pre had a few beers but never felt in danger with Pre driving.
As Pre was driving back down Skyline, he went around a curve and saw another car coming up the hill. Arne said that he heard Pre's car and could tell that he wasn't speeding. He could also hear the other car which sounded to be driving fast.
The other car stopped hard and stalled out. Pre turned hard to the left to avoid a head-on collision.
Arne rushed to the accident scene. The other car had started back up and continued. Arne's father jumped in his car to pursue. Arne went to Pre's car which was on its left side.
Arne said that Pre was still in his seatbelt, suspended, and trying to release the buckle. In an attempt to free himself, Pre toppled the car on top of him. Pre was contorted and was hit hard in the diaphram. It caused him to throw up.
Arne tried to lift the car by himself but couldn't. If his father and the other driver were there then they could have freed Pre.
According to Arne, Pre suffocated on his own vomit. Arne said that even though he was 16 years old, he know the smell of alcohol. He didn't smell alcohol.
Arne's father returned from the chase and by then the police were there. Arne wanted to lift the car, pull Pre out, and try to revive him. The police said no. It was crime scene.
Articles from the Eugene Register Guard 5/30/75
10 comments:
It's strange. When Lawrence of Arabia died on his motorcycle swerving to avoid two boys on their bikes, it was said by some witnesses that there had been another car involved. No one has ever been able to identify the other car.
I had always heard that Pre was asphyxiated by the fact that the car turned over and that the steering column was pressing against his chest. Somewhere there has to be a coroners report.
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This article is not the story of the accident, but just a bunch of various unconfirmed speculations! It's more than dubious to give the version of a witness who was merely 16 years old at the time, more credibility than the statement of the police officer who was the first one to investigate the scene. His vivid recollection of a pungent smell of beer flatly contradicts the statement of Alvarado, who said that he could not detect any smell of alcohol. Considering how young Alvarado was at the time and how shocked he must have been, his statement so many years later is much less credible than the recollection of the police officer! And there are no indications or motive whatsoever, that the police officer has been lying all those years. Why should he have done that?
There may or there may not have been another vehicle which caused Prefontaine to make an evasive maneuver. We will never know for sure. We also will never know for sure exactly how much alcohol was in Prefontaines blood that night. But that doesn't change the hard truth that he had too much alcohol in his blood for driving safely! We know from witness statements that he had definitely been drinking more than just one beer at the after-race party. Therefore his reactions must have been impaired for sure when he drove home. Even if there was another car, Prefontaine was most likely not able to react appropriately. He was a drunk driver, and it is highly unlikely that his drinking had nothing to do with his death! And it was very fortunate that no one else got hurt!
That said, this inconvenient truth should not tarnish his legacy as an athlet! He was and still is inspiring. One cannot reduce the achievement of a lifetime and the essence of a person to one mistake - even if it was a grave mistake. We all make grave mistakes now and then. And its also true that the times were very different in 1975. People were drinking and driving all the time back then! Of course it was as unsafe back then as it is today and these overly lax attitudes caused many unnecessary accidents and lost lives. Today we know a bit better. But the individual safety standards were different in 1975, and it explains, why none of his friends felt compelled to stop Prefontaine from getting behind the wheel. When we judge and measure a person we should use the correct yardstick. And in 1975 the yardstick was a bit different than today.
Prontaine's life is both: it is inspiring but it is also a cautionary tale. Without his fondness for beer he might be alive today. And he might even have achieved much more as an athlet than he actually did during his sort career. He might have driven faster because of a few too many - but beer definitely slowed him down on the track, as he admitted himself now and then! In the end he was a flawed human being - just like us!
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To Atennisfan: how do YOU know what happened? I believe the kid and his dad. And the other vehicle driver. The police showed up later. And right on que, let's go to the drinking angle vs doing some serious investigating. What did the kid say? That the cops were calling it a "crime scene." Let's get the autopsy report. There is no cautionary tale here like you speculate. He was not drunk. He was involved with a potential head-on collision and avoided it. Does that sound like the actions of a drunk driver? You knob.
pre was awesome but sadly chose to drive impaired.
leave Pre's Rick stand but add some some signage about driving impaired.
Joi: I disagree. If his accident was caused by alcohol, ok. It was not. The blood alcohol test was administered wrong, and by a mortician! If you have the life squeezed out of you, you will vomit. A lot. The cop said he could smell alcohol. No kidding. Stomach contents included the beers he drank. This whole other myth about Pre being intoxicated has to stop. It is just convenient for some.
Also, if he vomited up beer, that's beer that hadn't been absorbed and couldn't have contributed to the accident.
Thanks, HerbElliot. That is a fact I missed. There is also a story, written by a son, which was published, can't remember how many yrs ago. He says his dad was driving in Pre's lane. And that Pre swerved into the rock wall to avoid this "dad." Apparently, and this is a real twist, the dad was intoxicated. This is not to be mistaken with the car that peeled out and went for help.
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