From what my parents told me, the death scene in Pre is a little inaccurate. They remember that the reason he crashed was because he was speeding through the hills after the party(he might have been drunk? who knows for sure) My mom was a freshman at U of O the year he died. Just wondering if anybody knows why they changed it?
I had a cool sig, it exceeded 100 char. So instead of something cool, you have me complaining.
From what I read he was in an accident with another car. The other driver was able to drive away while Pre's car was upside down. The guy says the reason he drove away is because his dad was a doctor and he was going to get help.
shareIt was May 1975, and 24-year-old Steve Prefontaine was leaving a party. He had drank a couple of beers, but no one at the party thought he was unable to drive.
Pre hopped into his 1973 MGB and began the drive home. While driving on Skyline Boulevard, a road very familiar to him, something happened to Steve. Something that caused Pre, as he approached the intersection of Skyline Boulevard and Birch Lane, to turn his car drastically to the right, go over the curb, and hit a wall of rock (which stood along the side of the street). His car flipped over and Pre, not wearing his seat belt, was trapped underneath.
Bill and Karen Alvarado lived near the intersection on Skyline Boulevard and Birch Lane. It was late night when they heard the noises of a car accident outside. According to an article printed in The Register Guard in 1985, Bill thought someone had hit the stop sign and went out to check what happened. Standing in the street an MGB raced by him. He waved his arms, but the car didn't stop. Angered, Bill got in his car and attempted to chase the man in the MGB, but did not succeed. Returning home he came upon another MGB. It was flipped over.
Bill stopped his car and got out. He yelled out to his wife to get help because someone was hurt. Bill was quoted in The Register Guard as saying this happened next:
"I didn't know who it was, but he was still gasping and somehow I managed to lift the car part of the way off him. But that's all I could do. I couldn't get the car completely off and I couldn't pull him out."
"I'm not a medical person, but I know he was still breathing. If I could have had help lifting the car, if that other car had stopped, we could have saved time and maybe together we could have lifted it off him."
(Pre, 153)
After Bill Alvarado talked to the police, they decided to find the man in the other car. And they did. Turns out that the driver of the other MGB was a 20-year-old male who had found Pre earlier that night. After seeing the accident, he quickly drove to his house (passing Bill Alvarado) to get his father, a doctor.
http://www.stevepre.com/night_details.html
A sample of blood from Pre's body was taken the morning after the accident by the mortician. It showed Pre's blood-alcohol rate at .16 percent, .6 higher than Oregon's legal blood alcohol limit. As a result, the cause of the accident was determined to be alcohol-related.
Controversy surrounds the blood test report, however. Usually, in an alcohol-related fatality, it is the medical examiner who tests the blood-alcohol level. In Pre's case, the mortician did it.
http://www.stevepre.com/night_after.html
Good posts pjc. Thanks for the article. No matter what really happened, it was pretty damn tragic.
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I don't think anyone was criticizing the movie, we were just talking about what actually happened. I agree that the ending was very sad, however this is what happened.
shareMost blood alcohol limits have changed since 73', I wonder if the legal could have been something higher than what it is now, or is that what it was back then?
I'll have to ask one of my old teachers about it, coincidentally, Pat Tyson.
The intellect of few disguises the stupidity of many.
I know in Without Limits he was dropping somebody off and then on his way back to the party, but I can't remember if thats what it said in the biography.
shareMy sister thinks he died after he ran off a cliff.
shareHe crashed into a wall of rock very close to my mother's home when she was a kid. If you have ever visted the site of his death you would see lots of memorbilia on the rock. The road was a bit curvy but its a road just off a nearby neighborhood. He just lost control of the car.
"He who laughs last didn't get it"
"Every family tree has a few nuts"
Wow, I guess there are alot of versions. Maybe the one in the movie, was just a better way to show Pre's dying. Hero-ish maybe?
Youmakedancingdinnerrolls
yeah i agree that for the movie they probably didnt want to make it seem alcohol related because many people would jump to conclusions.
this ending helped keep his image as a hero, which is fine.
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this ending helped keep his image as a hero, which is fine.
He treated his fellow athletes, reporters and other people quite poorly at times. He cheated on his fiancée. He drove drunk, putting other people's lives in jeopardy (luckily, his own life was the only life that he took). You have an interesting definition of "hero".
Well, you have an interesting definition of hero. Most "heros" are imperfect, except in legend. Think of Lincoln, Kennedy, Sitting Bull, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali....name a real-life hero who did not have faults. They all did. But they all had qualities that transcended their foibles. Pre's faults were surpassed by his strengths and that is why he still inspires people nearly 40 years after his death.
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