In the following video you'll see the invaluable help of a hero in an accident in a car race.






Purley instead started from the twenty-three positions later stood Roger Williamson, who ran with the official team March. However, exit Williamson's car stalled so he had to start from the last position, after the race restarted Williamson began moving his way up to the thirteenth position and was moving at a good pace (he had marked the fourth best turn) until you reach the fastest corner of the circuit, at first thought he had taken the curve too fast then confirmed the rupture of a tire-catapulted the March came and crawled 225 meters hitting the protective barriers and being mouth below, after the fuel tank caught fire due to friction against the ground. Purley, a friend of Williamson, although team-mate, although they used a car built by the same manufacturer (March), left his own car in a desperate attempt to save the injured pilot. Williamson was not seriously injured in the accident and was heard shouting to Purley it taken out of the vehicle , while it was in vain to turn the car. At first commentators on Dutch TV, race control and other drivers thought that Purley was the one who had had the accident and the driver had escaped unharmed, which resulted in the race went on as normal while Purley desperately tried to save the his friend's life.

The commissioners of the corner where the accident happened were poorly trained and equipped, so it was Purley himself who had to use the extinguisher to try to extinguish the fire. The clothing of the commissioners was not fireproof, so they simply wait for the fire truck while the race was still in progress. The fire was relatively weak for three minutes, long enough to flip the car and pull Williamson, but Purley could not do it alone. Some viewers, the indifference of the commissioners, tried to jump the security fence and enter the circuit, but were prevented by security personnel, who used dogs. For when the fire truck arrived, Williamson had died. The commissioners were limited to placing a white blanket over the remains of the car and let the race continue, Purley sat to one side of the track and he cried. Several photographs of those taken by Cor Mooji of David Purley attempted to save Williamson won the World Press Photo Prize Sports in 1974.

Purley died on July 2, 1985 in a plane crash.