But rescuers allegedly bungled by failing to put his broken neck in a brace. And it is claimed Dean was further shaken when ambulance driver Paul Moreno was in a minor collision while racing to hospital – and stopped to trade information with the other motorist.
Dr Hunter, one of America’s leading pathologists, made a detailed review of official documents relating to Dean’s death and presents his astonishing conclusions tonight in the documentary Autopsy: The Last Hours Of James Dean, on the Reelz network in the US. The programme will be shown in the UK later this year.
He believes Dean was unconscious but still breathing after crashing his Porsche 550 Spyder into a Ford coupe near Cholame, California, on his way to a nearby sports car rally.
Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at Paso Robles Hospital and three days later an inquest said he caused the accident by speeding.
His passenger and friend, German auto engineer and former Luftwaffe glider pilot Rolf Wutherich, survived with a double fractured jaw and serious hip and leg injuries, while the coupe driver escaped virtually unscathed. But Dr Hunter is convinced Dean himself need not have died.
“If this accident happened today, he would have been put into a neck brace before being placed into the ambulance,” he said.
“James Dean’s broken neck was unsupported and we will never know what impact the ambulance accident had on his chance of survival.”
One unresolved mystery is how an experienced driver like Dean crashed on a straight road in near-perfect conditions.
No drugs or alcohol were found in the star’s system and Dr Hunter said: “This is a question that has perplexed experts for more than 60 years.”
The cause of Dean’s death is listed as a broken neck as well as fractures of the upper and lower jaw and both arms and internal injuries.
