Former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe suffered a life-threatening accident at the 2015 Indy 500 weekend after a suspension component impaled his lower half following a huge hit with the barrier. The Canadian recently came out and celebrated his second chance at life on the 10th anniversary of the life-threatening crash.

James Hinchcliffe moved to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for the 2015 IndyCar season and had a smooth run during that year’s Indy 500 qualifying. However, the calamity struck on the practice day on Monday, which followed the qualifying.

On Monday, May 18, 2025, during the practice session, James Hinchcliffe was following Juan Pablo Montoya in the slipstream as he practiced race runs on the 2.5-mile oval. Coming out of Turn 3, Hinchcliffe lost control of the car and smashed the right front into the barrier, causing the car to spin uncontrollably.

It was later revealed that a failure of the front right suspension caused James Hinchcliffe to lose control of the car and slam into the barrier. As the car came to a halt, the medical team approached Hinchcliffe and found out that the Canadian was profusely bleeding.

A suspension component had passed through Hinchcliffe’s lower abdomen and was stuck on the other side of the IndyCar, which prevented the medical team from getting the Canadian driver out. With the help of power tools, they were able to get Hinchcliffe out of the car and to the Level 1 trauma centre, which is only 4 miles from the circuit.

May 18, 2025, is the 10th anniversary of James Hinchcliffe’s life-threatening incident, and the former IndyCar driver came out to hail the medical team that saved his life, as he cherished his second chance at life. The IndyCar commentator shared a tweet detailing the same, which read,

“May 18th is always a special day for me. Almost like a second birthday. It was the day I was given a second chance. I’m here today because of the quick work of an amazing group of people from @AMR_Social response team and the incredible @HolmatroRescue products they had on the trucks. I’m forever grateful for the work they have done, and continue to do, to keep every @IndyCar driver safe. Check out this video they made for the 10th anniversary of my accident.”

James Hinchcliffe also shared the link to a video that was uploaded a month ago, where the 38-year-old reflected on the crash, and detailed how the medical team and power tools were crucial to his rescue.

“There’s nothing I could have done differently”: James Hinchcliffe on the suspension failure that led to the crash

James Hinchcliffe spoke with Men’s Journal in 2017, a couple of years after his crash. The Canadian reflected on his comeback journey and detailed how he was able to get back on track. While doing so, he revealed how the crash was neither his fault nor his team’s, and that it was just a freak accident. Detailing the same, he said,

“There’s nothing I could have done differently. There’s nothing my team could have done differently. It was a freak mechanical failure on a spec part that probably was caused by some metallurgic reaction during the process of it being made six months prior, four thousand miles from here. It’s like the Apollo 13 thing, right? Nothing you could do.”

James Hinchcliffe returned to IndyCar for the start of the 2016 IndyCar season and put the crash behind him by taking the pole position at the 2016 Indy 500.