Levegh's co-driver, American John Fitch, was suited up ready to take over the car at the upcoming pit-stop and was standing with Levegh's wife Denise Bouillin. They saw the whole catastrophe unfold. Levegh's lifeless body, severely burned, lay in full view on the pavement until a "gendarme" hauled down a banner to cover it. His wife was inconsolable and Fitch stayed with her until she could be comforted. Half an hour after the crash he realised that news was probably being broadcast on the radio, and he needed to telephone his family to reassure them that he was not the driver of the crashed car. When he got to the media centre to use a telephone, he got his first inkling of the sheer enormity of the disaster, overhearing a reporter filing that 48 deaths were already confirmed. When Fitch returned to his pit, he urged the Mercedes-Benz team to withdraw from the race, as the race would be a public relations disaster for Mercedes-Benz regardless of whether they won or lost. Mercedes-Benz team manager Alfred Neubauer had already reached the same conclusion, but did not have the authority to make such a decision.