There's been a couple of marshalls killed in recent years, there was another a year or two ago (can't remember where, Spain maybe?) - flying wheels are MEANT to be a thing of the past with the tethers etc, but obviously extreme force can still snap them.

The JV issue was just a total freak, the perfect combination of wheel sized gap in fence, marshall in the wrong place at the wrong time and accident all in the one place.

Driver safety is incredible in F1 though. You look at some of the accidents over the past few years, from Kubica's massive crash a couple of years ago, to last weekend, Massa's head injury from the flying spring etc. There's been a couple of decent injuries, some even serious, but nowhere near fatalities and there's been a lot of high speed impacts.

As you say, safer to be in the car than outside it