Prefontaine tragically died after a car accident in 1975 at the age of 24. His car was flipped with him lying under the wreck. By the time medics arrived, he was pronounced dead. It had been reported that his blood alcohol content was found by the Eugene Police Department to be 0.16. The official cause of his death was traumatic asphyxiation.

The horror of the crash and Steve Prefontaine's tragic final momentsare writ large in the autopsy report, which listed his cause of death as "traumatic asphyxiation," per The Seattle Times. His car, a butterscotch-colored MG, had flipped over in the accident and landed on his chest and stomach, starving him of oxygen.