Hard to believe, but another year has passed and we have once again have
the Darwin Award nominees. The Darwin is awarded every year to the person
who died (or almost died) in the stupidest way.
This year's nominees are:
Nominee No. 1:
[San Jose Mercury News]: An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club
to break a former girlfriend's windshield, accidentally shot himself to
death when the gun discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.
Nominee No. 2:
[Kalamazoo Gazette]: James Burns, 34, (a mechanic) of Alamo, Mich., was
killed as he was trying to repair what police describe as a "farm type
truck." Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a highway while Burns hung
underneath so that he could ascertain the source of a troubling noise.
Burns' clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns
"wrapped in the drive shaft."
Nominee No. 3:
[Hickory Daily Record]: Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself
to death in Newton, NC Awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside
his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed a Smith & Wesson 38 Special,
which discharged when he put it to his ear.
Nominee No. 4:
[UPI, Toronto]: Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in
a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and
plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell
into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early Friday evening
as he was demonstrating the strength of the building's windows to visiting
law students. Peter Lawson, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson,
told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one of the best and brightest"
members of the 200-man association.
Nominee No. 5:
[Bloomberg News Service]: A terrible diet and a room with no ventilation
are being blamed for the death of a man who was killed by his own gas. An
autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system. His diet had
consisted primarily of beans and cabbage. It was just the right combination
of foods, and the man died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud
hanging over his bed. According to the article, "He was a big man with a
huge capacity for creating this deadly gas." Three of the rescuers got sick
and one was hospitalized.
Nominee No. 6:
[The News of the Weird]: Michael Anderson Godwin made News of the Weird
posthumously. He had spent several years awaiting South Carolina's electric
chair on a murder conviction, but his sentence had just been reduced to life
in prison. While sitting on a metal toilet in his cell attempting to fix his
small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.
Nominee No. 7:
[The Indianapolis Star]: A cigarette lighter may have triggered a fatal
explosion in Dunkirk, Indiana. A Jay County man using a cigarette lighter to
check the barrel of a muzzle loader was killed Monday night when the weapon
discharged in his face. Gregory David Pryor, 19, died in his parents' home
about 11:30 PM. Investigators said Pryor was cleaning a 54-caliber muzzle
loader that had not been firing properly. He was using the lighter to look
into the barrel when the gun powder ignited.
Nominee No. 8:
[Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario]: A man cleaning a bird feeder on the
balcony of his condominium apartment slipped and fell 23 stories to his
death. Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheeled chair when the accident
occurred, said Inspector D'Arcy Honer of the Peel Regional Police. "It
appears the chair moved and he went over the balcony."
Finally, Nominee No. 9, The Winner!!!:
[Arkansas Democrat Gazette]: Two local men were injured when their pickup
truck left the road and struck a tree on State Highway 38 early Monday.
Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after
midnight
Monday.
Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of Little Rock
were returning to Des Arc after a frog gigging trip. When the headlights
malfunctioned, the two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older
model truck had burned out. A replacement fuse was not available, but Wallis
noticed that the .22 caliber bullet from his pistol fit perfectly into the
fuse
box. Upon inserting the bullet the headlights again began to operate
properly and the two men proceeded on eastbound toward the White River
Bridge.
After traveling approximately twenty miles the bullet apparently
overheated, discharged, and struck Poole in the right testicle. The vehicle
swerved sharply right, exited the pavement and struck a tree. Poole suffered
only minor cuts and abrasions from the accident, but will require surgery to
repair the testicle. Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and
released. Upon being notified of the wreck, Poole's wife asked how many
frogs the boys had caught, and did anyone get them from the truck.
Oh My!