My Choice was number 5, what was yours ?
Hard to believe, but another year has passed...For those who don't know
it,the Darwin Awards are awarded every year to the person(s) who died or
almost died) in the stupidest way, thus enhancing the gene pool by their
absence.
The 2000 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 in March 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 December in Newton, N.C. Awakening to the sound of
a ringing telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed
instead a Smith Wesson .38 Special, which discharged when
he drew 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 explaining the strength of the building's windows
to visiting law students. Hoy previously has conducted demonstration of
window strength according to police reports. Peter Lawyers, 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: "Bloomburg News Service" A terrible diet and room with no
ventilation are being blamed for the death of a man who was killed by his
own gas. There was no mark on his body but an autopsy showed large amounts
of methane gas in his system. His diet had consisted primarily of beans and
cabbage (and a couple of other things). It was just the right combination of
foods. It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing the
poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed. Had he been outside or had
his windows been opened, it wouldn't have been fatal. But the man was shut
up in his near airtight bedroom. 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 before having his sentence reduced to
life in prison. Whilst sitting on a metal toilet
in his cell and 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 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, sheriff's investigators said.
Gregory David Pryor, 19, died in his parents' rural Dunkirk 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 gunpowder ignited.
NOMINEE No. 8: "Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario" A man cleaning a bird feeder
on the balcony of his condominium apartment in this Toronto suburb 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," Honer said.
NOMINEE No.9: "Arkansas Democrat Gazette" Two local men were seriously
injured when their pick-up truck left the road and struck a tree near Cotton
Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday morning. 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 are listed in
serious condition at Baptist Medical Center. The accident occurred as the
two men were returning to Des Arc after a frog gigging trip. On an overcast
Sunday night, Poole's pick-up truck headlights
malfunctioned. The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older
model truck had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis
noticed that the .22 caliber bullet from his pistol fit perfectly into the
fuse box next to the steering wheel column. Upon inserting
the bullet, the headlights again began to operate properly and the two men
proceeded on east-bound toward the White River bridge. After traveling
approximately 20 miles and just before crossing the river, the bullet
apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the right
testicle. The vehicle swerved sharply to the right exiting the pavement and
striking a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the
accident, but will require surgery to repair the other wound. Wallis
sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released. "Thank God we
weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot his balls off or we might both be
dead" stated Wallis. "I've been a trooper for ten years in this part of
the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would
admit how this accident happened," said Snyder. Upon being notified of the
wreck, Lavinia, Poole's wife, asked how many frogs the boys had caught and
did anyone get them from the truck. (Way to go, Lavinia!)
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