Named in honor of
Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin
Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by
removing themselves from it. These and other true
stories are available on www.DarwinAwards.com
- 1-Jan-2000, Nevada
-- 26-year-old Tod made a place for himself in
history by being the first person to die
celebrating the millennium. Minutes before
midnight, the Stanford graduate climbed to the
top of a street light in front of the Paris Las
Vegas Hotel and waved to the enthusiastic
revellers below. At midnight he slipped and, in
an effort to break his fall, grabbed the wires
that were supplying the electricity to the street
light. Suddenly he was conducting more than a
cheering crowd. A camera caught his foolhardy
climb and subsequent headfirst plunge to the
concrete below. It has not yet been determined
whether he died from electrocution or from the 30-foot
fall, but either way, he deserves the first
Darwin Award of the new millennium!
Footnote: Tod was a
Stanford graduate working at a Silicon Valley
startup scheduled to go public in the summer. He
stood to make a substantial profit with his
options, until they were voided by his untimely
death. Clearly, a sterling academic pedigree is
no indication of common sense. Before leaving to
Vegas, one friend said, "People are going to
be doing crazy things. Be careful." Tod
replied, "You know I won't." Friends
pondering his death said, "He thought he was
invincible." "He used to climb the
Golden Gate Bridge." "He would never do
something stupid."
Staci watched
"all the media about Tod's daring act of
stupidity" and says, "what is even more
Darwin is that other spectators climbed on to
traffic lights to get a better view of the
deceased. Monkey see, monkey do."
- 28-Feb-2000, Texas
-- A Houston man earned a succinct lesson in gun
safety when he played Russian roulette with a .45-caliber
semiautomatic pistol. Rashaad, nineteen, was
visiting friends when he announced his intention
to play the deadly game. He apparently did not
realize that a semiautomatic pistol, unlike a
revolver, automatically inserts a cartridge into
the firing chamber when the gun is cocked. His
chance of winning a round of Russian roulette was
zero, as he quickly discovered.
- 28-Feb-2000,
London, Ohio -- Some artists bleed for their
creative work, but usually not literally. That
standard changed on Monday, when a gangster-rap
video artist put his final effort into his
project, and shot himself in the head while the
cameras rolled. 24-year-old Robert created the 10-minute
video at his apartment with his brother Michael
and a friend named Fred. On camera, Robert
reached for a .22-caliber handgun, swung the
muzzle of the gun to his temple, and fired the
gun.
The two
co-producers hindered efforts to save the injured
man. Police were summoned to the scene by
complaints from a neighbor who objected to the
loud music and violent shouting. But when they
arrived, Michael had to be restrained from
preventing police from controlling the scene, and
Fred struck a paramedic. Both face misdemeanor
charges.
Robert was 24 when
he died in a coma at the Ohio State University
Medical Center.
- 11-Mar-2000, Perth,
Australia -- It just stands to reason, one
should follow safe practices while filming a
safety video. But Peter, the 52-year-old owner of
a machinery and equipment training school,
violated that rule of common sense while filming
a forklift safety demonstration. With the cameras
rolling, he was thrown from the cabin of his
forklift and crushed. Subsequent investigation
revealed the culprits responsible for the
fatality: driver error and high speed over varied
terrain, coupled with an unused seat belt. His
final safety demonstration was the most
convincing of his career.
Special
Recognition Entries from Previous Years:
- 1998, London,
England -- A £200,000 fine was levied
against a construction firm for the deaths of two
workers. The two 28-year-old men, reportedly
experienced in their work, fell 100 feet after
drilling a hole through thick concrete without
realizing they were standing in the center of the
circle. Neither was wearing a safety harness to
arrest his 8-story plunge.
- 16-Aug-1999, London
-- Daniel was tired to death - literally - at the
Buckeye Ford Dealership in London. He had sneaked
onto the lot in the wee hours of the morning with
theft on his mind. His modus operandi was to jack
up the back of a pickup truck, remove the wheels,
heave them into the bed of a hot-wired Buckeye
Ford pickup, and move on to the next target.
Daniel possessed what local police referred to as
"an extensive criminal background," and
had apparently spent years honing his craft. But
his expertise failed him this time. The pickup
was half full when the 47-year-old thief's next (and
final) target slipped off the jack and landed
squarely on his chest at 4:00 AM. A clear case of
live by the truck, die by the truck.
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