1999 Darwin Awards

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.

Mental Eclipse  1999 Darwin Award Nominee Confirmed True by Darwin (11 August 1999) A 42-year-old man killed himself watching the eclipse while driving near Kaiserslautern, Germany. A witness driving behind him stated that the man was weaving back and forth as he concentrated on the partially occluded sun, when he suddenly accelerated and hit the bridge pier. He had apparently just donned his solar viewers, which are dark enough to totally obscure everything except the sun. In Berlin, a 24-year-old victim of the eclipse was hospitalized with severe burns after he climbed a power pylon to get a good view and touched a 20,000-volt electricity cable. A 40-year-old Colombian man killed himself after shooting his wife. His suicide note stated that the August eclipse meant the end of the world. Note that Colombia was thousands of miles away from the path of totality. Nostradamus foretold, "In the year 1999 and seven months, a large King of Fright will climb down from the sky." August was the seventh month of Nostradamus' calendar. Eclipses can be calculated centuries in advance. The king is a symbol for the sun. Therefore, the "King of Fright" refers to the shadow of the eclipse. The King of Fright delivered these three men to the King of Death. DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2004 S ubmitted by: Sebastian Vatterodt, Brian Watson, Brian Gonzales, Bodo Rueskamp, Philippe Hamel, Matthew Hallanger, l Tijs Timmerman, Thom Duyvené de Wit, Jan Pawlowski, Yoxx eference: www.swr-online.de, CNN, www.spiegel.de, www.worldonline.nl Share

Mike Butrovich says, "I wish to correct this account. As tragic as the story is, the facts are not entirely correct. The man would not have worn his solar viewer. The sky was overcast that day and the outline of the sun was visible less than 15% of the time. When visible, the clouds filtered enough sunlight that one could stare directly at the sun without damage to the eye. There were NO dark sunglasses involved. I am a chief meteorologist in Kaiserslautern and was fully aware of the sky condition that day. I was living less than 3 miles away from the site, witnessed the eclipse, and have video footage of the overcast conditions. Furthermore I drive by the accident site every day. There is not a bridge at the site, only a concrete tower on the side of the road. Yes, he was silly enough to be driving and staring up at the sky at the same time. But please do not make him out to be a total moron."

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