Slush Pile: Darwin 8, Humans 0, film at 11

2008 Slush Pile

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Darwin 8, Humans 0, film at 11

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Well Here's oone that will probably be thrown out as being "Too Common" or maybe it will be tossed out as some of the folks who got this award did "Procreate" but this is a harsh reminder.. that if you are wanting a Darwin, all you have to do is stand in a group.. Because sometimes Lightning does strike twice..

Or in this case.. 8 times...

According to the report of the Accokeek, Maryland police, 8 people were killed while they were in a group of about 50 people watching an illegal street race in this sleepy town outside Washington at 3:40 am in the morning.

According to the police the group of about 50 people where standing there (at 3:40 am in the morning no less!) watching a pair of illegal 'street racers' do burnouts, and doughnuts before speeding off with large puffs of tire smoke behind them.

So while the crowd watched the racers they all together decided to move into the street to enjoy the race, just like the proverbial flock mentality.

and that's when the proverbial "Bolt from the blue" got all of these people in one shot, as other Witnesses who were there stated they had just watched two cars in the illegal street race speed past when the driver of a white Crown Victoria without any lights on came up behind them and veered into the crowd.

Okay what's wrong with this picture? A group of about 50 people move into the roadway to watch an illegal street race at 3:40 am in the morning!

Seven of the eight who died, died on the spot, the 8th died at a hospital, One of the 8 was a passenger in the Crown Victoria, the other seven spectators.

It is still puzzling as to why there were so many people out watching an illegal street race, it's even more puzzling that a group of about 50 people would be so stupid to move into the roadway to watch and it would be Highly crazy to not remember that they're standing on a roadway at 3:40 am in the morning where there could be other cars coming.

So let's review..

Reproduction? Well until I can get some ages of the victims (61 years Old was the oldest victim), we could theoretically say that all 8 were over the age of 16 (Due to curfew laws) many were probably over the drinking age...so many of them could have reproduced or they might not have..

Self Selection? This one is questionable.. after all this is what I like to call 'sheeple mentality' or 'flock mentality' you watch a race you go with the crowd, and 50 of them decided to be this stupid? Well they either were drunk.. or crazy to be out at 3:40 am in the morning.

Excellence.. Okay we have 50 people who were standing in the street? that too is odd considering that it's 3:40 am in the morning!And out of 50, a good 15-16% got killed with 1 car. That's better than having 50 people standing next to a lightning rod in a thunderstorm.

Age: well see Reproduction..The Oldest was 61 (and the others were probably people who would be out after 'curfew' and ergo would be more than likely over the legal drinking age of Maryland.

Veracity? well this one has over 700 different reports including AP, NBC, Reuters.. let's just say this one is totally verifiable.

But in closing I say this.. I went back over the Darwins and looked for "Mass deaths by Stupidity" and found in 1999 that 3 monks in a Thailand Buddhist temple died in a poorly made sauna.. and 5 more ended up hurt.

But in this one we've surpassed that record.

We have 8 dead, 6 more injured, and a Darwin list so long that we could now possibly say this one gets the "Multi-Darwin Award record for group stupidity".

At least Humanity intelligence just took a big step upwards, as 8 more people took themselves out of the gene pool just by not being in bed, sleeping. Oh the humanity indeed.

Submitted on 02/16/2008

Submitted by: Paul Bender
Reference: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23194752/

>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: No Self-Selection
Thanks, Paul, but after reading the article my take on this is that it was basically an accident and no self-selection was involved. Even if people were in the middle of the street, the car that struck them didn't have its lights on so the driver may not have seen them. On top of that, a passenger in the car was apparently killed as well and that would definitely count as an innocent bystander.

James said:
Definitely Toss: No Self-Selection
I have to agree. I imagine some of the onlookers were more curious than anything else (hell, wouldn't YOU be?), and the fact that they got mowed over was plain bad luck. I also concur with Bruce about the possible bystander. Nevertheless, we thank you for the submission, Paul! Keep 'em coming!

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2008 Slush Pile

Darwin 8, Humans 0, film at 11

2008 Reader Submission Pending Acceptance

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance