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2009 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

flamedance

2009 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Temperley Station - Buenos Aires (Argentina) August 18th, 2008

After 3 in the early morning Juan Manuel (16) and eight friends were awaiting the diesel train that would carry them home, two stations away.

Juan Manuel and his mates heard someone from another group challenging to climb to the roof of a stationary train in platform 10, for 50 AR$ (15 US dollars). Some say the challenge included dancing over that roof, another version states that he should travel there.

Hardly had he got up there when he touched the catenary wire that energizes the electric trains and suffered a 25000 volts discharge. The arc of this catenary is 1 meter (3 feet), so needless to touch, standing this far from the cable is enough to receive a discharge.

There was an explosion, flames and the boy fell deadly injured, he was conscious and asked for help in a fireball. His legs, genitals, face were carbonized when he entered hospital, and died two days after.

ISABEL adds: I always see these boys lazing about, on drugs or drunk doing all kinds of mischief, running before the train when it sets forward, lying on the rails when the train comes, climbing the roof of the station, jumping from moving trains at high speed, stealing, nagging, etc.

Related: In Soweto, a South African city where Nelson Mandela was born 90 years ago, boys do "train-surfing". It consists of travelling by train, but not IN the wagons, but OUTSIDE the train, by the side, below between the wheels or standing or dancing on the roof, avoiding high voltage wires, knowing that the miminum error or loss of equillibrium means death.

In Soweto, boys that train-surf also have a dance known as "Viva la Raza", performed on the roof of moving trains, facing the wind. The most dangerous moment comes when the train approaches a tunnel, the gap between the roof of the train and the rock is usually less than 2 feet, so you better stay stiff lying down or be dead.

Gangs with names such as "Los Vándalos" gather at joubert Park downtown Johannesburg to boast their feats. Ten boys are already dead from electric shock on the roof of a train.

Train-surfing is a vastly commented and practised vogue in several parts of the world, such as Europe, Indonesia and several Brazilian main cities.

In Yakarta, Indonesia, trains are stacked in rush hours, and people travel bent below the high voltage wires. In 2007 23 people died from electrocution.

In Germany, the story of a young man trascended, he stood on the high-speed train as one of his last activities in life. The teenager, known as "the trainsurfer", suffered from leukemia and decided to live to the extreme, after having "nothing to lose". He died a year after capturing the images that can be seen in YouTube.

Submitted on 04/14/2009

Submitted by: Aldo Colombo
Reference: August 18th, 2008 http://criticadigital.com/index.php?secc=nota&nid=9350

Copyright © 2009 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

James said:
Definitely Toss: Too Common
Thanks, Aldo, but train surfing has become way too common. In fact, some of the incidents in this article are incidents we received when they first happened!


Candi said:
Definitely Toss: Too Common
What James said.


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