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2012 Slush Pile

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

Miguel and his high voltage tower

2012 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

A man named Miguel climbed a high voltage tower in a suburb of Santiago, Chile. It wasn't the first time he did that. On this ocassion he spent about an hour up there, giving an acrobatic show to the astonished bystanders, several of whom filmed the event on their cellphones. The police came and tried to convince Miguel to climb down. The fire brigade also came and extended an inflatable cushion for Miguel to jump on.

But Miguel chose to continue his high altitude show. At some point apparently he decided that it would be a good idea to try to stand on one of the wires. Hanging by his hands from the structure, he tried to reach the wire with his feet. He almost succeeded. But when he was just a short distance from the wire, physics took over in the form of a flashover from the wire to his foot, followed by a formidable explosion-like discharge through his body.

It's not likely that he had time to feel anything.

Miguel's body tumbled down, hitting the tower several times, stiff like a board, probably from the high internal pressure from vaporized body fluids. A smaller object, which might be just a shoe or perhaps a detached foot, can be seen falling down separately.

End of show.

According to some of the news reports, the flashover caused two fires in nearby homes, which were quickly extinguished by the fire brigade, and lots of burned electronic equipment. It's likely that the discharge into the tower raised the ground potential to damaging levels in the area around the tower. But there are no reports of any injured people.

It is thought that this was no suicide attempt, but an act to gain attention. Drugs might have been involved.

Here are links to the news sites, with video footage. WARNING, the images are explicit.

http://www.rightthisminute.com/video/man-electrocuted-falls-high-voltage-tower

http://www.soychile.cl/Santiago/Policial/2013/01/08/146428/Un-hombre-murio-tras-recibir-una-descarga-electrica-en-una-torre-de-alta-tension-en-Lo-Prado.aspx

http://www.meganoticias.cl/nacional/metropolitana/impactante-video-muestra-cuando-joven-muere-electrocutado.html

http://www.eldinamo.cl/tumblr/video-hombre-muere-electrocutado-en-torre-de-alta-tension/

Submitted on 01/09/2013

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: January 7th, 2013, it was all over the news, references in the story

Copyright © 2012 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Maybe Toss: Not Amusing
Thanks, but I'm inclined to toss this. This man apparently has climbed towers in the past and spent an hour up on this one before being electrocuted. We've received similar stories in the past involving people who loved climbing towers like this, and they usually ended up having mental problems or autism. Apparently a desire to climb objects is fairly commonplace among autistic children. Given his desire to climb and show off I'm concerned he may have had mental issues, which we don't find amusing. Let's see what the other moderators have to say on this...


Candi said:
Definitely Toss: Not Amusing
What Bruce said.


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