A man who was trying out the four-wheel drive capability on his new S-U-V was killed after the vehicle overheated and burned while trapped in a mire of sand and water at a popular Greene County site for off-roading. Greene County Sheriff Dan Langston says 33-year-old Mark Andrew Gilbert of Paragould was driving the new Isuzu Trooper at what's called Sand Creek in Walcott when his car was engulfed in quicksand. The sheriff says the spinning of the tires led the vehicle to overheat and burn. Gilbert was dead at the scene. Langston says Gilbert had just bought the vehicle and tried it out in the sandy area early yesterday morning. Witnesses found the smoldering vehicle later in the day

y comments:

ost people use SUVs on roads and only need the off road capability on occasions when the weather is bad or they are traveling through unimproved roads. Who in their right mind takes an Isuzu Rodeo (not exactly a Hummer)through an aggresive off road course just to test "it's capability". Hey, I'll take the manufacturers word until I need to use it in that way. this guy should have done the same. If the fire didn't kill him, the quicksand would have done him in eventually. In any case, his choices have removed him from the gene pool.

Submitted on 01/22/2005

Submitted by: L. Lebron
Reference: ABC24.com 1/21/04

Copyright © 2005 DarwinAwards.com

Jack said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
While I don't particularly care for the comments, I must admit that the driver was stupid enough to qualify for a DA.

Daniel said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
And just why didn't he turn the motor off? I'll take it!

Charles said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
I don't care for the comments either... granted, it's not much of an SUV, but still I'd rather know how to handle an SUV when I need it, and that would be one way to learn how. But yes, the driver, by trying to bull his way out, does show the requisite stupidity.

Kelly said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention
SUV doesn't actualy mean ATV but most people think that it does, so it's not all that unreasonable that he'd try to drive it on sand, not realizing the sand wasn't dry. Having been in that posistion personaly, mud and sand can look very dry and actualy be very wet. Not overly bright on his part but I don't think it's spectacular enough to be a DA.

Tracy said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
Definitely stupid enough - turning the key off would have solved it!

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