Brother Jamie and Brent McBryan wanted a test run for their new “long board” skateboard. Not bothering to wait to go to a skateboard park, they decided to try the new board out on the nearest convenient hill, which of course, was a city street.

Jamie wanted to try "body luging" - proceed down the hill on the long skateboard at full speed wjile lying flat on his back.

Brother Brent was supposed to proceed ahead and check an intersection in the middle of the hill, but was a little slow off the mark. Jamie flew through a stop sign and was promptly run over by a pick up truck that was proceeding through the intersection. He later died from massive head injuries.

------------------------------------------------- MEDIA STORIES

Test run went 'dreadfully wrong'

Daryl Slade

Calgary Herald

Friday, September 09, 2005

CREDIT: Tim Fraser, Calgary Herald

Brent McBryan, 20, was supposed to be spotting for his brother, Jamie, 22, (inset) on a test run of their new longboard, but Jamie left prematurely and died after colliding a truck.

It was a fatal miscommunication between two "inseparable" brothers that led to tragedy on a southeast street Wednesday afternoon, says the surviving sibling.

Brent McBryan, 20, said he and Jamie, 22, decided to test the new longboard Jamie had just bought by going down the freshly paved hill on 27th Street.

Brent said he went down on his longboard to a stop sign at the intersection of 11th Avenue to watch for traffic, but didn't have a chance to signal before Jamie coasted down through.

Jamie was run over by a truck at about 3 p.m. and died late that night from massive head injuries.

"The plan was for me to go down and stop traffic. He thought I was down there," said Brent. "He went too soon . . . I wasn't there. Just miscommunication!

"He passed me, a truck came up 11th (Avenue) and tried to brake to get out of the way. He hit it, went under the vehicle, and the wheels rolled his torso. His head injuries were from the initial collision from the side of the truck."

He said the truck driver was naturally upset, saying: "Why didn't I stay at work five minutes longer?"

Brent said the two had been longboarding for a year.

The pursuit involves a rider lying down on a longer version of a skateboard, "like a snowboard on pavement," and rolling downhill.

Brent insisted they were very cautious, despite the tragic result.

"I am careful and he's always been a careful one," said Brent. "I'm going to keep longboarding. You can't let fear stop you from living your life. This was not really that steep. It was a fairly timid place to longboard."

Rainbow McBryan, the brothers' cousin, said the accident has been devastating to the family.

However, she said she and Jamie were both philosophical about such activities, agreeing with Brent that one cannot live in fear.

"I don't think they were doing anything totally dangerous," she said. "People should be physically active. It's a healthy way to live, to get out there. When people are afraid to do athletics, it's not good."

Brent said the sport has an "almost different social convention" as few people wear helmets. Considering the relative tameness of the hill, he said, they never considered protective head gear. In retrospect, however, "I guess we were dreadfully wrong."

Brent, the youngest of four children of Clyde Gosling and Maureen McBryan, including brother Sean, 26, and sister Sherry, 24, said his dead brother "always did adventurous things and never got hurt."

Jamie, who graduated from Lord Beaverbrook and earned a diploma in architectural technology at SAIT, was into numerous outdoor activities, including mountain biking and rock climbing as well as copoeira, a martial art.

"He was such an easygoing guy. He was super friendly and made friends with everybody," said Brent. "He loved playing with kids . . . he was like a kid at heart."

The funeral is scheduled for Sept. 16, at McInnis and Holloway's Eastside Chapel at 5388 Memorial Dr. N.E.

dslade@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2005

http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=dc2e3e71-ab25-4641-a57e-fd2e0b763f68

Also(with video)

http://www.cfcn.ca/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/B/20050908/skateboarderdies?brand=generic&hub=&tf=CFCNPlus/generic/hubs/frontpage.html&cf=CFCNPlus/generic/hubs/frontpage.cfg&slug=skateboarderdies&date=20050908&archive=CFCNPlus&ad_page_name=&nav=home&subnav=fullstory

Skateboarder dies after crash

CFCN.ca

POSTED AT 11:16 AM Thursday, September 8

A skateboarder is dead after crashing into a truck in southeast Calgary.

Wednesday, the 25-year-old slammed into the vehicle at an intersection in the community of Albert Park.

Police say the man was lying on his skateboard "body luging" while racing down a hill when he went through a stop sign at the intersection of 11 Ave. & 27 St. S.E.

He hit the front end of a GMC pickup truck.

A woman who lives nearby the tragic crash is no surprise.

She says young people are constantly riding down the hill and none of them wear helmets.

Police are still investigating the incident but say alcohol was not a factor.

The man was rushed to Foothills Hospital but later died from his injuries.

Copyright 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive.

Submitted on 09/09/2005

Submitted by: Chris Gibbons
Reference: Calgary Herald Friday, Septemb

Copyright © 2005 DarwinAwards.com

Greg said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
Extraordinarily stupid! I was expecting to have to reject this because they were 15 or something, but at 20 and 22 years old they should have known WAY better. And they weren't even drunk! Hopefully this incident will discourage some of the younger individuals known to be using the same hill.

James said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
"I'm going to keep longboarding. You can't let fear stop you from living your life..." Thus spake the surviving brother. The sad moral here is that in the end stupidity and NOT fear is usually what stops one from living one's life. Such an attitude is what makes this one worthy of consideration...

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