About 4 years ago I was working as a personal trainer at the TAFE gym in Perth, Western Australia. One of my long time clients - let's call him Gary G. - turned up for his regular 6.00 am training session limping, with an interesting array of cuts and abrasions on his back. They were fairly obvious, as he was wearing a singlet.

I asked what had happened, and he owned up to what he'd done. Perhaps he was expecting sympathy?

Gary had decided to go on a cross country training run in a semi rural area. He was some distance into his run when he sprained his ankle (hence his limping at the gym). With a painfully swelling ankle, Gary decided to take a shortcut through a field to get to a road and try and get a lift home.

The field is surrounded with an electric fence, topped with barbed wire. Gary brushed the back of his hand against the electric wire very quickly, didn't get jolted, and figured that the current must have been off. So he pushed down on the electric strand so that he could squeeze between the electric wire and the barbed wire strands that topped the fence - he's a sub six-footer.

Gary was half way through the fence, with a leg either side, when the electric fence fired. He caught the charge with his genitals, and was kicked up into the barbed wire. Before he had a chance to recover, he copped another charge from the fence, and another, and another.....

After the longest few seconds of his life, Gary managed to fall off the fence, leaving behind most of his shirt and a fair amount of skin and blood. I guess at least it took his mind off his ankle!

Gary now knows that electric fences don't necessarily run current continuously, and that if a farmer uses both current and barbed wire, it means that you should stay out of his field!

Cheers,

Mat Meyer

Submitted on 04/09/2007

Submitted by: Mat Meyer
Reference:

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Ouch! What a painful lesson for Gary to learn. He certianly does sound like he has the potential to be a future DA candidate. Thanks for sending this in, Mat!

Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Thanks for sending us this story, Mat. I enjoyed reading your account. I can almost see a cartoon of your friend bouncing from electric strand to barbed wire and back again... over and over and over!