Nineteen-year-old former stock-car racer Darren Bucklen yelled jubilantly as he and a friend briefly stood atop a car after driving up a dirt ramp, flying 40 feet through the air and splashing into a small lake north of Greeley.

But the stunt went awry as the car - with its top and driver's side door cut off - quickly sank into the lake at gravel pits owned by Bucklen's family, said Matt Fuentes, 18, who witnessed the jump Friday night with his girlfriend and cousin.

David Griego, 18, who rode with Bucklen on the jump, was soon flailing his arms in the lake, screaming for help and grabbing Bucklen, Fuentes said.

"He yelled for help and screamed, 'I can't do it,' and went under," Fuentes said. "I was scared the whole time. I really felt helpless because ... I can't swim."

Divers retrieved Griego's body at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, two hours after a renewed search began in water that was 25 feet deep, said Dale Lyman, spokesman for the Union Colony Fire Rescue Authority of Weld County.

"This is absolutely insane," he said. "I'm not sure what would move someone to try to do this."

Griego's mother, Coreen Duran, 41, said her son loved to play with young kids.

"He was only 18, but he had a heart for everybody," she said.

Griego and his friends shared a common love of fast cars, Fuentes said Saturday. They tinkered on one another's souped-up automobiles, raced together at Bandimere Speedway events for high school students and had barbecues together, he said.

"It was all us car guys," Fuentes said.

On Labor Day, Griego raced his 2005 Mustang GT, said Fidel Sandoval, 18. He had previously raced his black 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle, Sandoval said.

"He was into muscle cars," Fuentes said. "He'd take apart a 350 engine and put it back together again."

About six months ago, Bucklen started talking about a stunt he wanted to do, Fuentes said.

"Darren just wanted to cut the top off a car and jump into the lake," he said.

On Friday, Bucklen gave $300 to Sandoval for a 1984 Ford Tempo. Using a blow torch and a power saw, they cut the roof and the driver's side door off to make it safer to get out of the car following the jump, according to Sandoval and Fuentes.

"It was just an old beat-up car that could barely move," Fuentes said.

"I had a bad feeling"

Bucklen then used a front-end loader from his family's construction business to build a 3-foot-tall ramp next to one of three lakes on the land north of 21st Avenue, Fuentes said.

"I told them I had a bad feeling about it. I think everybody was nervous about it," he said. "They figured they would be OK because both knew how to swim."

Duran said her son knew how to swim but he wasn't a good swimmer. She said she knew nothing about the stunt.

Fuentes said his girlfriend took a picture of the stunt as he and his cousin Fidel watched.

"The fastest they were going was 40 (mph)," he estimated.

The car glided about 3 feet above the surface of the water and made an enormous splash.

"At first, you said, 'Whoa, that's crazy,"' Sandoval said. "But it went from excitement to emotionally stressful to sadness."

After Bucklen's yell, Griego swam a couple of feet toward shore and started to panic, Fuentes said. He said Griego may have been hurt during the jump.

"It's like he was trying to grab for something and there was nothing there," he said. "He began to splash."

Sandoval started to take his clothes off but thought better of jumping in. Like Fuentes, he couldn't swim.

Bucklen tried to help Griego, but he kept pulling Bucklen under the water, Sandoval said.

"Darren told him to calm down, but David was just too freaked out," he said of Griego. Finally Bucklen swam to shore.

Fuentes called 911 and his mother, Patsy, on his cellphone. Sandoval ran to Griego's house to tell Griego's mother.

Patsy Fuentes said she went to the lake and shared Duran's grief Friday night as divers searched for her son's body.

"Hearing that lady's cries, it was pretty ugly," she said.

Bucklen and his father, Randy Bucklen, said they could not comment about the stunt.

Divers attached a cable to the stunt car Saturday and pulled it out of the lake, Lyman said.

Margie Martinez, spokeswoman for the Weld County Sheriff's Office, said an accident investigation is underway.

Fuentes said Bucklen had asked him and Sandoval to join him and Griego in the jump but they declined because they couldn't swim.

"It was all meant to be fun," Fuentes said.

Submitted on 07/08/2007

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: The Denver Post, 08 July 2007

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
We've already gotten a few submissions of this but this one provides a LOT more detail. This guy willingly jumped a car into a water-filled rock pit but he couldn't swim? Sounds like they didn't think this stunt through as thoroughly as they should have.

James said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
Given all the details, the outcome here was about as predictable as sailing the Atlantic in a giant sieve! Why a non-swimmer would launch a VEHICLE into a body of water (further reducing its "seaworthiness" by removing the doors) simply fails to register!! The saccharine, almost comical eulogies by the victim's colleagues only succeed in underlining the stupidity involved here. When all is said and done, I truly feel THIS incident may very well make the top ten!

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