Charles Darwin's Darwin Awards 
HOME
Darwin Awards
Honorable Mentions
Urban Legends
Personal Accounts
Slush Pile
2007 August Slush
(DA) Marlboro Cigarette Raft and a Flood
(?) Mirabilandia - Katun
(HM) Dancin' In The Street
(DA) Beer for Bears
(?) I've Been Texting on the Railroad
(?) Man dies after being run over by po
(?) Wooden Rails
(Hmm) CSI 1, Provo 0
(?) Covered load
(?) Would You Like Fry With That?
(?) Self-disposal
(DA) Those aren't teddy bears!
(HM) Key to Stupidity
(?) Rookie cop who killed himself ...
Forgetting Something?
The Anaheim Space Program
Porch Swing Pipebomb
(?) Police Academy 8 (
conveying the message
(DA) Expanding Foam & Blowtorch Fatality
Why do you need a steering wheel?
Balls R Us
OMG, Train meets Texter.
(?) Witchdoctor meets his ancestors
Glass-Eating Crook
Cinder block'd
Volt reader mishap
Stoned and Educated???
"Et Tu Brute?"
A quiet place to sleep!!!
no nuts
That's all he wrote ...
Another jump from moving car
Danger High Voltage
Laying Rubber
Anything for aa high
Flip and Miss
Train Surfing
Dwarf in on stage accident.
When it turns out that the guy you
Man struck, killed by train in Melb
"I can do that!"
S.F. rookie cop who shot himself to
Teen falls six stories
Scrap Van Man
Beheaded rattlesnake can still bite
Police pluck flip-flopless teen off
Japanese biker fails to notice mis
The Deer Hunter
Cockroaches brutally attack........
Man On Lawnmower Killed In Collisio
A Valuable Lesson
Camel kills Australian woman
Where's the doorknob?
An Explosive Game of Frisbee
Follow that rod!
Illegal Surgery - Testicle Removal
When Nature Calls...
Bedford High School student died wh
Watch out for that tree?
Cooking his own goose..
Death by band-aid.
peepong tom electrocuted
Game Over, Dude
Inmate thrown from Roof
Woman killed by pet camel in outbac
Another Method of Electrocution!
Brazilian edition
Older Slush 
 
~ Randomizer ~
Newsletter
Gift Shop
Rules  Search
Contact Darwin
Submit a Story
Philosophy Forum
Home

  

Darwin Awards
2007 Slush Pile

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

Forgetting Something?

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

When a group of youths at the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, UK decided it would be great to jump off Balloch Bridge and into the river, one of their number wasn't going to be deterred by anything to join them in leaping in.

And I mean *anything*.

Jump to a few minutes later; Sean McSkimmings, 17, is in 'difficulty' - he went under and never resurfaced - and by 8:15 the emergency services have been summoned. Amongst others, a RAF helicopter and a rescue boat stationed nearby joined the hunt.

But nothing could be done to save him. Police divers recovered his body around midnight that night.

Police reported 'no suspicious circumsances' in his death, rendering it officially an accident. By all accounts, he would probably have survived if, prior to the jump, he had paid just the tiniest bit of consideration to the fact that he couldn't swim.

Submitted on 08/11/2007

Submitted by: Iain Macdonald
Reference: Sky News - August 11, 2007

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Great? 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Awful?
Love it! Hate it!
>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
I'm a little ambivalent about this since there's no indication as to why the death occurred. Drownings occur fairly regularly and there's nothing in this story to indicate any unique/humorous cause. Let's see what the other moderators have to say.


Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
"Can you swim?" "I don't know, I've never tried. Let me jump off this bridge and see!". Love it. Thanks for sending it to us, Lain.


James said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
Iain! You're back! Anyway, I will go neutral on this only because drownings are so common and perhaps because extreme peer pressure may have played a part, but jumping off a bridge is certainly not the ideal place to find out if one sinks or swims. I will thus go DA here.


The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action

Hardback. 327 pages. Autographed.
$15
185 Stories! In the ongoing saga of Survival of the Fittest, meet the thief who steals electrical wires without shutting off the current! Marvel at the would-be pilot who suspends his lawnchair from helium balloons! Learn from the man who peers into a gas can using a cigarette lighter...!

This book also includes a History of the Darwin Awards, Darwin Haiku, and a dozen humorous discussions of the implications of evolution, including the origin of idiots, and the role of testosterone.

Autographed by Author!

Slush Pile
Slush Pile Rejects


Advanced Search

HomeRulesFAQsAwardsSlushSite Map
DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend