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!

Volt reader mishap

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

This is meant to be an Honorable Mention at best, seeing as how the "hero" in this story didn't kill himself, or lose his reproductive organs.

I'm not sure if it would qualify as a "personal account" as it didn't actaully happen to me, I just witnessed it.

My brother was an apprentice electrician (having not reached journeyman status yet) and was going over his tools one day at home. He had taken apart one of his hand drills, and deiced to keep the motor for future use. He wanted to see how much power actually ran through that particular motor and figured that since he had it out, he might as well test it.

He plugged this uncased motor into an extension cord, and hung it over a smoke detector that sat on a ceiling rafter (very low ceiling in our apartment) so he could be assured that it wouldn't fall into anything or wouldn't be easily detachable if anything happened.

My husband decided he was going to watch and help him figure out the voltage of this motor. So there they are, standing side-by-side, my brother holding the volt-meter prongs by the plastic. He decided to forgo wearing gloves (What's the harm? he said. I know what I'm doing!) and was testing different parts of the motor. I, in the meantime, was reading the Darwin Awards, book 2, on the couch a few feet from them, just waiting for it.

Sure enough, my brother's finger slipped off the plastic and onto the metal prong, and ZZZAAP! It blew the circuit breaker to the apartment, and gave my bro quite a shock. My husband was dancing around like a little boy yelling "That was cool!"

I don't know enough about voltage or amps, things like that. But I do know that a person who is apprenticed to be an electrician should know better than to possibly harm himself by forgoing the wearing of his safety gloves.

Submitted on 08/21/2007

Submitted by: Breanne Tozer
Reference: None

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:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Great story, Breanne. Your brother certainly should have known better, and the fact that you were reading one of the DA books at the time makes it almost sound like karma!


James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Well, Breanne, it's good to know SOMEONE has the brains in your family (yes, I mean you! :-) ). Reading the DA book only adds to the humor. A funny story well worth sharing! Thanks!


Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection

Hardback. 240 pages. Autographed.
$15
A fresh collection of magnificent misadventures! Lust, Vanity, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, and Wrath extract an evolutionary toll on the wicked. Salute the owner of an equipment training school who demonstrates the dangers of driving a forklift by failing to survive the filming of his own safety video. Witness the man who becomes a victim of his own strange passion for jumping into rivers. Heed the honest bricklayer who loses a battle of wits with 300 pounds of tools.

This book includes more History of the Awards, Gordon's Law, and 10 discussions of evolution, including speciation and the role of verbal memes in civilization.

Autographed by Author!

Slush Pile
Slush Pile Rejects


Advanced Search

HomeRulesFAQsAwardsSlushSite Map
DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend