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2007 September Slush
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here kitty kitty
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(HM) Police Arrest Woman Allegedly Weari
extreme redneck atv riding.
(HM) Man bitten after putting rattler in
man drowns trying to ,swim to party
Fisherman Blows Up!
suffocated by sand
Out of gas?
Deadly Horseplay Claims a Woman
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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!

suffocated by sand

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Unconvincing and dramatic news item on Friday in Landes on the beach of Mimizan where a 23-year-old young man died suffocated by the sand of the beach, an accident which is not unfortunately isolated!

With 3 of his friends, this young man had dug several holes in the sand of a depth about 1m80 (6 feet ), holes linked up between them by tunnel returning particularly unstable. Then this young man sat down indoors... It was not visible by the rescuer masters-swimmers, holes having been dug behind a dune.

It was unhappily without counting on this very fine and very particular sand of Atlantic Ocean which collapses easily. At some instants, the young man found himself buried. In spite of a very quick intervention of assistance, the young man died suffocated by sand.

Submitted on 09/09/2007

Submitted by: Bruno
Reference: News France, 5th August '07

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

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>> Moderator Scores <<

James said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
While the write-up is a bit thin (and probably a loose translation from French), I do think this is a perfectly stupid stunt, especially considering the properties of the sand in question! Thanks, Bruno!


Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
This sounds like much more than your typical "dig a huge hole at the beach then have it collapse around you" accident. If I understand this correctly they dug multiple deep holes with interconnecting tunnels. Sand certainly isn't stable in the best of situations and unsupported tunnels dug in sand are virtually guaranteed to be unstable. Thanks for sending this in, Bruno.


Graham said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
Amazing to think that anyone would suppose that tunnels dug in loose sand would be safe. Still, I guess he knows now, eh?


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