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2008 February Slush
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putting your foot in it
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Darwin Awards
2008 Slush Pile

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

Drain Surfing

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Here is a cautionary tale about having some fun in Floodwaters, I have used text from the Newspaper Story.

An 18 year old drowned when his leg became caught in a grate while body surfing in a drain during Brisbane's storm runoff. The boy was unable to free himself and could not be saved by devastated friends, who watched the horrific scene unfold Wednesday evening.

It is believed the boy and a 13 year old had been riding boogie boards in the rapidly-flowing drain on Mark St at about 5pm as up to 100mm was dumped on the city.

Flash flooding cut roads, inundated houses, delayed trains and caused the closure of the Brisbane Airport.

An inflatable dinghy was used by emergency service rescuers and his body was recovered but resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful.

Quote from an Emergency Services Officer Below.

"He got his foot trapped in an open grate drain, once his leg had gone in there he got pushed under the water, It was an open stormwater drain, and every 50m along the grate is an open grate going into underground pipework and basically he got sucked into one of them. The whole leg up to his groin was trapped. (The water) was about 1m deep and we set up a rope system with a little rubber-ducky to lower one of our people out there to try to retrieve him but by the time we got out there the water had dropped enough to the point where we could walk out and retrieve him."

The Rescue Worker said the family and friends were "very distressed" at the scene.

Submitted on 02/06/2008

Submitted by: Scott Driscoll
Reference: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23172494-952,00.html

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

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>> Moderator Scores <<

James said:
Maybe Toss: Not Amusing
After reading the article, I am inclined to think this is not as amusing as I originally thought it might be. In addition, it seems like a relatively common occurrence. I will defer to my fellow moderators here. Thanks just the same, Scott!


Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
Body surfing in a drain is sufficiently stupid in my opinion. What kind of drains do they have in Oz? None of ours is big enough to surf in! Thanks, Scott


Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
I agree with Chip in this case, although I also wonder what these drains look like since we have nothing even remotely like that here in the northeast US. I was in Brisbane last May, and if I'd heard these stories prior to my trip I would have made an effort to locate these drains just to see what they look like. Thanks, Scott!


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