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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!

A Breathtaking View

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Accepted into the Archive.
ORIGINAL SUBMISSION:

Downtown Johannesburg, South Africa is being upgraded with new buildings erected continiously. One such building was constructed with a steel framework to be clad in glass as a final touch.

On the eighteenth floor was an engineer conducting an inspection. He had to see something outside the building and asked one of the workers to stand on a scaffold that was sticking out the open space where the glass panelling was to be. With the worker acting as a counter-weight the engineer walked out, looked at what he wanted to and came back in - continuing with his inspection. After the engineer left, curiosity got the better of the worker and he also walked out to see what the engineer was looking at.

We can accept that the worker removed himself from the gene pool out of sheer stupidity and that the world will be a better place because of it - but if we gave this some thought, the engineer is happily continuing trusting people and getting them to do things without explaining the reason and results, maybe he should have been the first one out of the gene-pool

This is a true story - I was working next door to this building and this happened during my lunch break. Fortunately the worker did not take me out as well!

Submitted on 02/18/2008

Submitted by: Karel Kruger
Reference: 1989

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

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Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
It never occurred to the construction worker why he was asked to stand on the ladder? I guess he got a pretty good look of the exterior of that building on his way to the hereafter. Thanks for the story, Karel!


James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
If THAT isn't a gag right out of the cartoons, what is??!! Boy, what a maroon! But he did get a good look at the exterior and a nice close-up of the ground floor before the lights went out! Thanks, Karel!


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