Darwin says, "Accepted into the Archive."

(8 May 2008, California) Jumping stunts done with small bikes and cars aren't really smart to begin with. Substitute with a 40 ton construction machine and survive, and you almost have a Darwin Award.

This was not the intent for 24-year-old Mike, an operator/repairman for a gravel company. He'd only been asked to assist in freeing a stuck bulldozer from atop a 50-foot high dirt pile it had been pushing. Despite many better options, Mike decided the quickest way was to pull the machine backwards with another machine, an old 35-ton front end Caterpillar loader.

Driving up a 100-foot long dirt ramp at a 40 degree angle is nerve-racking enough with a machine this big, but doing it knowing that all of its brakes (including parking brakes) are inoperable is beyond me. To add to it, Mike decided to fully load the bucket up with 7 tons of dirt to give it more weight, but not remembering the fact that at the bottom of the ramp is the edge of the property, and the 35-foot drop straight down to the next property over directly after that. Mike must have somehow felt safe with the bucket of dirt weighing him down, and with the 5-foot high dirt berm protecting the edge so as trucks and machines would not accidentally drive off the cliff.

At the top he could not hear the instructions of the other operators so he did what he was trained to do, he took off his seatbelt, took his foot off the throttle, and hit the button to engage the parking brake (forgetting completely that it did not work), and began to exit the machine. Quick fact on CAT loaders, setting the parking brake will automatically put the transmission into neutral.

The loader was very noticeable rolling backwards when Mike realized what he'd done and jumped back into the cab to hit the brake pedal, panicking when he remembered there were no brakes to begin with. At 25 mph, the 5-foot dirt barrier did little to slow or stop the 40 tons of steel and dirt, but did wonders as to give him good launching height.

In a stunt that would make Evil Knievel sweat, the machine careened over the berm and launched up into the air, clearing the cliff, and landed 35-feet bellow on the adjacent property, over 50-feet horizontally from the cliff's edge, throwing Mike through the rear windshield and onto the top of the engine compartment. Miraculously, the loader landed on all four tires, and Mike was able to walk away with just a few cuts to his face and couple bumps and bruises. Looking back on it Mike is able to laugh and say that he's proved that the ‘Cat always lands on all fours'.

Submitted on 10/20/2008

Submitted by: radug
Reference: *pending OSHA report*

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
This definitely sounds like a contender to me. Please let us know if any news articles come out about the incident.

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
WHAT WAS HE THINKING!?! Among every OTHER thing he forgot, he included the one about applying "training" with a modicum of common sense! Thanks, radug!

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