Charles Darwin's Darwin Awards 
HOME
Darwin Awards
Honorable Mentions
Urban Legends
Personal Accounts
Slush Pile
Recent Slush
"Bricklayer" legend's an old song
Crocodile eats man who sought its b
Death by compactor
man eaten by crocodile
Person decapitated at Six Flags
Stop the train! My car!
kite surfing in a Tropical Storm
Man's Worst Friend
Priest + ballons found
The Hurricane Between The Ears
Bench Pressing
How to open a box of explosives
Morbid Curiosity: A Snapshot
Electric deja vu
Trucker killed by falling pipe
Woman sits in I-10 and dies
Saw it coming
"Sp-Arkansas"
Don't eat nachos on a motorcyle
Smoking in bedrooms is bad enough
Incoming
Wite-Out Drunk
Dancing in the roof with energy
A place not to tie shoestrings
Steamroller joyride gone bad
A new kind of hurt
Man cuts himself in Two
Stupid Window Cleaner
DIY Chainsaw
Sink or Swim
Sit, don't stand
Wasn't using it anyway...
Stickboy
"Dukes of Hazard"
Copper thief melted to pole
Good and Gone
Two fires, one year
Man Emerges From Storm Drain
Digging a tunnel under the dunes
When Stealing, Remember: Safety Fir
Balcony Leap
Unplugged?
Head Brick Break
Red Head
Gas Siphoning goes terribly wrong
Man Killed Trying To Steal Tires Of
Off-duty officer wounded in prank
Back seat lovers survive cliff plun
Fence post takes out student
Wrong outfit for canoeing
look down!
Man torn apart by zoo bears
Self-bris near-miss
Don't Drill In The Rain
Climbing Failure
No chicken
Mousetrap Mangled Manhood
Trying to Jump The Gap
Phoning is the End of the Line
personal account
Electrizing measurement effort
TS Fay Slams Kite Surfer
Faulkner County man killed in accid
Homemade bazooka
Attempted Suicide by Cat
Man Refuses smoke detectors - dies
Women embarrassed after rescue
Dead man found in hot trunk
Say "Cheese!"
Man found dead head firstin sewer
Aligator removes wrong part
elevator
It apparently takes more than one..
electric esauphogus
Hospital Drunks
Man Suffers Burns In Gas Tank Explo
2 Men On Double Decker Bus
Ax that spider!
Electric shock "cooks" raider
The Microtome
Slow Learner
Brillant!!
Clothes Dryer Grill
How high is it?
Never assume . . .
Inner tube blues
11,000 volt fatal shock for Leeds c
Safety first
Surfing a Tsunami
Man found dead in Calgary manhole
Orca Avenger
IT'S NOT BULLETPROOF!!!
How hard is your head?
RVs in Prunetown
Exeter Bomber
Burned On A Utility Pole
Electrocuted by train power line
Don't hold your breath...
Heart Shocking
It is really good beer
Copper theif dies in vault
Burglar Pancake
Looking for "pleasure" in a hole
Surgeons Remove 16 Steel Washers Fr
Drain inspector
Flamming lips
Race to the Pole
Smoking bomb
Sheepdog in Tractor kills Farmer
How Not to Drain a Plant
R.I.P. BMW
Youth Killed as Club's Shaft Pierce
Cooked Crook
Timmy fell down the well..really
Hangar 18
Check for pets before breaking in
Take a Picture, It'll last longer!
Man trying to steal copper wires ge
No helmet, no brain
A Night On the Road
Genital warts
Dallas copper thief is done
Rock Climbing Incident
Near Miss
Mega hurts
Ooops you've been ULed
puts the "hot" in the icy hot
Exterminator? Not so Much.
Dallas copper thief is done
Final descent, update
Older Slush 
 
~ Randomizer ~
Newsletter
Gift Shop
Rules  Search
Contact Darwin
Submit a Story
Philosophy Forum
Home

  

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!

11,000 volt fatal shock for Leeds c

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

A SCRAP metal dealer was electrocuted with 11,000 volts after trying to steal copper from a derelict mill in Morley. John Roberts, aged 39, then fled from Park Mills before driving to his girlfriend's house in Bramley in a panic where his hair, skin and t-shirt began burning off.

Mr Roberts, of Winrose Avenue, Belle Isle, died in the burns unit at Pinderfields General Hospital 10 days later where he had 37 per cent burns.

A Leeds inquest heard that the voltage was so high the implement used to get at copper wires may have melted completely.

In a police statement read out in court, girlfriend Nina Hurley, of Bramley, told of the horrifying moment she heard Mr Roberts - also known as Bod - screaming in his van outside her home.

"At about 5.10am I heard Bod's van coming along the street. I heard this strange screaming noise. Bod unlocked the front door and screamed 'help me'. He came into the front room, sat in the chair and appeared to hyperventilate. He was shaking and his teeth were chattering. He was panicking.

"His skin was splitting on his hands and lips. His T'shirt had been burnt off. His face was all burnt, the only white was his eyes and teeth. His eye brows and eye lashes were all burnt."

The inquest heard there were prominent safety notices from Yorkshire Electricity warning of the high voltage and danger of death.

These were based around the transformer room within the mill on South Street where there was 11,000 volts buzzing about inside.

The court heard Mr Roberts' injuries were caused by contact with a switch box which would have had an impact similar to putting a "blow torch on the skin".

Police found that equipment had been tampered with and that copper had been systematically stripped.

A leather belt was found on the railings above a wall at the site - probably used by Roberts as he fled.

Assistant deputy coroner Melanie Williamson said: "I am in absolute amazement how Mr Roberts managed to leave the transformer room, climb over the wall and into the car and drive over to Nina Hurley's house."

Ms Hurley called 999 and he was taken to Pinderfields where he later died.

The inquest heard that Mr Roberts had gone to the mill two nights earlier with Jill Dowthwaite who he had been seeing for a month.

They broke off the padlocks and climbed over railed walls in a bid to steal scrap metal.

Through a police statement read out in court, Mrs Dowthwaite told how she could hear a loud buzzing noise.

The pair then left, only for Mr Roberts to return to the spot alone two nights later on August 4, 2007.

He died of multiple organ failure at 2.37am on August 14, 2007.

The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

Submitted on 07/03/2008

Submitted by: Tony Baker
Reference: Yorkshire Evening Post 03/07/2008

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

Great? 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Awful?
Love it! Hate it!
>> Moderator Scores <<

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
Another molten moron mooching metal mutating to a malignant mess. This one stands out a bit because, apparently due to adrenaline and shock, the guy actually made it away from the scene of the crime after he was scorched. What, do these guys' think those signs are for decoration? My 8-yr-old knows to stay away from those places! Here's another one, Darwin. Thanks, Tony!


Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
Yet another in the endless line of wannabe copper thieves who electrocute themselves. Thanks, Tony.


$5 Darwin Fish.
6" x 2.25" Silver Emblem like those commonly seen on cars
only way sexier. A cute fish, floating belly-up, illustrating
the mechanism of natural selection. Minimum order is 2.
  

Slush Pile
Slush Pile Rejects


Advanced Search

HomeRulesFAQsAwardsSlushSite Map
DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend