Fumble Tumble
2018 Darwin Award Winner
Confirmed True by Darwin
Confirmed True by Darwin
(18 December 2018. Maryland). Like a plot out of Sherlock Holmes,
officials found a dead body mysteriously crumpled at the bottom of an
UP-escalator at an Amtrak station at the New Carrollton stop at 2AM.
Perplexed and with no eccentric fictional detective to call, officials did the next best thing. They watched the CCTV cameras. The footage showed the man running UP the DOWN escalator shortly after midnight. When he reached the top, no doubt out of breath, he lost his balance and tumbled backward, falling all the way down the moving stairs and hitting his head smartly at the bottom.
The Darwin Awards editors love to run up the down escalator. Even more fun is running down the up escalator. Remember when Mom told you to stop horsing around on the escalators? Well, you do now!
Pieces of clothing were found stuck in the escalator when news crews arrived on the scene, and fabric may have been a factor in the fumble. The death did not impact train service, and no trains were running at the time of the tumble.
