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1996 Darwin Awards

To: british-cars@autox.team.net, triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: 1996 Darwin Awards
From: "Doug Mitchell" <dmitchel@ford.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 07:27:38 -0500
I thought that after the JATO award, you all would like to see this.


1996 Darwin Awards

And this year's Nominees are,.......

"San Jose Mercury News"
  An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former
  girlfriend's windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the gun
  discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.
*******************************************************
"Hickory Daily Record"
  Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death in December
  in Newton, N. C., when, awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone
  beside his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a Smith &
  Wesson .38 Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear.
*******************************************************
"San Jose Mercury News"
  A 24-year-old salesman from Hialeah, Fla., was killed near Lantana,
  Fla., in March when his car smashed into a pole in the median strip of
  Interstate 95 in the middle of the afternoon. Police said that the man
  was traveling at 80 MPH and, judging by the sales manual that was found
  open and clutched to his chest, had been busy reading.
*******************************************************
"Unknown"
  A terrible diet and room with no ventilation are being blamed for the
  death of a man who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on his
  body but autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system. His
  diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage (and a couple other
  things). It was just the right combination of foods. It appears that
  the man died in his sleep due to breathing the poisonous cloud that was
  hanging over his bed. Had he been outside or had his windows opened it
  wouldn't have been fatal, but the man was shut up in his near-airtight
  bedroom. He was ``...a big man with a huge capacity for creating "this
  deadly gas".'' Three of the rescue workers became ill, and one was
  hospitalized.
*******************************************************
"Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario"
  A man cleaning a bird feeder on his balcony of his condominium apartment
  in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to his death, police
  said Monday. Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheeled chair Sunday
  when the accident occurred, said Inspector D'Arcy Honer of the Peel
  regional police. "It appears the chair moved and he went over the
  balcony," Honer said. "It's one of those freak accidents. No foul play
  is suspected."
*******************************************************
"AP, Cairo, Egypt"
  CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Six people drowned Monday while trying to rescue a
  chicken that had fallen into a well in southern Egypt. An 18-year-old
  farmer was the first to descend into the 60-foot well. He drowned,
  apparently after an undercurrent in the water pulled him down, police
  said. His sister and two brothers, none of whom could swim well, went
  in one by one to help him, but also drowned. Two elderly farmers then
  came to help, but they apparently were pulled down by the same
  undercurrent. The bodies of the six were later pulled out of the well
  in the village of Nazlat Imara, 240 miles south of Cairo. The chicken
  was also pulled out. It survived.

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