Selection at work!
InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship (ivgcf@stdorg.wisc.edu)
Sun, 9 Jun 1996 20:24:58 -0500>> "Darwin Awards" Nominee
>>
>> You all know about the Darwin Awards - It's the annual honor given to
>> the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing
>> themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. Last year's winner
>> was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on
>> top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it.
>>
>> And this year's nominee is:
>>
>>
>>
>> The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal
>> embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of
>> a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it
>> was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab
>> finally figured out what it was and what had happened.
>>
>> It seems that a guy had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet
>> Assisted Take Off - actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give
>> heavy military transport planes an extra "push" for takinf off from
>> short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert
>> and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO
>> unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!
>>
>> The facts as best as could be determined are that the operator of the
>> 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles
>> from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched
>> and melted asphalt at the location. The JATO, if operating properly,
>> would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy
>> to reach speeds well in exess of 350 mph and continuing at full power
>> for an additional 20-25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most
>> likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for
>> dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him
>> to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the
>> automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20
>> seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes,
>> blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface,
>> then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles (8-12 seconds) and
>> impactingthe cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened
>> crater 3 feet deep in the rock.
>>
>> Most of the driver's remains were obviously not recoverable; however,
>> small fragments of bone, teeth, and hair were extracted from the
>> crater and fingernail and bone shards were also removed from a piece
>> of debris believed to have been a portion of the steering wheel.
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