A 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

You may know about the Darwin Awards, an annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing himself of herself in the most extraordinarily stupid way. A celebration of natural selection at work. Last year's winner was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over him while he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it.

The Arizona Highway Patrol discovered a pile of smoldering metal embedded in the hillside beside a desert road.

Apparently an Arizona man acquired 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 taking off from short airfields.

The man had attached the JATO bottle to a 1967 Chevy Impala and engaged the device on a long stretch of desert highway.

According to the Arizona Highway Patrol, the man ignited the JATO about 3 miles from the crash site. The JATO would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speed well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20 to 25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G forces usually reserved for dogfighting F14 jocks under full after- burners, causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event.

The automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15 to 20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires leaving thick rubber marks on road surface (solid-fuel rockets don't have an "off"... once started, they burn at full thrust till the fuel is all gone). He then became airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacted the hillside at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.

Webmaster notes - All Chevy owners should know that it takes TWO JATO bottles to get over those hillsides in Arizona.............

Stalled Motorcycle

I work in a motorcycle shop. We see many who have no business being behind two wheels. But the owner of a bike brought in for service really takes the cake. The entire front end had been ripped off, which is an odd damage pattern. The owner offered the following tale. He had allowed the motorcycle to sit idle for several months. When he attempted to start it again, the wait had drained the battery. Undeterred, he attempted to bump-start the bike. A manual-transmission vehicle rolling with sufficient speed, popped into second gear, will often start right up, and this is called a bump-start. The owner lived at the top of a long hill. After a number of repeated and unsuccessful attempts to bump-start the bike, he was left with another problem: a stalled bike sitting at the bottom of a long incline. The man called his girlfriend to bring her truck and tow the bike back up the hill. A length of rope was procured. One end of the rope was affixed to the truck's bumper, and the other was affixed to the waist of the bike owner "riding" the stalled motorcycle up the hill. They set off, she in her truck and he on his bike. All was well until he chose to make one final attempt to bump-start the motorcycle. As soon as the clutch engaged, the engine turned into a brake. The bike stopped cold. The owner did not. His girlfriend was blissfully unaware of what was happening behind her and proceeded to drive to his house, dragging him slowly behind her. Despite his injuries, he is expected to recover.

Back To Gary's Homepage

Car Thingies

Things That Fly