Darwin Award for Buggy Pilot?

[Methanolandbrats]

Geezus....I guess ignoring the last century of technological innovation has it's drawbacks. :( Probably one of O' Gorman's relatives headed for the Rolex.

Amish Teen Electrocuted in Ohio

CHARDON, Ohio (AP) - A 17-year-old Amish boy was electrocuted trying to remove a power line that got tangled in his horse-drawn buggy's wheels, authorities said.

The boy drove over a power line Tuesday that had sagged down within a foot of the road after separating from a pole, authorities said.

The line got stuck in the wheels and stopped the buggy. The boy got out and grabbed the 4,800-volt line in an attempt to remove it from the wheels, the Geauga County Sheriff's office said. He died at the scene.

The boy's name was not released because his family had not all been notified, officials said.


The Amish are a deeply religious group who shun modern conveniences such as electricity, telephones and car ownership. About 40,000 Amish live in Ohio, the most of any state.


The boy was traveling south on a road near Geauga-Trumbull County line in northeast Ohio, about 25 miles east of Cleveland.


The horse pulling the buggy was not injured.



01/12/05 10:29


© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

[rabbit]

Did you hear about the Amish couple that got a divorce?



He was driving her buggy.

[RacinM3]

Wow, that story sucks. I wouldn't call him a Darwin candidate, though. I mean, not very likely he had much concept of how electricity works, huh?

[Sean O'Gorman]

How ironic; his first encounter with electricity was also his last. :eek: :rofl:

[Wabbit]

At least there was a good part to the story

"The horse pulling the buggy was not injured. "

He didn't wreck the car.

[Dave99]

What a culture "shock". :(

Out here in the industrialized society of SoCal there was a sanitation worker electrocuted when he got out of his truck and tried to remove a live wire that had become tangled on his truck. :shakehead

[JohnHKart]

Hmm and what about this kid below I was just reading about right now? I used to love trains as a kid, but even then ( I was only 6 years old) we knew not to get close...scary as all hell.

John

El Rancho High student killed by commuter train

By Aaron Burgin, Correspondent


PICO RIVERA -- A 14-year-old boy was killed Tuesday afternoon after he was struck by a commuter train near Passons and Slauson boulevards, Sheriff's Department officials said.
The boy, an El Rancho High School student, was killed at 3:28 p.m., after he and a friend approached the tracks to see how close they could get to the train, said Sgt. Lester Trull of the Sheriff's Department.

"The two approached the railroad intersection at Passons and saw the lights and arms activate and, according to the other boy, they wanted to see how close they could get," Trull said. "So they walked up to the train, and the boy was struck and killed at the scene."

The eastbound train was traveling at 58-60 mph when the boy was struck, Trull said.

4:30 p.m., a crowd of about 100 of the boy's friends, relatives and onlookers gathered on both sides of the tracks. Many of them were in tears.

The boy's parents and siblings watched near the accident scene. The boy's brother clutched the victim's backpack, handed to the family by a county coroner's official.

El Rancho Unified School District officials also were on the scene to console many of the boy's closest friends.

Relatives and school district officials declined to speak with a reporter.

However, some of the victim's friends described the boy as "a good kid."

"He was a good friend. I had him for a bunch of classes, and he was just a good kid," said Stephen Guardado, an El Rancho student.

The boy's death occurred at an intersection that has been the source of controversy for nearly four years. Residents who live in nearby apartment complexes said that they often see kids attempting to beat trains.

"We've seen kids trying to cross to get to school, the libraries, the grocery store," said Rene Logoria, "We've been trying to get the council to put up gates near the guard rails, but as you can see nothing's been done."

Residents' complaints about the dangers at the spot go back at least to 2001, when they expressed their fears to city officials in a meeting in January that year. Residents then worried that a child might be killed trying to cross the tracks illegally.

"I've noticed that ... at 3 p.m. kids of all ages run over the tracks or try to hop on the trains," said resident Bert Rodrigues.

Four months ago, an elderly man crossing the tracks at the spot was struck and killed by a train. A similar incident killed a male pedestrian about four years ago, city spokesman Bob Spencer said.