2002 Darwin Awards

Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.

Human Catapult 2002 Darwin Award Nominee DISQUALIFIED 21 March 2003 (27 November 2002, England) We have all seen films where a sieging army flattens the enemy's defenses by catapulting boulders through the air. Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be the boulder? Some people do, notably members of two Oxford student groups: the Human Catapult Club and the Oxford Stunt Factory. Kostadin, a 19-year-old club member, climbed into a replica of a 50-foot medieval trebuchet and catapulted himself towards a net some distance away. But -- you guessed it -- the human boulder missed that all-important safety device, and fell to his death just short of the net. The organizer of the catapult event said, "We calculated his weight and the power the catapult. I don't know what went wrong." Unfortunate accident? Maybe, if not for the fact that inaccurate calculations had already sent one catapultee bouncing off the net to land headfirst on the ground. And in previous years, the organizer's own girlfriend had suffered broken bones following her turn in the bucket. A person who entrusts his life to a contraption powered by inaccurate projectile mathematics -- a contraption that had already injured two people rather severely -- is clearly a candidate for a Darwin Award. DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2005 Submitted by: Chris Metcalf Reference: ITV Evening News, Oxford Student News DISQUALIFIED: Accident, not self-inflicted. At first blush, it seems phenomenally stupid to rocket oneself from a catapult. But a closer scrutiny of the facts, prompted by a complaint from his close friend, shows that Kostadin was actually the victim of an unfortunate tragedy. Did the catapult operators say it was safe? Yes. Were there signs warning that being fired from the catapult could be deadly? No. Was there a safety net? Yes, the size of a tennis court. Was the deceased the only one to be fired from the trebuchet? No, five previous catapultees landed safely. Furthermore, two event organizers were later arrested and charged with manslaughter, indicating that authorities believe the deceased was not to blame. If Kostadin had built the catapult himself, and performed a test run using a few mattresses as his landing pad, then he would be eligible for a Darwin Award. But he had reason to believe he was taking part in a safe, albeit adventurous, stunt. Therefore, no Darwin!

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