Embarrassingly Dumb Ways People Died - Darwin Awards Winners [Part 17] 

I have a Darwin Award from 1982. An acquaintance of my husband decided to string up a dummy for Devil's night using wire on a high-voltage line that fed into the local iron ore mine. Someone called the fire department as the field appeared to be on fire. It was the acquaintance burning up as the wire he used hit the high-voltage line. There wasn't much to recover.

This is never going to end

This series has made me realise something. Many people who kill themselves aren't suicidal, just terminally stupid.

When I'm scheduling people for MRI's, I tell them "If you won't take your earings out before, the magnet will take them off for you. And if you forget to tell me you have metal inside you, the magnet will remind you.

I have one for Darwin Award. In 2007 the Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl. The night they won we had a Snowstorm here in Indy. A man went to a Colt Sports bar in Indy to watch the game and made the unfortunate decision to drive home drunk that night after the game. The area on way to his home is in wealthy Carmel, Indiana which is rural with large estates. On way home the man's car got stuck in a snow drift. He lived a few miles away and decided to walk home abandoning his car. He was reported missing the next day and police found his car. The NEXT day a hunter found his body. What happened the drunk man walked through the woods on his way home and became disoriented by the snow storm. He walked right off the ledge of a rock quarry falling about 30 feet to the ground where the hunter found him dead. The lesson once again is don't drive drunk, abandon your car in a snow storm and try walking home in a snow storm drunk.

19:50 As a german i found the statement: "...they are always on time" hilarious! Theres a german meme that the DB (Deutsche Bahn...German Trains) are always running late xD

I know one too :In 1997, Police in Reston, Virginia, issued a statement saying they had found the body of 22-year-old Eric Barcia, who had apparently died attempting to bungee jump off a 70 foot bridge. Eschewing commercial bungee operations, Eric had apparently taken matters into his own hands and tied several bungee cords together. He strapped himself on securely, tied the other end to the bridge, and jumped, confident in the knowledge that he’d carefully measured out the bungee’s total length - just under 70 foot. Of course, what Eric had forgotten was that bungee cords stretch. At least he got the Darvin reward when he landed😂

Everyone: Humans are the smartest creatures alive The 17 parts of this series: Are you sure about that?

When helmet laws were introduced hospitals saw a rise in head trauma injuries. Because now more people were surviving the head trauma instead of just dying.

About the guy who jumped off all of the bridges spanning the river Wensum. It's a sad story but all I can say is you Wensum, you lose some.

Regarding the MRI scanner Darwin Award. I nearly got one of them but instead ended up in A&E for a minor head wound. Long and short of it is I was given a patient gown, the ones with cut out side and normally, no pockets. This gown had a chest pocket. In which I dropped the metal locker key I had been given for a locker I stored my personal belongings+clothes in. Before entering the MRI room a nurse asked me if I had anything metallic on me. I patted my thighs where normally my trouser pockets would be, laughed and said I’ve got no pockets. I was then admitted to the MRI room and laid down on the patient tray as a doctor explained what was going to happen. Well as you can imagine the moment the MRI was switched on the locker key was pulled out of my pocket, bounced off my high cheek bones missing my eye, caught my skin across the forehead tearing it a bit and then glued itself to the MRI machine with a loud bang. Doctor had his hand over the kill switch. The one that would dump the coolant and destroy the very expensive super magnet but stop the machine in an instant. He said he had visions of the key entering my ocular cavity and rattling around the inside of my skull leaving me a vegetable if lucky. As is I put a significant dent in a very expensive machine and got laughed at by the nurses for getting admitted to A&E for a minor head wound when I initially turned up to hospital for a back injury related MRI scan. The flip side is I caused my local hospital to change it’s process regarding patient gowns with chest pockets, metal keys and nurses not just accepting a patient has no pockets because they jokingly said so. I’d like to think my almost Darwin Award prevented someone else definitely getting one. So there you go. You never know when you may be about to be a contender for a Darwin Award so keeps your wits about you. I really should have known better than to absent mindedly drop a metal key into a pocket before going to a MRI scan.

Just as I was graduating high school, I was working at a lumber store. I worked 2nd shift at the store so I didn't know what had happened during the day shift. Turns out, a young guy about 19-20 was crushed by about 2000 lbs of dry wall. Apparently, the forklift driver had lifted the drywall up about 2 ft so the guy could put 2x4 spacers underneath. He couldn't keep the spacers even so he slid his body underneath to fix the space. The guy was crushed to death when one of the forks on the lift had broken thus killing the guy instantly. From what I remember, the fork that broke was broken before and welded back on and placed back into service.

There's enough Darwin awards to last all of us. So, this series basically ends when the world ends

2:47 y’know, as a person who’s OSHA certified and working in this part time, you can attach a cage to the forklift to raise a worker on it for these things, but they have to be harnessed to it, the cage must be secured, and the driver can’t move anything but the forks when someone is on it. Yeah, palettes are a horrible idea

Whilst doing some DIY bungee jumping off of a 140ft high, stone railway arch, I almost got a Darwin award. Anyone who's done a bungee jump knows that you swing front to back. On the back swing, the bungee cord recoiled me into the underside of the stone arch, fracturing my skull. To give you some idea how I use to roll as a kid, I've also driven under a parked car at 50mph on a home made go cart. Accidentally set the house on fire. Got electrocuted twice. And at 13, had already blown myself up with DIY fireworks....twice. My mum said "it was the proudest day of her life that I made it to adulthood."

I knew exactly where the gun story was going the second he mentioned the MRI. I doubt the man forgot he had a gun on him, being that he always had one on him, and he likely just didn't want to give it up. If that's truly the case, he definitely earned that award.

I had a great great uncle go out in spectacular fashion. This happened in either the 40s or 50s. He got drunk at the bar and decided to walk home. He got tired and decided to take a nap. On train tracks. The buzzards found more of him than the family did and it’s quite the legend in our family now.

I’m a neurosurgeon. Since Florida got rid of the mandatory helmet law, deaths from motorcycle head injuries rose 250% and for male riders aged 18 to 25 rose 400%! But you’ll get ticketed for not wearing a seatbelt or texting! Plus, motorcycle drivers only are required to have 10K in insurance. That’s gone in about 15 minutes in the ER! Know what neurosurgeons call motorcycles? “Donorcycles.”

Are people purplosly trying to get Darwin awards

Attempt to see what's inside of a grenade reminded me a story I heard during military service about two soldiers attempting to disassemble an autocannon round. So, when that bottle sized thing inevitabily detonated, one of shell chunks took first guy's leg clean off, other chunk hit second guy right between his legs with obvious results.

I actually remember reading a story about a guy in Arizona back 1987 who decided to blast a saguaro cactus with his shotgun. After two blasts, the cactus broke in half and fell on the guy. It wound up crushing him to death. If he hadn’t died, he would have been facing legal trouble since saguaro cacti are legally protected in Arizona

(19:40) "If there's one thing Germany has mastered above any other country, it's their train system. ...they are always on time, and they're also outrageously cheap." - Best joke I've ever heard in my life! XD

That german trains are always on time and super cheap has to be one of the best jokes i heard this week

4:48 The fact that my grandfathers favourite childhood story is him attempting the exact same thing with the exact same methood at the age of 11 is something else.... The only reason he didnt went through with his plan is that his father heard him turning the saw on, went out to see whats going on and stopped him just in time

0:42 What The Helmet? 1:55 Forklift Forkup 3:05 Engine Trouble 4:32 What’s Inside? 5:32 Gun Ho 7:26 Wine & Die-N 8:54 Guzzoline 10:22 Who Wants Summa This? 11:26 To Eat a Goldfish 12:48 Taking The Plunge 13:41 Steamy Buns 15:11 The Wolf of Fall Street 16:50 Extinguished 18:28 For The ‘Gram 19:38 One Way Ticket 20:48 Rooftop Rest 21:55 Oh Jehovah 22:54 Backseat Antics 24:00 Super Safe 25:26 Fake Out Edit: 160 Likes. Accepted

In the 16th century, a French prince took a bet from his older brother to enter a house riddled with plague saying, "No son of a french king ever died from the plague!" He later died if the plague at 23

5:17 I LOVE that you guys had him holding the saw backwards! 😂😂 Also, no. I've literally NEVER forgot that I had a firearm on me... Lol, wtf man.

I’ve watched every single one of these videos. The dude who superglued his junk is officially the GOAT… 🤦🏾‍♂️

As someone who lives in Germany, I can definitely say, that 99% of the time, our trains are NOT on time. A 20 Minute delay is still mild....

I have similar story as 11:50. In Indonesia at 2017 there’s a person who went fishing after working. He finally got a fish, but it’s a climbing perch. This fish has an ability to stay alive longer in land. He tryna to kill the fish before bringing it home. After failed to killed by throwing and step on it, he decided to bite the fish, but suddenly the fish did the little jump and go to fisher’s mouth. The climbing perch has a sharp fin that stuck on his larynx, causing him to hard breathing and died several minutes later

25:04 Beavis and Butt-Head could comment... Butt-Head: Dumbass didn't have a rubber. Beavis: So he used epoxy glue? Hehehe, if you wanna do it, don't glue it!

For the horse track one I kinda feel like that one was a little less of a darwin award death and more a tragic death even if they were being annoying for climbing on someones car. Who'd think a airplane would suddenly come flying down that low?

I gain some brain cells about survival every time I watch this

My boys resisted helmets for all their non-car travels. What stuck with them was my descriptions of trying to put brain tissue back into fractured skulls in an ED. Yes, I was as graphic as I could be.

The story of Witnesses showing faith by standing in traffic is something that I am not going to believe actually happened till I know more about it. On face value alone it isn't good enough. Now if it was a witness crossing the street and a vehicle that was speeding so fast that the person didn't see them when they initially looked then that would be more believable.

Me: Darwin Awards? What are those? People mentioned in this video: 💀

20:34 imagine just going into the kitchen for a midnight snack when all of a sudden there’s a loud explosion, and a Darwin Award winner’s body outside your backyard.. 😓

10:23 lol he could have started the "helicopter mode" before falling off the balcony 🤣

1:33 God: Oh, you think that not wearing a helmet on a speeding motorcycle is ok? Well…THINK AGAIN.

I have a darwin award: a man in france at 1912 was test a parachute, instead testing the parachute with a dummy, he used himself so he came to the highest tower in paris and... he jumped 69 metres to his death

I have a Darwin Award from 2017 that was, unfortunately, given to one of the only people who didn't bully me in school due to my high functioning autism and ADHD. This was during summer break before we started 8th grade. The friend in question was out with some of his other friends and decided to go "hood surfing" in a busy parking lot. Hood surfing is an activity where people slide across the hood of random cars and is a stunt commonly performed in action movies. However, he didn't realize that one of the cars he was about to surf was starting to pull out. He slipped and fell off the hood of the car and got his skull crushed under the moving car's tire. He was quickly rushed to the hospital, but still didn't survive. For context, this happened somewhere in Wyoming in the city of Cheyenne. I wasn't there personally, but since the school i went to was in a small town called Burns, news got around fast

19:40 I hope you know that Deutsche Bahn is basically known for being always late? There's even a song about it by the Wise Guys, simply called "Deutsche Bahn".

These people really think they’re wile e coyote and they’ll bounce right back

I think is actually already a Darwin award. When Hurricane Gaston hit in 2004, it caused flooding in Richmond, Virginia. A young man thought kayaking through the flooded and raging James River would be fun. It wasn't.

26:38 Here in Texas, people in some areas wont even honk their car horn at other cars for fear that they might have a gun. And then for that guy in the video to actually threaten people in texas with a fake gun, he deserves a platinum darwin award

23:08 Actually, once the bottom of the car door is slightly submerged, the water pressure makes it almost impossible to open the doors until the car is nearly full of water. So it's very possible they might have panicked as the car slowly started filling with water.

I haven't seen this channel in some years. I have to say, the animated bits are good. Good improvement in quality.

The guy that accidentally drink gasoline then lit a cigarette instead of some fire sounds like he was actually murdered, and that was a cover-up story because gasoline has a smell that nothing else has so when you open the door, you’re gonna know what it is,

Concerning the Lawyer at @6:45 the safety being off was the least he got wrong. That firearm had a round in the chamber AND it had been cocked before the safety was even needed. To deliberately take a concealed weapon into a hospital loaded and cocked deserves a self deletion.

With the 2 girls at the races :- Either the van was parked in a stupid spot or the plane was landing way short of the airstrip. The plane was less than 15 ft while over a public area and is lucky the van didn't have a nice strong "CB radio" aerial attached to the front bar. Even in those videos of the planes landing over a beach, they are 100 ft at the fence line.

I nearly got a darwin award from 2020 when I almost drowned myself in a pool I could fully stand up in💀

As a contractor, I've had to do maintenance on a factory ceiling before and was lifted up to do it with a forklift. When the employees suggested it, i was very hesitant, but they actually had a pretty neet basket attachment that locked into place on the forks and had a harness i was able to use to secure myself to the basket. I was honestly pretty impressed with how safe the setup was.

This one happened during the selfie boom. In Iaşi, Romania, a girl decided it would be a great idea to take a selfie on top of a train. After getting up not only she electrocuted herself on the conductors and cables above but she catched fire and was launched off the train in a pretty messy burnt state. I guess you could say her burning selfie-ing for attention shocked her.

I'm not so sure the 2 girls actually earned a Darwin award since being on the roof of a parked car isn't that dangerous. After all a Darwin award requires removing yourself not being removed like they were when the plane hit them

I saved a friend from almost winning this: We're having a campfire in our other friend's backyard, and it was taking a while to get going. My one idiot friend grabs a jerry can and opens it, stepping towards the fire, about to pour some in!!! Thank gosh I jumped up and stopped him, calling him an idiot in the process. He seriously said that he was going to just "splash a little at it and back up", like that would have worked!

"you shouldn't put something in something even if it fits" just got called dirty minded in 305 different ways

I remember the last story, the older gentleman in the video looked completely broken when he realized it was a fake gun, it actually was sad to see the change in him

Thanks for the laugh at 19:45 about the german train system. As a German myself I can disapprove every aspect of that. It is horrendous...

14:20 - Steamed Mediums? No thank you. I like my mediums... rare. 😜

in an MRI room usually they have a metal detector to make SURE. so yeah it is partly the hospital's fault, but mostly his fault.

So #2 on this list is very close to SOP at a place I used to work at for reaching things on the ceiling such as light fixtures and fire pipes. The differences are: 1) we use an iGPS pallet instead of wooden pallets, which are more suitable for this, 2) we use only one pallet instead of a stack to reduce the number of points of failure, and 3) we don't move the pallet at elevation with a worker on it. There's also a load stabilizing grate, so we can connect a harness to that grate and it would hold a worker's weight if the worker fell from the pallet and prevent him from falling to the ground.

Considering how many episodes this series has, i am surprised humans haven't extinct yet.

It’s not an ACTUAL Darwin Award, but, it ALMOST was……………. I LOVE to read. As a teenager, I did A LOT of reading. R L Stine, the way the human body works, recipe books, books on animals, herbal remedies, pretty much whatever I could get my hands on. So, I was about 13 or so. I was reading a book at home. I don’t recall the name of the book, but, it HAD to be about how tea was made. I read a part that said that tea was made by pouring boiling water over dried leaves. I got excited(because I LOVE tea). I thought to myself “gee we have LOTS of dried leaves in the garden(my mom grew lots of different kinds of fruit trees on her property & it was Winter). I marked my spot in the book, & rushed out to the garden. I happily grabbed several leaves that were dried & didn’t have bird poop on them from the first tree I got too(it was an apricot tree). I took them inside & boiled some water. I made myself a nice little cup of hot tea( adding sugar, honey, & lemon to taste). After I made & drank the tea. I went to bed. The next day I was sick(as if I had the flu). My mom( knowing I’d made the tea the night before), got worried & called the poison control center. After talking with the lady on the phone(& asking me which tree I’d gotten the leaves from), my mom found out that peach trees & apricot trees have cyanide in them! The lady on the phone said thankfully, each time I’d added something to the leaves(water, honey, sugar, & lemon), that the cyanide got diluted to a certain level & that I must have managed to dilute it to where I just got enough of it to make myself sick! My mom was told to treat me as if I had the flu. The lady told my mom that if I got worse or didn’t get better in a few days to take me to the doctor/hospital. If ONLY I’d continued reading, I WOULD have read that the leaves were TEA(or some other kind of edible herb)LEAVES! So, I ALMOST committed suicide(without me even feeling suicidal)! 😰😱😨🙄

I'm in the UK. I read in the newspaper a few years ago about a young couple who thought they would take a dip in one of the hot springs at Yellowstone Park. They ignored all the warning signs, stripped off, and the guy went in first. He then started complaining that it stung, then complained he couldn't feel his legs. His girlfriend tried to get him out, but couldn't. He basically dissolved right in front of her. I think she had injuries too, but not as bad.

An MRI shot me with my own gun. That's gotta be one of the dumbest reasons I've ever heard.

Fun Fact: DB (which is germany's trains) is on time only ~60% of the time given the average for 2023 from many sources. However, (in my opinion) this isn't taking into account the vast number of strikes and the actuals of how german trains run which unlike germans overall are punctual and on time...german trains are not and will arrive when they feel like it. Don't worry, i'll be happy to share another fun actually correct fact next time also so Be Amazed can learn something.

“Why does it look so messy?😰” 4:51 got me dying😭🤚

Considering how long this series has gone on and the fact that there will definitely be more videos in this series truly shows how stupid humanity has gotten

I love that you never run out of Darwin awards. With the world getting dumber, these will just continue to get funnier 😂❤

4:48 This one reminds me of one of "Sergeant Murphy's Laws of Combat", specifically the one that says "Once the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend!" Only in the case of this Darwin Award winner it's more like "Once the circular saw is applied, Mr. Grenade will get very annoyed with anyone within his blast radius!"

Welcome to the Darwin award universe, where apparently no one has ever heard of mouthwash or toothpaste.

I have a Darwin Award from a website I found Robert Overacker had good intentions, but they sadly weren’t enough to save him. In 1995, Overacker wanted to raise awareness about homelessness. To do so, he equipped a jet ski with an improvised rocket booster and tried to shoot over Niagara Falls. He also included a parachute to ease his descent. It’s unclear whether the rocket part worked or not. Either way, the main issue was the parachute, which Overacker had neglected to attach to himself. When he went over the falls, it fluttered away, leaving him to plunge to a watery death.

A fellow worker was holding a piece of metal he was drilling. You guessed it, he drilled through his hand. The safety officer was writing a report when our wounded person came back. The safety officer asked the wounded one to show him how it happened, and now he has two holes in his hand.

Honestly the old guy in the pot could have had a heart attack as well. I've learned that being in a very hot spot with your whole body like a bath with very hot water and only your head sticking out can make your heart beat faster and end up in fainting or heart attack.

As a medic I had a guy on a cherry picker at a place that made huge sheets of glass. The bucket was at the top and the guy didn’t have a helmet or a harness on and the cherry picker ended up overturning and the guy in the basket was tossed out and landed on a huge sheet of glass. He had a hole in his head and I could see the skull. He was in cardiac arrest and despite our efforts we couldn’t save him. Always wear a harness and helmet in the cherry pickers because even though can be deadly. I’ll make another comment on the guy who nearly died in a fork lift accident

"German trains are always on time". OK, now I question everything else you've told me. German trains are FAMOUS for being unreliable AF.

There was a man here in my city who definitely deserves a Darwin Award. In Brazil, at the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, citizens in a chunk of Campo Grande city were left with no power, yet despite having no light bulbs to turn on, the sky was just as bright as any other source of light could be. They were huge flames, so bright you could see it from miles away. Security from an electric substation knew exactly what happened, as they witnessed everything, yet couldn't believe someone would be so dumb to do that. Turns out some rando decided to climb all the way up a high tension pole to steal modernity's gold: copper wires. A decision so dumb not even security believed he was actually there as not even they could get close. While the man managed to get a good chunk of wires, after all those lucky shots, it was time for a shocking surprise. The pole exploded and I believe, without a doubt, he deserves a big fat Darwin Award. (Link to videos in the comments below)

I'm really lucky that I didn't end up in this series. Back in 1979, I pulled my car into the driveway where I was living. Just as I got to the parking spot, it ran out of gas. I got a small electric water pump and ran the input hose into the gas tank of a farm truck that was sitting next to two houses and a barn. My plan was to steal a few gallons from the trunk. I ran an extension cord out of the barn for power. I couldn't find a gas can, so I used a plastic squirt bottle to put the gasoline in. The pump worked really well and filled the bottle in a matter of seconds, then spilling gas all over my pants and the ground around me. I stepped on the extension cord and pulled the cord on the pump to stop the flow. As soon as the electricical current was cut, it made a spark which ignited the gas fumes. The force of the explosion blew me back about 10 feet. Fire was shooting out of the gas tank on the truck, the side of the truck was on fire, as well as the ground all around the area. My pants were also on fire. I rolled on the dirt and put myself out, then ran into the barn to unplug the extension cord. I grabbed a horse blanket and, for what seemed like an eternity, beat the flames until they were out. I am so fortunate that I didn't get killed or burn down the truck, barn, and two houses. No one ever found out about that, and I learned a really good lesson. The next morning, on my way to work, I wrecked my car. Talk about KARMA!

"I guess he wasnt the only one who got shafted" cracked me up for the DarLosers

A guy died and went to heaven God: how did you die? Guy: Well, although I died, at least I still am a Darwin awards winner

5:26 “Showing the world what the inside of a Darwin Award winner looks like instead!” 😂

20:00 That's not true at all. They are never on time, sometimes a few hours late, sometimes they don't drive at all, sometimes the toilets, the AC, everything is broken... It's not so cheap as you think- you pay around 80 bucks for this route in normal pricing... Or more if you are unlucky. Or less, if you are lucky...

There was a lady just recently who missed her flight, so she broke through the emergency exit doors and ran out onto the runway, went right up to a taxiing jet and got sucked into an engine, so she won the Darwin Award

In all honesty, I feel like it's a matter of time before I end up on one of these videos 😂. Just a few hours ago, I went to have a bubble bath with a nice cup of tea (spot the Brit 😂), watched myself pour the whole mug of tea in the bath instead of the bubble bath, I realised my mistake as soon as I started pouring, but got stuck in stupid mode and carried on for reasons unknown to even me. Sometimes I think I only have 2 braincells and they're both fighting for third place 😂.

This series shall never die. This is one of my favorite series from you!

I especially liked the Evil MRI Scanner which the aggrieved family were conjuring up...

22:43 Woman: Do you wanna learn about Jesus? Car: You wanna meet him?

I’ve seen the last one before because on the news. I saw that the old man shot the robber in a SMALL restaurant and the old man picked up the gun and said “ITS A TOY!”. He was mad that he shot the robber that had a FAKE gun when the old man had a REAL one. I feel bad for the old man because he was only protecting the civilians from being robbed and killed by the robber. But the old man had been charged for shooting a person that was threatening people, which is considered an innocent. The person was actually charged too. Please help this old man for attempting for murdering a robber. I hope this helps! 🎉

I was literally not expecting Jehovah witnesses to be on this list. My grandparents on my dad’s side are witness’s and been teaching me about Jehovah for years. I hope those Darwin Award Winners make it into the new world.

I guess incidents like that are why I was the only one allowed in the MRI room when I was having mine done. Also, alcohol and gasoline smell nothing alike. How'd he mix those two smells up, and why would he drink something of his friend's without permission?

Good to see a couple of entries from my native UK. Stupidity is universal.

I've got a genuine Darwin Award story from the city of Darwin, Australia itself. I used to be a cadet in the a RAAF " Air Training Corps" unit , No. 1 Flt, N.T. We had a member called " Clarke" who, one fine evening, decided to " take a leak" on a metallic power pole. For some reason, his urine connected him in an electric manner through the pole to the power grid, and he died on the spot, electrocuting himself

The industrial steghnth glue, I think, wins the Darwin awards Darwin award.

The glue for protection is definitely messed up! What a way to go 🤦‍♂️🤣

"German trains on time" STOP PLEASE STOP I can't breath from laughing so hard

6:25 "Don't bring any metal inside." "ExCUSEme!? I will exercise my fourth amendment rights anywhere I please!" "This MRI could literally kill you if you have metal on you. Also, we're in Brazil." "Let it try!" 6:43

We need an annual celebration for this series, every year we watch all the Darwin Award vids, I doubt anyone would try stop it

Here’s my Darwin Award story: I said no to my dad💀

“Ive just sprayed gasoline everywhere, better *LIGHT A CIGARETTE* “

I immediately started laughing histerically at the motorbike one. Like, can someone be any dumber? How many layers of idiocy do you need to be in to protest against helmets in motorcycles?