Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Kid jumps to death with a plastic parachute

H

haiggy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 20, 2003
1,328
76
Ontario, Canada
Sad :(

NYC boy, 9, made plastic parachute, took death dive
April 15, 2009 - 23:39
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - A friend says a nine-year-old New York City boy might have been imitating a video game character when he apparently made a plastic parachute and jumped to his death from his apartment building roof.

Police say Domori Miles likely cobbled a plastic bag and rope together before flying off the 13-storey Brooklyn building Tuesday. The items were found on the ground near his body.
Click to expand...

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=w1560717031
 
Oh my. Terrible.

Many of us farm kids experimented with homemade parachutes, wings, and other flying devices. But that was off a roof or barn. Not 13 stories up.
 
haiggy said:
Haha me too, I'd drop them from the top of the stairs :)
Click to expand...

I would take them and jump off my bed. I miss those days were we were all light enough that there would be a decent effect. :D

*cue the activists group blaming video games for this tragic death instead of the parents neglect for buying him that game( or failing to tell him that the things in the game are not reality, etc).....
 
quagmire said:
I would take them and jump off my bed. I miss those days were we were all light enough that there would be a decent effect. :D

*cue the activists group blaming video games for this tragic death instead of the parents neglect for buying him that game( or failing to tell him that the things in the game are not reality, etc).....
Click to expand...

They can cue that all they want.

I would not call this poor parenting but a unfortunate accident. The parents might of just taken their eyes off the kid for a minute and that was long enough for him to try.

I know when I was that age I would jump off the top of my parents SUV with an unbrila or a plasitic homemade parachute made with a trash back thinking it would slow me down. I remember wanting to do that from the top of the roof. That idea did not fly to well with my parents and they said no. They where fine with the SUV but the roof was a no go.

As for where I got the idea. TMNT and GI JOE no video games. That was near 20 years ago. No matter how you cut it kids line of thinking has not changed. They lack the experince and the ablilty to see problems with their plans and they suffer from an unhealthy lack of fear.
 
This article says he was 11. Either way, it's a sad story.

sushi said:
Many of us farm kids experimented with homemade parachutes, wings, and other flying devices. But that was off a roof or barn. Not 13 stories up.
Click to expand...

My brother and I also used to do this when we were little kids.
 
I like how they say he might have been trying to immitate a video game... Then go and say he played WWF Wrestling games......... Yeah that makes sense :rolleyes:

I don't understand why games are the first thing people blame when kids do stupid things?:confused:
 
When I was very young my dad stopped me doing this with a bedsheet out of my bedroom window. I'd circumvented the child safety locks so afterwards he screwed the windows into the frames with security screws (i.e. different heads) and they're still bolted shut to this day.

He also stopped me from, literally, throwing myself down the stairs. I'd had a dream that it felt like flying and you landed ok so I gave it a go, only to find I got pulled back from behind and a good telling off.

AppleMatt
 
We used to do stuff like this during strong winds on the hill, never jumping off cliffs though. Poor kid.
 
this is tragic. i don't even want to think about his frame of mind (excited, caught up in the moment etc..), which made him try this.

ugh.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
I would not call this poor parenting but a unfortunate accident. The parents might of just taken their eyes off the kid for a minute and that was long enough for him to try.

.....That was near 20 years ago. No matter how you cut it kids line of thinking has not changed. They lack the experince and the ablilty to see problems with their plans and they suffer from an unhealthy lack of fear.
Click to expand...


Agree 100%.

quagmire said:
*cue the activists group blaming video games for this tragic death instead of the parents neglect for buying him that game( or failing to tell him that the things in the game are not reality, etc).....
Click to expand...

It's just as bad to blame the parents as it is to blame video games. This kid didn't have enough experience in life, or knowledge of physical concepts that seem like common sense at our age, but what you said about the parents only gives the impression that you don't have enough life experience, or an understanding of reality to actually understand that "s*** happens".

Blame the young kid's imagination. Those existed well before video games.

I tried the "parachute" thing when I was 10. While I remember that I knew one garbage bag wouldn't allow me to float (I was such a smart kid :p), I figured the solution was to use more garbage bags, so that's what I did. I only did it from half-way up the staircase in our house. Nobody got hurt.
 
raggedjimmi said:
We used to do stuff like this during strong winds on the hill, never jumping off cliffs though. Poor kid.
Click to expand...


yeah for real. longboarding down Flagler Drive (long newly paved road along the intercoastal in West Palm Beach) during hurricanes was da bomb
 
Wow, you guys have such a life! ;)

I never did anything close to dangerous when I was a kid.
I think the most I did was ride my bike (In India) near the part where the road meets the grass. The road was like 5" higher than the actual ground, so when I moved onto the grass, I fell off my bike, got a scar on my knee.


I guess I was a smart kid.
 
fireshot91 said:
Wow, you guys have such a life! ;)

I never did anything close to dangerous when I was a kid.
I think the most I did was ride my bike (In India) near the part where the road meets the grass. The road was like 5" higher than the actual ground, so when I moved onto the grass, I fell off my bike, got a scar on my knee.


I guess I was a smart kid.
Click to expand...



india? wow!

i still do a lot of crazy things. but it sure is fun when you don't heal as fast.
 
That is tragic. Fear of something like this is what prompted me to have a chat with my son about video games vs reality. I don't know what I'd do if he ever tried something like this.:(
 
sushi said:
Oh my. Terrible.

Many of us farm kids experimented with homemade parachutes, wings, and other flying devices. But that was off a roof or barn. Not 13 stories up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I done this off the top of our garden shed when I was very young. I broke my arm :).
 
Rodimus Prime said:
No matter how you cut it kids line of thinking has not changed. They lack the experince and the ablilty to see problems with their plans and they suffer from an unhealthy lack of fear.
Click to expand...

I would add to this, unfortunately so many parents try to prevent anything at all happening to their kids that they don't get the reinforcement of the pain that follows the act of trying to jump on your bmx bike, or doing things at the skate park on the skate board, etc etc. You do something silly, scratch your knee up etc and the next time around you might realize that umm maybe this isn't a good idea.
 
Foxglove9 said:
Seems like we need to give out more and more Darwin awards lately.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure they are giving out more Darwin Awards, but we certainly hear about more instances that qualify than we did before the Internet. I agree this kid should be considered for an award this year, but it's a pity to give one to someone so young.

Favorite marker stone saying for Darwin Award winners should be: "His last words were, 'Watch this!'"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back