Latest Darwin nominee: Illinois bright spark sparks car inferno

[edesignuk]

An Illinois bright spark, who decided the best way to check the level of combustible fluid in a petrol can was by using a cigarette lighter, ended up with a torched car and second-degree burns.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the unnamed 27-year-old woman was in a gas station in Joliet last week and "was filling up a gas can, which was sitting on the passenger seat of the car", as police later explained.

The cops continued: "She then used a lighter to observe how full the can was."

The petrol duly ignited, the can exploded and "apparently afraid that the fire would spread to the gas pump she had been using, the woman began to push the burning car".

Firefighters arrived to find the vehicle ablaze about five feet from the pump. The woman was treated at the scene for "second-degree burns to her right wrist and right thigh", and was later admitted into hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries.

The Register.

 

[Counterfit]

She can't be a Darwin award nominee, she's still in the gene pool.

 

[edesignuk]

She can't be a Darwin award nominee, she's still in the gene pool.

That's a good point OK, near nominee.

 

[RedTomato]

Ahem.

If she rendered herself sterile, then she still wins a Darwin Award. Sterility also counts as removing oneself from the gene pool.

I liked this comment:

> natural selection was thwarted again

Far from it! Natural Selection = Survival of the Fittest. This woman survived a petrol bomb, despite being just inches away, got back up onto her feet and then pushed a car across a forecourt. And remember, this is the US. That won't be a Renault Clio or a Fiat Panda. That'll be several tons of steel!

And to be picky, sterility or fool-hardiness also benefits the overall gene pool, either through altruism (as in gay people, gay animals, gay beetles etc) or through the risky discovery of new things (astronauts, explorers, inventors etc)

 

[ucfgrad93]

Definitely not the brightest bulb in the 4 pack.

 

[yg17]

She can't be a Darwin award nominee, she's still in the gene pool.

Well, at the very least, it's an honorable mention.

 

[John Jacob]

An Illinois bright spark...

That's literally a bright spark! Well, maybe more than just a spark... But hey, it all started with a sparK!!

(yeah, I know, I have a wierd sense of humour)