A family was helicoptered to the hospital with severe burns after a tropical dessert ended in tragedy. The waiter poured the 151 proof rum over the plate of bananas Foster, a treat consisting of bananas sauteed in butter and soaked in alcohol and often served over ice cream, and then lit it. The liquid fire then spilled onto several members of the family, leaving one woman’s body covered in flames as her dress caught fire. [More]
accidents
Flying Wiimote Trashes TV, Discover Makes Loss Less Painful
By 3.2.11
Stephen broke his new LCD TV the old-fashioned way: his 6-year-old son flung a Wiimote into it. Oh, well, sucks to be him, right? He called around looking for some way out of paying to replace the set, a 46″ Sony Bravia that cost more than $900 with tax. Homeowner’s insurance? Nope. He didn’t buy a warranty from Best Buy when purchasing the TV, and a Geek Squad warranty wouldn’t have covered this damage. Time to just go buy a new TV? Not so fast! One of his Facebook friends was savvy enough to tell Stephen to check with his credit card company. [More]
Don't Unclog A Snowblower With Your Hand
By 1.11.11
As another batch of snow descends on America, it’s important to remember that if your snowblower blades get stuck, do not use your hands when trying to unclog the auger. A recent accident on Long Island resulted in the victim’s hands looking like “Bolognese sauce,” [More]
Ski Lift Breaks Down, Injures 8 People
By 12.29.10
An aging Maine ski lift succumbed to winds that sent several riders plummeting to the ground, hospitalizing at least five adults and three children. [More]
Motorola Droid 2 Screen Shatters In Man's Ear, Blood Everywhere
By 12.3.10
A Texas man showed up at the hospital with blood streaming down his ear after his Motorola Droid 2 screen shattered in his ear. [More]
Megabus Bursts Into Flames
By 9.30.10
A Megabus enroute to Chicago from Detroit was engulfed by fire this Tuesday, forcing the driver to flee for his life, abandoning the bus by the side of the highway as it turned to cinder. [More]
Lost Megabus Driver Crashes Into Bridge While Checking GPS; Four Passengers Killed
By 9.16.10
Very early Saturday morning, a double-decker Megabus lost on its way to the bus station crashed into a low railroad overpass (pictured) outside of Syracuse, NY. Four passengers were killed, and twenty people injured, including the driver. Now, the public has learned that the driver was looking at his personal GPS unit at the time of the accident–which Megabus drivers are not permitted to use while driving for work. [More]
Krispy Kreme Accidentally Gives Customer $5,000 Box Of Donuts
By 8.9.10
The manager of a Krispy Kreme in North Carolina protected each day’s haul by hiding it in a donut box. Krispy Kreme just happens to sell donuts by the boxful to its customers, so it’s clear that absolutely nothing could go wrong with this plan. [More]
Hospital Confuses Survivor And Victim Of Traffic Accident, Tells Families Wrong News
By 7.27.10
St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Arizona mixed up the identities of two women involved in a car crash last week, says CNN, leading to some intensely unpleasant fake-outs for both families involved. [More]
Woman Sues Qantas Airline After Screaming Child Makes Her Deaf
By 7.26.10
A 67-year-old American woman traveling in Australia last year has sued Qantas, because she says a screaming baby on board one of their flights made her deaf. Now before shake your head, what she describes in her suit is pretty horrific: “The boy allegedly leaned back over his armrest toward [her] and let out a scream so severe that blood erupted from her ears, leaving her ‘stone cold deaf’.” On the other hand, Qantas maintains that it has no way of predicting when a child might scream, since children naturally do that sort of thing. [More]
Government Wipes Out Geese Population In Brooklyn To Ensure Airplane Safety
By 7.13.10
In what has come to be known as “Sully’s Revenge” (by me, just now), wildlife biologists herded about 400 geese from Brooklyn’s ginormous Prospect Park into cages last week, then “took them to a nearby building where they were gassed with lethal doses of carbon dioxide.” [More]
Huff Post Ranks Airlines On Safety Records
By 5.25.10
Even the Huffington Post admits that their Safest U.S. Airlines list is a bit unnecessary, considering the excellent safety records of everyone on the list. Still, it’s fun to rank things, so that’s what they did. U.S. Airways and JetBlue came in near the top, while Delta, United and Continental came in at the bottom. Regardless, you’re likely to remain alive after a flight on any of them. [More]
People Making Ends Meet With Car Insurance Fraud
By 5.17.10
Citing National Insurance Crime Bureau stats, AutoBlog reports people are staging 46 percent more car accidents in order to get a little green flowing in their direction. This despite rampant unemployment lowering the rate of actual car accidents due to decreased traffic. [More]
Mercedes Shows Off New Safety Feature For Cars
By 3.9.10
Last week, Mercedes showed a bunch of journalists some new safety features it’s working on to prevent deaths in the event of a car crash, and BNET describes them. I hope you like air bags going off all around you–the demo even has air bags for the car. Sadly, the people-scooper feature–something about when you hit a pedestrian, the car “scoops” the body onto the hood and keeps the person there, probably so that his screaming can alert you that you’ve been in an accident–will only be available in Europe. [More]
2009 Second Safest Year For Western-Built Jets In Aviation History
By 2.22.10
According to a new report by the trade group International Air Transport Association, 2009 comes in just behind 2006 as the safest year on record (kept since 1964), with an average of 1 accident for every 1.4 million flights on a Western-built jet. CNN notes, “If you were to take a flight every day, odds are you could go 3,859 years without an accident.” With delays and cancellations it would actually take nearly 6,000 years to complete all those flights, but it’s still a good statistic to tell yourself the next time you get nervous about flying. [More]
Energy Co Fills House With Oil, Endangering Family
By 2.5.10
A Long Island family was nearly incapacitated after a local energy company mistakenly delivered oil into a disconnected pipe on the front of their house, dumping nearly 50 gallons of heating oil into their basement. [More]
"You Break It, You Bought It" Rule Does Not Apply To Museums
By 1.25.10
Good news for the clumsy, if you stagger into a rare Picasso painting and rip a 6″ hole in it — you will not be charged for the painting. On Friday a woman fell into just such a painting while taking a class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. [More]
Newborn And Mountain Dew Ruin Macbook, Applecare Goes Above And Beyond
By 1.21.10
Mark’s MacBook had an unfortunate run-in with an open container of Mountain Dew while he was holding his newborn daughter. He called Apple, but expected no help from the company, and certainly not an exception to Applecare’s accidental damage rules. He was wrong, and surprised. [More]
