While we're on the subject of Darwin Awards, I saw two clear shining examples within the last couple of weeks.

1:
I was riding the chairlift up the hill at Boreal. The lift passes a snowboarder-park section of carefully-constructed jumps and grinding rails.

I watched as one of the boarders took a jump, tried to do a 180, did about a 96 instead, and tumbled on the landing. He was OK and sat up on his knees to brush off the snow.

The problem was that he sat there for an unusually long time, resting... At the bottom of a blind jump. Not even making an attempt to move out of the way.

I said aloud to the other passengers on the lift: "Oh no. This is going to get ugly really fast."

Sure enough, a skier takes the jump after him, tags him in the head with one of his skis mid-air. Didn't see how badly the kid got hurt, though. Don't remember if the skier was able to complete the landing without falling or not.


2:
I was driving home from Sacramento with my family during a cold, rainy night. We are in the rightmost lane, slowing for a banked curve offramp. The offramp was two lanes, so we were in the "exit only" lane, and there was another car ahead and to the left of us in the other lane, the optional-exit lane. We were both slowing to well below the speed limit because it was very cold and wet and the road conditions were not good.

A red Honda Civic, lowered so that it nearly scraped the ground, big fat chrome exhaust pipe, and a dorky wing bolted to the trunk, came speeding up on our left side. He weaved through the narrow space between me and the other car. He was driving at about the freeway's speed limit of 65 as he entered this sharp, banked turn.

It was very satisfying to watch him spin out completely at the apex of the turn.

Fortunately for him, he hit no one else, and merely spun into the grass on the inside of the corner. I don't think he even got damaged at all. Hopefully, it scared the living crap out of him, though.