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Maybe the driver was distracted by reading the sign… If anyone knows where this picture was taken or who the photographer is, please let us know. And drive carefully! Link
The Dole Air Race of August 16, 1927 was from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, for a prize of $35,000. Fifteen planes were registered. Eleven qualified to start. Two crashed on the way to the starting point, and another crashed during a test flight before the race. Things only got worse once the race began.
On the morning of August 16, the eight remaining planes queued up for their opportunity. They drew lots for flight order and took off one by one. As people cheered, things went bad in a hurry.
One plane, the El Encanto, simply shot off the edge of the runway, and tumbled over her wing. Another the Pabco Flyer got into the air… until she didn’t, landing some 7000 feet away in a marsh. Three more planes took off only to promptly return with technical difficulties.
Of the fifteen planes that had entered the race, only four planes, the Golden Eagle, Aloha, Woolaroc, and Miss Doran, were actually able to attempt the journey. The results of the ill fated race would soon be known.
The carnage didn’t stop there. Nor did it stop once the race was over. Read more about the deadly Dole Air Race at Atlas Obscura blog. This story is part of a regular feature they call Morbid Monday. Link
Artist Jonathan Wateridge has a thing for wreckage. This series of paintings, depicting fallen airplanes and sinking ships, are rendered in oil paint with extreme realism. The works are all very large (2m x 3m, or about 6.5′x9.8′) to enhance the level of detail. Check out the rest of the Crash series on BestBookmarks. (I especially love the plane resting in the iceberg field.) Link
James. J. Johnson drove his truck into a house in Webster, Massachusetts. He blamed the crash on the dogs running loose in his truck.
James. J. Johnson said the dogs make him lose control of his vehicle. But Webster police officers determined there were no dogs, police said.
Officers also determined Johnson had been drinking, police said. Johnson was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, marked lanes violation, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and destruction of property.
One has to wonder what exactly made the police think that Johnson may have been drinking. Link -via Arbroath
Crash happens, even to the best of hamsters … Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] (warning: NSFW language)
An unnamed woman in Colorado backed her car into a canal near the town of Fruita Sunday night. She told police that she saw a vampire in the road and was so scared she put her car into reverse and backed away, ending up in the canal.
She was not injured. Her husband arrived on the scene and took her home. Troopers do not suspect alcohol or drugs to be factors in this accident.
They added that they found no evidence of a vampire.
Link (with video)
[YouTube - link]
Race driver Mike Conway goes airborne in a brutal crash that dissolves his car into a rain of plastic and metal. Amazingly, Mike escaped with only a broken leg. The different driver perspectives at the end of the video help put the actual speed of the accident into context.
Via - A Welsh View
The blog 2M40 is about one underpass in Paris that has a clearance of only two meters and forty centimeters. Many truck drivers either do not read, do not understand, or do not believe the clearance warning. Several times a month, the underpass wins the battle against these drivers and 2m40 posts the pictures. The blog is in French, but the pictures tell the story. The tagline is “Un blog impactant,” which means “An impacting blog.” Link -via the Presurfer
Cynthia Blair-Hoover of Granby, Colorado crashed on the way to Denver when her car went off a cliff near Central City. Although the fall left the 52-year-old woman with eleven broken ribs, broken vertebrae, and a punctured lung, she began inching her way towards an old mine by sliding on her back.
For five and a half days and nights, Hoover sucked moisture off her hair and did her best to stay warm through rain, hail and even snow at the 8,000 foot mark in the mountains. By the following Tuesday, she was able to hear voices coming from the mine, where they were conducting tours. When the voices stopped, she would yell for help and after several minutes, one of the men heard her cries for help.
“I couldn’t believe she was able to survive,” said Fire Chief, Gary Allen. “We have mountain lions, bears and other critters up here. It is a miracle she wasn’t mauled to death.”
Hoover was airlifted to a hospital in Denver, where she is currently recovering in the intensive care unit. Link -via Arbroath
Croatian rescue workers were taken by surprise when a service vehicle dispatched to assist them with a train wreck lost control and crashed in nearby the original wreck! What a near miss …
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by if.
At a wedding in Suvereto, Italy, the plan was to have the bride’s bouquet thrown from an microlight plane flying over the wedding party. A line of women were waiting for the bouquet below. Then things got weird.
… the flowers were sucked into the plane’s engine causing it to catch fire and explode.
The aircraft plunged into a hostel. One passenger on the plane was badly hurt.
But about 50 people who had been in the hostel escaped unscathed, as did the pilot.
Isidoro Pensieri, who tossed the bouquet from the plane, suffered multiple fractures and was taken to a hospital in Pisa. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: Flickr user godutchbaby)
To the horror of spectators, this stunt plane begins to tailspin toward the ground when it loses its right wing in midair. Amazingly, at the last second the pilot is able to land safely.
– via holeinthedonut
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by baweibel.
In Germany, a speeding car missed a turn, and flew an amazing distance to crash into the roof of a nearby church.
The bank acted like a springboard, propelling the black Skoda about 35 meters (115 ft) forward and straight into the church’s roof frame, where it remained wedged 7 meters off the ground, police said in a statement.
From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by Johnny Cat.
Cyclists collide during a high speed race in Australia.
Initially two cyclists competing in a 2000m dash in Melbourne, Australia, collided at high speeds, resulting in a domino effect pile up. The collision caused other riders to crash with some travelling through the air. But all escaped serious injury.
Nine out of the 18 riders were involved in the pile up at the velodrome.
Source & Video: Reuters
