Car surfing ends in death

[Chuck]

Corbitt made a sharp turn that threw the 17-year-old off. His head hit the asphalt and later died at the hospital.

Krister Rollins - WCSH6 - May 23, 2012

Post video is not actual incident. Any comment necessary about the obvious recklessness and stupidity? --Ed.

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (WRCB) - Police in Chattanooga, Tennessee are investigating the death of a teen who died after falling off the hood of a car.

They found the 17-year-old victim unconscious in a parking lot Sunday night.

Police say a group of friends were doing a dangerous stunt called "car surfing," where you ride on the hood of a car.... [Read More]

[JonNC]

Ok, I know this might seem a little cold/heartless to some of you, but...

The first thought that comes to my mind after reading this artical is:

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...

[chilimac02]

did it in college. not smart.

[msirach]

There was a 13 year old girl that died near here a few months ago doing this.

[08EscapeHybrid]

Just because Teen Wolf did it, doesn't mean you should too...

[WriConsult]

Saw a teenager riding in the bed of a flatbed pickup yesterday. Not as bad as car-hood surfing, but still scary.

Not that car-surfing is new. I remember seeing some friends doing that back in the early 80s. Along with car-skiing and car-snowtubing (this was MN, remember). All monumentally foolish, of course.

[JusBringIt]

I wonder if some of us just came a much smaller dose of common sense than others? I am willing to learn from the mistakes of others. I am not talented enough to make all of them myself.

[50 mpg by 2012]

The event is indeed sad!

Unfortunately wisdom regarding risk is not always present regardless of age.

Now, another story ...

My son is an avid cyclist with roughly 80k miles relatively accident free ... until last month.

While he was returning on a city street near home at about 20 mph ... a suicidal squirel tried unsucessfully to run through the spokes of his front wheel.

Obviously when the squire's body hit the fork ... the bicyle STOPPED ... INSTANTLY!!!

Unfortunately, my son did NOT. Head first over the handlebars! The bike following!

FORTUNATELY ... he was, as usual, wearing his helmet ... which hit the ground first.

The helmet literally split in half ... but other than a few scraps, soar muscles, and badly bruised hands ... all now well into recovery ... he is doing fine, continuing his rides with a NEW helmet.

His analysis of the event is very simple ... without the helmet ... he would have been dead.

And, I agree with his analysis ...

IF I remember correctly there are about 300k traumatic brain injuries (TBI) annually and about 1/3 of those experience some degree of lifetime impairment.

Oooops ... I was wrong ... 1.7 million TBI plus another 900k Acquired Brian Injuries (ABI), like strokes, annually. Currently 5.3 million in the US are recognized to have long-term disability resulting from just TBI.

http://www.biausa.org/ see statistics.

[WriConsult]

Glad your son's OK. For some reason there's still a lot of controversy within the bike community over the effectiveness of helmets, and on a lot of bike forums most people are circumspect in talking about helmets because of the flame wars that the subject provokes. But anecdotally I've known too many people who've had their life, or at least their brain, saved by helmets to discount their effectiveness. I've worn once since 1981, the old white hard-shell Bell when almost no one else wore them. I even wore one while riding in Denmark a few years ago, despite having some smart aleck yell "God helm!" at me.

I've also worn a helmet while skiing since the late 1990s when I had a close call with a tree, and now I see that's finally starting to catch on too.

I also wear one while riding my Razr A5 (adult size) scooter. I figure anytime I'm going above a running pace -- in other words, too fast to catch myself if I should fall -- then a helmet is in order. A young man here died a couple years ago from TBI resulting from a skateboard crash.

[RedylC94]

I started wearing "the old white hard-shell Bell" Biker in late 1976, by which time about half the people in the club I was in (Allentown, Pa.) wore them. A couple of years later I landed on it, denting it slightly. Now everybody wears them on club rides, and they are required at practically all organized cycling events. Aside from the occasional crackpot, I don't believe there's much controversy about them any more, at least not in the eastern U.S.