The Burdens Of Our Fathers
2010 Darwin Award Winner
Unconfirmed by Darwin
(April 2010, Romania) A thirty-five-year-old man from Braila was only
trying to fix a broken soil tamper, a tool his father had made himself and
used for decades. The metal handle of this family heirloom had rusted
loose and our man was trying to weld it back into position, but
unfortunately he was welding the metal rod onto an antique WWII cannon
shell.
Unconfirmed by Darwin
Yes, the family had been banging a cannon shell against the garden dirt for two generations!
Specialists from the Bucharest ISU (General Institute for Emergency Situations) stated that the first weld had been made in a harmless position, but the second weld was made in exactly the wrong spot. The heat triggered the shell to explode, mortally wounding the man. In his defense, he was sure the projectile was harmless because his father had used it to compact earth for almost 40 years.
If one generation doesn't get it right, the next does.
