I was emailed a video today that was disturbing in the extreme. It was shot from inside a car with some young guys in it. From the video itself it was not completely clear what was going on but the site described it as a guy trying to “door” a passing bicyclist. But he fell out the door. The tragic part was that it looks like the falling guy’s head fell in front of the bumper of a car coming the opposite direction.
I am not posting a link but it should be easy enough to find if you search on “car fall video.”
I was not able to find any news items on this. Is any credible information available about just what was going on and what was the fate of that poor kid?
What the hell are you talking about? You believe that stupid people deserve death? (possibly)
There’s a copy of the video at Ebaum’s World – second column, sixth from the bottom, named “Car Fall”. (I’d link directly, but not sure if the two-click rule applies…it’s not that graphic, just disturbing.)
I really don’t know if that kind of fall is survivable or not. I’m also wondering what happened to the kid on the bike that he clipped…
wow, that hurt like hell. It’s hard to believe someone would release a video if the guy dies but anything is possible. That site is wild, did you see the guy pulling off the toe nail with vice grips? Ouch
Yeah, I saw it a year or so ago, pretty sure I remember reading some linked newstories at the time that he lived, was just severely injured and laid up in the hospital for a while. Pretty sure he didn’t die though. Sorry, no links.
Tragic stupidity is when mountain boarders slide off roads into ravines.
The actions of these men were sociopathic and homicidal. They were attempting to kill or were at least acting with a brazen disregard for the life of the man on the bike. Presumably they were calculating to push that person into the path of the same car as the one which struck the assailant that fell out of the car.
I really cannot muster an ouce of sympathy for this one.
Have seen it many times, and as I cyclist my feelings side with Prichester, threemae and Rick. “Tragic” is hardly how I’d describe someone getting hit by the same parked car they were trying to knock somebody else into. Maybe ironic, maybe karmic, but of all the times I’ve seen it I’ve never come close to feeling sorry for that little… person.
They appeared to be taping themselves causing trouble for fun. If their friend hadn’t fallen out, presumably we’d be seeing the video of the cyclist getting slammed into the parked car and them cackling over it.
I remember that video from a while back (I think I saw it on eBaum’s initially) and all I could think was “Freakin’ dumbass.” It was disturbing, certainly, and I did briefly think “I wonder how badly he was hurt?” On the other hand, in a way that probably says something unflattering about me, it also reaffirmed my faith that sometimes karma does work and reckless sociopathic morons do get theirs.
On subsequent viewing it does seem clear that they were trying to nail the cyclist, which I wasn’t so sure about the first time around. The version I saw repeats the part where the kid falls out several times, though not the part where he tries to get the cyclist.
I appreciate the comments critical of the bozos in the car but this being GQ I was just looking for some factual background on the injuries and whether any statements were made admitting to what they were doing, whether they were contrite, etc., etc.
Sorry, I’ve watched the video many times, and I simply don’t see it the same way you do. Here’s my interpretation:
(1) Idiot Boy #1 begins “car surfing” from the rear passenger seat. An incredibly stupid thing to do, absent all other factors, but teenagers do stupid things all the time.
(2) Driver (aka Idiot Boy #2) starts swerving, as a joke, towards the cyclist in the street. He does NOT realize that Idiot Boy #1 is already hanging halfway outside the car door, and does NOT intend to hit the cyclist. As the old saying goes, you need two stupid people to create an accident…so what follows next is inevitable…
(3) Car Surfing Idiot strikes the cyclist (how seriously, is hard to tell), loses his balance and falls from the car, slides a few dozen feet, and face-splats right into the bumper of a PARKED car. Not a car driving the opposite direction (or, if it is, the car’s already braked by now.)
(4) If you really think that any of this was “homicidal”, or even remotely intentional, watch the video again and listen closely to how the other passengers react. They are TOTALLY FREAKED OUT. No way did they intend to actually hurt anyone. (The first “Oh SHIT!” is actually a reaction to striking the cyclist, a split second before their friend turned into Insta-Roadkill.)
Yes, they were incredibly fucking stupid, and should be held to the same legal standard as other incredibly fucking stupid people. But to assert that they are “cackling over the fallen cyclist” is a gross misrepresentation of the video.
Your intrpretation is 100% wrong. They were filming for a reason. The reason was to see their buddy knock someone off a bike, not to just see their buddy open a car door. The “oh shit” was because asshole slipped and overextended himself when he went to hit the bike rider causing him to lose control and stick the landing. Looks like he probably would have fallen out of the car even if the other vehicle wasn’t there. His buddys saw him start to fall out of the car and said “oh shit”.
No. Using the actual footage from the website and then the time-coding from the slowed down version of the footage you’ll notice the following chain of events:
The door is hanging open from the first frame, not suddenly opened prior to striking the cyclist. The idea that the driver just swirved towards the cyclist as a joke is completely unsupported by any evidence available to us, and at any rate doesn’t explain why the person didn’t close the door upon the vehicle swerving.
There’s no evidence of car-surfing, either, which involves standing upon a car while moving (a display of what I would term tragic as opposed to sociopathic stupidity).
The man to fall out of the car doesn’t slide at all, I don’t know where you’re getting that from.
His friends only freak out as soon as their friend falls out the door, not because of the cyclist. In other words, they seem to care that their friend has face-planted into a stopped car but couldn’t give a damn about the cyclist they were trying to do the exact same to.
Not at all. Threemaenailed it. These idiots were homocidal at the worst and sociopathic at best. KGS go back and look at the video again. Pause the video as soon as it starts. Look out the window of the car at the distance between the car and the left side curb. Unless this was filmed in England there is no way you can say that that car was in its own lane. These induhviduals were out to knock a kid (again look at the video) off his bike. Had the kid on the bike been killed, I believe that this video would be proof of premeditation, and could have been used to support a first degree murder conviciton.
Instead of that it seems that a bearded English gentleman admistered a little instant karma.
I remember finding this soon after it originally posted. I can’t recall the site, but due to the nature of the negative comments the poster (someone in the car) came back on to defend their actions. A lively dialog ensued over the next weeks (?).
From what I remember the facts are:
The boys in the car were out to do this on purpose (hitting bikers).
The other car was parked.
Filming it for the purpose of uploading it to the net.
The poster claimed that the idiot who got hurt knew the biker.
The idiot lived but had major facial reconstruction.
Normally I don’t believe anything I read on the internet but the comments were by the same person who uploaded the video and he seemed to be sincere.
And, yes, I said he defended his actions. Of course, this was the same person who
thought hurting someone was funny and putting a video of it up was a good idea.
Well, if what you say is true, then obviously that changes everything.
It doesn’t mean they were actively trying to KILL the biker, though. (Which, it seems, people like threemae are suggesting.) We shouldn’t throw around words like “homicidal” and “sociopathic”, when the words “incredibly stupid” will suffice. (And aren’t all teenagers borderline sociopathic anyway??)