# Uncle Chuck strikes again (Darwin award nominee) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 7, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uncle-chuck-strikes-again-darwin-award-nominee/166995 "2003-04-07T04:05:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SweetLucy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@SweetLucy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetLucy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uncle-chuck-strikes-again-darwin-award-nominee/166995/1 "2003-04-07T04:05:59Z")
Just overheard on the TV news that the freeway was shut down, both directions, due to some stupid shit-for-brains asshat TRYING TO USE THE DAMN MEDIAN TO PASS A SEMI!!! The Einstein wannabe died (surprise, surprise) in what has to be further proof of survival of the fittest. And speaking of stupidity, I normally hate to second-guess the police but the cops here shut down the freeway for hours every time there’s a fender-bender! Don’t they have anything better to do? :wally ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uncle-chuck-strikes-again-darwin-award-nominee/166995/2 "2003-04-07T04:13:24Z")
Explain to the foreign and/or stupid what a Median and a Semi is. ---
**Author:** ![SweetLucy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@SweetLucy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetLucy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uncle-chuck-strikes-again-darwin-award-nominee/166995/3 "2003-04-07T04:18:50Z")
Sorry…🙂 the median is the center dividing strip on a freeway or multi-lane road. Sometimes it’s concrete or a barrier-type divider, and other times (like in this case) it’s grass or dirt. “Semi” is American slang for a tractor-trailer truck. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uncle-chuck-strikes-again-darwin-award-nominee/166995/4 "2003-04-07T04:20:25Z")
I’ll chip in here. Median: The strip of grass that separates the two sides of a divided highway. These often include concrete barriers. Semi: Also called a tractor-trailer. A big cargo truck. (Is that a lorry in the UK?) I’m taking a class in dialects right now, these little intricacies of the language never cease to amaze me. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uncle-chuck-strikes-again-darwin-award-nominee/166995/5 "2003-04-07T04:21:04Z")
Seriously? A freeway is a limited-access road, similar to the autobahn in Germany, and the median is the large unpaved area in the middle, between the this-a-way traffic and the that-a-way traffic. A “semi” is a semi-trailer rig; an enormous trailer with no wheels in front (thus “semi”), hauled by a tractor with extra wheels in the back (to support the front of the trailer). AKA an “eighteen-wheeler.” Basically, what probably happened is that an impatient driver tried to pass a truck by pulling off the road; he lost control, got himself killed, and probably scattered bits of himself, his car, and several other cars all over the road. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uncle-chuck-strikes-again-darwin-award-nominee/166995/6 "2003-04-07T04:22:29Z")
I really should use preview. Sorry for the simulpost. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uncle-chuck-strikes-again-darwin-award-nominee/166995/7 "2003-04-07T13:55:12Z")
semi = articulated lorry (hope I got that right, it’s been quite a few years)