Extreme sports have gotten a little, well, extreme as of late. Video games showed a hyper-reality that's now being duplicated in the real world. With the advent of foam pits and foam resi ramps to try new tricks safely, trick progression in skateboard and bmx is moving very fast. While foam practice areas let riders do some pretty amazing stuff, when things go wrong over plywood, they're going really wrong. Witness a double-backflip crash that resulted in broken bones and teeth, Stephen Murray's crash that resulted in paralysis from the neck down, or last night's incredible X games freefall from fifty feet up to flat ground (Jake Brown walked away and only suffered minor internal injuries).
posted by mathowie on Aug 3, 2007 - 72 comments

Deaths from international terrorism compared with road crash deaths in OECD countries (Abstract). In a study published in the Journal Injury Prevention, researchers found that people in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries are 390 times more likely to die in car crashes than in terrorist attacks. The conclusion of the Brief Report (PDF): "Policy makers need to be aware of this when allocating resources to preventing these two avoidable causes of mortality."
posted by mmahaffie on Dec 2, 2005 - 40 comments

Crashed Cars of Kuwait With a 120kph (75mph) highway speed limit, an 80kph (50mph) urban speed limit, a lot of expensive high performance cars, next to no law enforcement, driving in Kuwait can be a little, err, exciting. Psycho Milt, a New Zealander working in Kuwait, has a substantial and ever-growing flickr photoset of crashed cars he's snapped on his daily commute.
posted by noizyboy on Aug 30, 2005 - 19 comments

Ever wonder what it's like? Do you hit the brakes, swerve left, swerve right? If it's never happened to you, take a look at this and see just how fast it all happens. Talk about "in the blink of an eye".... WOW.
(.wmv file... and possibly not safe for the squeemish.)
posted by Witty on Dec 3, 2003 - 80 comments

1.26 million people killed every year on the road or from subsequent injuries... ..Four Qld road deaths in 5 hours. 42,815 people died in 2002 in automobile crashes in the United States. Shouldn't these facts give us the resolve to explore a better solution to our transportation needs? I do not see the national debate that these deaths would evoke if the cause was different. Why are we numb to this?
posted by JohnR on Nov 24, 2003 - 76 comments

Boy, 7, charged after crashing dad's car. Nothing beats good old Florida justice. Enough said.
posted by wackybrit on Feb 18, 2002 - 16 comments

Small plane crashes into Florida bank tower Small non-commercial plane crashes into a Bank of America tower in downtown Tampa. Followed (chased) by a coast-guard helicopter.
posted by antimarx on Jan 5, 2002 - 39 comments

Plane crashes in Mexico, killing 19. Despite a few early misleading reports, foul play is NOT suspected.
posted by bargle on Sep 13, 2001 - 2 comments

Singapore Airlines Flight 006 Survivors Report. A rather gripping account of the crash here last night. Hard to believe that they would have a plane taking off in the middle of a typhoon but hey "we do this all the time; it's fine."
posted by cmacleod on Oct 31, 2000 - 2 comments