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The Darwin Award - The fictional award commemorates those who do the gene pool a favor by removing themselves from it in very idiotic ways. It is derived from Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution (survival of the fittest) as most winners do not survive long enough to further their own heredity. (Photo: CC BY 2.0)

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Slippery slope - In 2001, a man was driving a group of friends back from the mountains when he felt his brakes fail.

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Slippery slope - Without telling his friends, he leaped from the moving van to save himself as it approached a cliff edge.

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Slippery slope - Thankfully one of his friends was able to move into the front seat and stop the van before it went over the edge. They found the driver dead on the pavement where he had hit his head. Nobody else was hurt.

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Grand Canyon disaster - In 2000, a man was visiting the Grand Canyon when he noticed a scattering of coins on the other side of a guard rail where people traditionally throw them as a sort of rocky, waterless wishing well.

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Grand Canyon disaster - Thinking he could make a little cash off of collecting the coins, he hopped over and starting picking them up. It was only when he went to climb back over the rail that he lost his balance and fell backwards into the canyon.

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Deadly ride - An 18-year-old man was playing a game with his friends in which they tied a shopping cart to a tree and then rode it down a dock into a lake.

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Deadly ride - When it was his turn, he tied himself to the shopping cart instead of tying the cart to the tree and rode it into the lake. He got stuck in the cart when it sank and ended up drowning.

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Well that escalated quickly... - In 2009, a woman got in a fight with her boyfriend as he was driving down the interstate.

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Well that escalated quickly... - She jokingly opened her car door and stuck her foot out, saying that she would rather walk than ride with him. That was when she accidentally fell out of the moving vehicle and died.

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Staged accident - In 2009, a Minnesota man decided to stage a car accident so he could be taken to the hospital and receive pain medication.

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Staged accident - His plan was great in theory but when he put it into action, he ended up killing himself in the crash.

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A really good night's sleep - During a flood in Louisiana, a woman decided it would be fun to go for a mattress ride through the flooded streets.

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A really good night's sleep - Unfortunately the mattress became bogged down with water and dragged her under, effectively drowning her.

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Forest fatality - In 2009, an army major set up camp for the night in a forest in Louisiana.

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Forest fatality - The problem was that he bunkered down to sleep in the middle of a road and got run over by a car.

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Thirst quencher - In 2012, a North Carolina man decided to take a drink out of a jar sitting on the table that contained a yellow liquid.

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Thirst quencher - He soon discovered that he had taken a gulp of gasoline and spit it out all over himself. Then he decided to light a cigarette, and ended up blowing himself up.

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Deadly protest - A New York man was riding his motorcycle without a helmet in an attempt to protest having to wear one.

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Deadly protest - Unsurprisingly, he hit an obstacle in the road and flipped over the handlebars, smacking his head on the pavement. If he had been wearing a helmet, he most likely would have lived.

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Race car confrontation - During a car race, one driver collided with another. The enraged driver stopped his car during the middle of the race to get out and confront the guy who had bumped into him.

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Race car confrontation - The anger must have temporarily clouded the driver's thinking, because when he crossed the track, he ended up getting hit and killed by one of the other cars still in the race.

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Elevator angst - A Florida man was impatient while waiting for the elevator and decided to force the doors open and slide down the cables.

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Elevator angst - He lost his grip, however, and fell seven floors, breaking his neck on impact.

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Vodka surprise - An employee at a car wash was detailing a car when he found a vodka bottle underneath the front seat containing a blue liquid.

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Vodka surprise - He found nothing wrong with the taste and kept the bottle, slowly drinking the contents over the following days. It turns out that the liquid was glass cleaner and he died of methanol poisoning soon after.

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Fatal robbery - In 2009, two men robbed a Sprint store in South Carolina. One man spray painted his face with gold graffiti paint as a disguise.

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Fatal robbery - The fumes from the spray paint evoked extreme wheezing and he died from respiratory issues.

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Barrel ride - A group of friends dumped methanol into a 55-gallon drum and then sat on top.

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Barrel ride - One of the guys lit the bunghole like a fuse in an attempt to go for a ride across the parking lot. It ended up backfiring and all of them were blown up.

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Robbery gone wrong - In Tucson, AZ, a man was found mummified underneath a manhole cover.

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Robbery gone wrong - He had bolt cutters in his hand that were still attached to the copper wire he had been trying to clip and steal. He didn't realize that electricity was running through it.

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