If there is a way to kill yourself someone will find it.  As hard as I try I can’t really come up with a plausible scenario as to how it might have been done.  But since the guy obviously did it it must be possible.  I’m thinking my imagination just doesn’t have the scope required to visualize the inherent stupidity and possible clumsiness in this case.

I would imagine that he probably jerked the steering wheel when jumping and/or got snagged on something and didn’t get out far enough.  Even if he didn’t snag, it’s not easy to land out of a moving vehicle and keep your feet.  He easily could have stumbled and, if the steering wheel got jerked as he jumped, run over him.

ETA: And the guy in outeast’s video is an idiot but at leat he was wearing a helmet.  (And probably other safety gear, though it’s next to impossible to tell for sure.)

I can sort of visualise him somehow falling over backwards and rolling and getting his head run over by the back tires.  Sort of.  But I can’t really think of anything involving the front tires that doesn’t require both ninja-like flying abilities and complete utter gracelessness simultaneously.

Tah - 23 April 2008 08:52 PM

. . .it’s not easy to land out of a moving vehicle and keep your feet.

Nor do you want to keep your feet if you jump from a moving vehicle that’s going at any real speed, unless you’re fond of broken legs or ruined knees and ankles.

Accipiter - 23 April 2008 11:57 PM

Tah - 23 April 2008 08:52 PM

. . .it’s not easy to land out of a moving vehicle and keep your feet.

Nor do you want to keep your feet if you jump from a moving vehicle that’s going at any real speed, unless you’re fond of broken legs or ruined knees and ankles.

True.  I worded that badly.  I really meant it more as being able to control your way out of the vehicle.  If it’s going slow enough, jumping out and running and continuing to run (not easy and it needs to be going quite slowly) or jumping and rolling.  Both of which would be even more difficult if he somehow got snagged on the vehicle and got pulled backward toward it.

Here’s another man’s-head-run-over report, but with some alleged surprising consequences.

A Czech speedway rider was knocked unconscious during a rce and woke up speaking perfect English. The 18-year-old said he could barely utter a word of English before he crashed his bike and another rider drove over his head. Then he lost his memory for 48 hours and as soon as it returned, he lost his ability to converse in English. Doctors report he suffered from an extremely rare Foreign Accent Syndrome — caused by a blow to the head that damages the parts of the brain that control speech. – Road & Track, May 2008, p.38

I don’t get this.  How could brain damage create knowledge and/or skills that weren’t there?  Remove? Sure.  Impair?  Sure.  But create?