In a week when I persuaded leading wine merchant, Corney & Barrow, to sponsor my blawg to the tune of providing Rioja to winners of my caption competitions, I did think that I might write about wine - but fear, that while I shift a fair bit of it, I would be rumbled on technical details. So... Thanks to Corney & Barrow - I am drinking a fine Rioja from my 'collection' as I write, but, given that I have not been sacked as a contributor yet, I have decided to write about accidents and a few other matters which may occur to me as I progress through the early evening.
Accidents... I've had a few... too few to mention. In fact, over my 50 years on this earth, I have broken most of the bones in my body - but, so far, I have not been able to take myself out of contention for contributing to the gene pool, by wiping myself out - a theme to which I shall return with a brief look at the Darwin Awards later.
Despite criticism from Lord Hutton, the various political parties and others, the BBC still has me as a listener and occasional viewer. Perhaps it is because I like to imagine that the radio newscasters are actually wearing dinner jackets as they cast the news to our wireless sets? So.. my first port of call was to the BBC website to see if they had reported recently on 'unusual accidents'. They had.
I had no idea that "22 people suffered from exposure to ignition or melting of nightwear, most of them men." Smoking or bizarre practices with electric blankets or electrical devices? We are not told.
1,839 people - 78% of them children - fell out of trees. Children climb trees. It is good for them. Who were the other 22%? I know that rockstars fall out of trees occasionally but it is inconceivable that they make up the rest . Skiing and ice skating, not surprisingly, accounted for over 4000 accidents - but what was going on here?...and I quote from the BBC report: "One child was admitted to hospital after "prolonged stay in a weightless environment". He or she did not stay overnight. There are no further details about who this person was or how they had come to need treatment."
I discovered from RollonFriday, some weeks ago, that injurylawyers4u had won an award. I quote from the RollonFriday story: “InjuryLawyers4U has been awarded the dubious honour of foisting the “Most Irritating Advert of 2006″ on an unsuspecting public last year.
The award is decided each year by the media trade mag Marketing. The InjuryLawyers4U ad featured a cross examination in court with both witnesses and lawyers earnestly mentioning “InjuryLawyers4U” as many times as they could. With a whopping 57% of the vote the ad saw off strong competition from the likes of Cillit Bang and Kerry Katona’s efforts for Iceland.“
And so... I move on to The Darwin Awards. I suspect that many of you reading this journal will be familiar with the skill employed by people to do astonishingly stupid things which result in injury or death - but, there are a few 2006 examples which defy comprehension. For those of you not familiar with The Darwin Awards - this is the rubric: "Honoring those who improve the species by accidentally removing themselves from it,... thereby ensuring that the next generation is one idiot smarter."
Here is a contender from Brazil...well, he was from Brazil: "August 2006 brings us a winner from Brazil, who tried to disassemble a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) by driving back and forth over it with a car. This technique was ineffective, so he escalated to pounding the RPG with a sledgehammer. The second try worked - in a sense. The explosion proved fatal to one man, six cars, and the repair shop wherein the efforts took place."
Curiously, lawyers do not always behave with measured judgement and common sense. This 1996 award is truly astonishing: (1996, Toronto) Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane of glass with his shoulder and plunged twenty-four floors to his death. A police spokesman said Garry, thirty-nine, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower as he was explaining the strength of the building's windows to visiting law students. Garry had previously conducted the demonstration of window strength without mishap, according to police reports. The managing partner of the law firm that employed the deceased told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Garry was "one of the best and brightest" members of the two-hundred-man association."
One could go on... but, probably best to move on, before I turn into Dennis Norden.
I am grateful to Dan Hull - a US lawyer who writes a lot of sense on his "What about clients?" blog - for reminding me of the words of Zeus from The Odyssey - a useful sign off for this month's column:
"Ah how shameless - the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes, but they themselves, with their own reckless ways, compound their pains beyond their proper share".
Dan Hull's blog: What about clients? is worth looking at if you are interested in service to clients.
a piu tarde
Charon
Charon QC...the blawg
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