Destroyed in Seconds

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Destroyed In Seconds
Destroyed in Seconds title.jpg
Presented byRon Pitts
Narrated byRon Pitts (Phil Parry UK version)
ComposersDavid Vanacore
(Vanacore Music)
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons2[1]
No. of episodes(list of episodes)
Production
Running time30 minutes
Production companyPilgrim Films & Television
Release
Original networkDiscovery Channel
Discovery HD
Original release21 August 2008 (2008-08-21) –
23 March 2009 (2009-03-23)
External links
Website

Destroyed in Seconds is a half-hour American television series that aired on Discovery Channel. Hosted by Ron Pitts, it features video segments of various things being destroyed fairly quickly (hence, "in seconds") such as planes crashing, explosions, sinkholes, boats crashing, fires, race car incidents, floods, factories, etc. The nature of the show closely resembles Real TV. The show uses real video of real events, and commentary explaining the destruction portrayed. Most videos have stock sound effects added. Some of the events seen resulted in fatalities, and all of the events have property damage.

Format[]

At the beginning of each episode, a compilation of all the incidents featured in that episode will play (though not in order), with Pitts narrating, "Without so much as a warning, life hangs in the balance. Human endeavour turns to chaos. And within seconds, nothing will ever be the same. Ever." On rare occasions, one incident will be left out of the opening compilation due to restricted space. That was the case for the Wichita City Hall drive-thru, which was not featured in the intro of episode 49. After the compilation, Pitts will describe two of the incidents that happen in the episode in one-liners. Each intro ends off with the phrase, "destroyed in seconds" before the show's main intro plays and the first incident in the episode. For example, episode 45's intro goes like this: "I'm Ron Pitts. Our team leaves no stone unturned in our search for destruction. In Italy, a Le Mans racer comes within inches of another car, as it cartwheels across the track. A military helicopter loses power and slices through the deck of a naval destroyer. A split second is all it takes for things to get destroyed in seconds. "

Each episode usually features eight or nine incidents, with a bonus incident at the end that is not part of the episode, but was lumped in by the crew for fun. The bonus clip usually involves car crashes or military disasters. At the beginning of each video shown, Pitts says the place, sometimes the time and date of the incident. Pitts will then explain the background of the incident (e.g. Racing competitions, industrial disasters), then the moment of the incident and what caused it. In the later episodes of the show, the location is sometimes not stated. This is likely because to give viewers an impression that the incident could have happened anywhere – across the globe or right down the street. Unlike Shockwave and World's Most Amazing Videos, there are no interviewees to talk about what happened in that incident. The incidents featured in the whole series happened before or during 2009, as the show was cancelled in 2010. At the end of each episode, Pitts ends off with a few words before the credits roll. The end credits usually review all the incidents that happened in the episode in order.

Usually, if a destruction is horrible, very dangerous, heart-stopping, or results in many injuries, the show usually goes into commercial either right at the moment of impact, right before it, or a little afterwards(for example, Jack Bland's brutal crash at Hagerstown in episode 8). When the show starts again, it reviews what happened and then explains what started the incident.

Episodes[]

Season 1 completed on March 23, 2009, and Season 2 in 2010. This is a list of Destroyed in Seconds episodes for Season 1 and 2:

Episode No. First broadcast date Description
01 21 Aug 2008
  • Chesapeake Bay 9/30/81 – A US Navy Douglas A-4 Skyhawk crashes during a bomb test.
  • Portland, OR – Two men attempt to save their lives, by outrunning a large mudslide.
  • Nicaragua 11/4/02 – Eric Barone tries to set a land speed record on a volcano. His bike broke in two when it hits a bump, tumbling Eric down the volcano.
  • 5/12/02 A Danish windmill goes out of control and rips apart.
  • Iran 1980 – Operation Credible Sport ends in a Lockheed C-130 Hercules crash.
  • Parkersburg, Iowa 5/22/08 – A tornado hits a bank.
  • – Cars are sent into the air by a tornado that hits a parking lot.
  • Milwaukee, Wisconsin 4/11/89 – A Sikorsky S-58ET N4247U (November 4247 Uniform) operated by Midwest Helicopters crashes due to a failed coupling on the tail rotor, after carrying an old and faulty air conditioner from a roof.
  • Bristol, VA 4/15/08 – A tanker truck fire is caught on tape by a police dashboard camera.
02 21 Aug 2008
  • Bakersfield, CA – Speedboat racer Gary Ewing hits the shore, flies over a hill, and onto a road. He escapes just before the boat hits land.
  • Puget Sound, WA 7/11/40 – Footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsing, killing a dog.
  • Thorold, Ontario 8/11/01 – MS Windoc crashes into a canal bridge, and catches fire, leading to an explosion. Thankfully, no one is killed.
  • Okinawa, Japan 20/8/07 – China Airlines Flight 120 catches fire on the tarmac and has to be evacuated.
  • Zambramnya, Iraq – An Al-Qaeda torture compound is blown up by a US missile strike.
  • Guam – A B-2 Bomber crashes on takeoff and is destroyed.
  • Texas – A tornado rips the entire foundation off a house, like The Wizard of Oz; and has damaging hail. The next season, Stormchaser Alex Tyler builds screens for his car to protect his team from hail, but the F5 drops softball-sized hail on them. A downed power line traps him with the F5 closing in, but able to escape. Despite all the protections, it still almost breaks the windows.
  • Kırıkkale, Turkey 29/8/97 – A munitions factory is blown up by terrorists and is completely leveled.
03 28 Aug 2008
  • Oxnard, CA 2/14/05 – An Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train hits an 18-wheeler because of a faulty traffic signal.
  • Iksan, South Korea – A fire starts at a propane filling station.
  • Mountain Home, ID 9/14/03 – Thunderbirds pilot crashes at an airshow, evading death 1/8 of a second of it crashing.
  • Middle River, MD 9/14/97 – A F-117 stealth fighter crashes.
  • Henderson, NV 5/4/88 – The PEPCON disaster.
  • Manila, Philippines – An 8-story department-store comes off its foundations, and crashes into a nearby , but no one is killed.
  • Chouteau, Oklahoma; San Diego, California - David Ferguson crashes his speedboat twice.
  • St George, Utah 1/05 – The Santa Clara River overflows, and destroys several houses.
04 4 Sep 2008
  • Taiwan 7/8/95 – A styrene tanker truck explodes.
  • Cape Canaveral, FL 1/17/97– A Delta II 7925 explodes because of a 19-foot-long crack.
  • Thailand – A 40" mock cigarette made from hydrogen-filled balloons at a mock funeral on World No Tobacco Day goes up in flames.
  • Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia 8/8/05 – A climbing expedition's helicopter crashes into the ice from engine problems.
  • Moreton Island, Queensland 11/8/97 – The Enterprise freighter is sunk to make a reef, but causes injuries.
  • Fullerton, CA – The plane crash.
  • Assisi, Italy 9/26/97 – An earthquake destroys St. Francis Church.
  • Oklahoma – A tornado devastates most of a pig farm's buildings. Two years earlier in Oklahoma, a smaller tornado hits the .
  • Hawaii 9/11/92 – Hurricane Iniki.
05 18 Sep 2008
  • Dallas, TX – An acetylene factory fire launches tanks onto the road.
  • Prince George, British Columbia – At the Sandblast Games downhill race a couch crashes with 3 people. The crash ends the Sandblast Games.
  • New Providence, IA – A new water tower collapses.
  • Murdock, IL 9/3/83 – A railway car with gas derails and burns for 3 days, causing two massive explosions.
  • Phoenix, AZ – Stolen dump truck chase, ending in a crash.
  • Wailua, HI – A helicopter crashes on a ditch. Tiny manages to lift the helicopter off Steve.
  • Mexico City, Mexico – A tanker truck explodes after hitting a train.
  • Mojave Desert 7/12/98 – Ron Cook tries to set a speed record on his motorcycle, but wipes out, however, surviving the crash at 200 mph.
  • Nagasaki, Japan – A typhoon blows a building past a hotel where a travelling English folk-dance team is staying.
06 25 Sep 2008
  • Amsterdam, New York 4/27/02 – The fire department trains to set an old house on fire. It explodes, because the fuel was soaked into the wood.
  • Weatherford, TX 10/8/05 – A Police chase ends in a 120 mph head-on crash.
  • Plymouth, England – The King of Shaves speedboat crashes.
  • Three Rivers, TX 8/25/90 – Gas dire tank explosion.
  • Tainan, Taiwan – A rescue-training helicopter crashes into water during a rescue training exercise.
  • 1970s nuclear flask crash test footage.
  • La Paz, Bolivia – Domestic call with a rigged propane trap that blows the house up around police.
  • England 1998 – A fireworks factory catches on fire and fireworks shoot out. No one was injured.
  • Sevastopol, Ukraine 7/10/06 – Tupolev Tu-134 05 crashes on takeoff because of a bird that went into the engine.
07 2 Oct 2008
  • UK 7/24/93 – At an airshow a pair of MIG-29s collide at the Royal International Air Tattoo.
  • Chandler, AZ 2/24/85 – Speedboat racer Sonny Moon crashes into a shore and flies onto powerlines.
  • Manchester, England 6/15/96 – 1996 Manchester bombing a van loaded with 3,300 pounds of explosives is detonated at the Arndale centre in the center of town by the Irish Republican Army.
  • Florence, OR 11/12/70 – Paul Linman reports on the blowing up of a whale carcass, but ends up finding huge pieces of whale, even crushing a vehicle, but no one was in at that time. They are ultimately forced to go with Plan B: move the whale into a trench.
  • St. Paul, MN – I-94 van fire BLEVE explosion fireballs across traffic.
  • Caruso Gorge, CA – Miles Todd mountain bikes and falls 150 feet down a cliff, resulting in serious injuries.
  • NASA 1984 – Boeing airplane crash test.
  • Las Vegas, NV January 1, 1968 – Evel Knievel's fountain crash. Wembley, England – Evel Knievel's 13-bus jump crash.
  • Albuquerque, NM – A hot air balloon in the shape of Smokey Bear hits a radio tower.
08 9 Oct 2008
  • Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 4/6/91 – terrorists blow up an ammo depot killing over 100 with several explosions.
  • Hagerstown, MD – during a race Jack Bland is bumped into a corner guard rail and badly wrecked.
  • Paris, France – 6/8/89 airshow Russian MIG crash Paris Air Show.
  • San Francisco, CA 12/12/95 – a mansion is swallowed up by a sinkhole caused by a sewer break.
  • Wilkesboro, NC – an SUV crashes through a diner knocking a man into the counter.
  • Granby, CO 6/4/04 – Marvin Heemeyer in the Killdozer.
  • TX 5/5/00 – a cop pulls over a woman and warns her to stand back so she doesn't get hit, then her car gets hit with a van which seemingly defies the laws of physics by not flipping over.
  • Texas City, TX 4/16/47 – The Texas City Disaster.
09 16 Oct 2008
  • Fairfield, UT – a British helicopter does a loop at an airshow and crashes.
  • Swedish Air Force 2/2/89 Saab JAS 39 Gripen test flight crashes on landing and rolls. Four years later in Stockholm 8/8/93, the same pilot is at an airshow in the same type of plane and it crashes and explodes.
  • Dakota Co. MN 7/11/08 – a cop stops a mini van, suspecting the driver of drinking and driving simultaneously, and an SUV, carrying the real drunk driver, smashes into it and flips over.
  • Sacramento, CA – during a jet car race 's chute fails to open, he crashes and explodes in front of . He was in recovery for 2 years, but abandons his jet car race career.
  • Perris, CA 1983 – skydivers try to set a record and their DC3 catches fire on takeoff.
  • Marshall Islands 1954 – Castle Bravo atomic bomb test explosion is 62 miles wide and leaves a 1.2-mile crater, larger than expected and destroys the testing facility.
  • Comoros Islands 11/23/96– a hijacked Ethiopian plane crashes into the ocean by a resort, killing many.
  • Kīlauea, HI 1986 – a lava flow takes out the town.
10 23 Oct 2008
  • Kolding, Denmark 11/3/04 – Seest fireworks disaster.
  • International Hot Boat Race – Dave Promnitz crashes.
  • Norway – Hans Lange jumps from a cliff in a wingsuit and gets stuck 20 feet up in a tree.
  • Milwaukee, WI – Brewer's Stadium crane collapses which was building the new roof, killing 3 and construction is delayed a year.
  • Morrisburg, Ontario 9/25/76 – Ken Carter rocket car jump.
  • Poland – a dance troupe's tour bus is hit by an F1 tornado.
  • Albuquerque, NM 10/8/84 – hot air balloon hits powerlines and explodes sending the basket along with the pilot and passenger to the ground.
  • Guam 8/92 – Typhoon Omar.
11 30 Oct 2008
  • San Diego, CA 5/17/95 – Shawn Nelson's road rampage with a 57-tonne M60 Patton tank.
  • Gërdec, Albania – 90,000 tons of ammunition explode causing chaos.
  • Melbourne, Victoria – at a drag race crashes into Darren Carter.
  • Lakehurst, NJ 1937 – The Hindenburg disaster.
  • Lakehurst Heliostat crash.
  • Mexico – soap opera star helicopter crash during a stunt.
  • Taiwan 3/31/02 – two cranes fall 56 stories from Taipei 101 during an earthquake ( [zh]).
  • Imperial Sand Dunes, CA – Trevor Thomas does a double jump with his quad ATV crashing into another ATV.
  • Salinas, CA 10/3/99 – Wayne Handley crashes his plane into the ground at an airshow.
12 6 Nov 2008
  • , FL – Hank Hogan wipes out his speedboat at 140 mph and is thrown across the water.
  • Russia 10/5/91 – a Soviet Yakovlev Yak-141 fighter prototype plane explodes when landing on a carrier. A year later in Russia, two Russian Yakovlev Yak-38 VTOL fighters hover over a runway and 1 crashes.
  • Salt Lake City, UT 12/13/03 – a van hits ice and crashes into the median, a band coming in the other direction crashes into it and their equipment goes flying.
  • Ukraine – a sinkhole eats 144 apartments.
  • , MI – a plane crashes into a lake and fishermen rescue the passengers.
  • Jacksonville, FL 2007 – T2 Laboratories explodes in a massive fireball.
  • Lake Michigan – during a search, a boat not looking crashes into a Coast Guard Cutter and after have no idea what happened.
  • Antelope Valley, CA 1/19/1995 – NASA Rockwell-MBB X-31 goes out of control and crashes.
13 11 Dec 2008
  • Santiago, Chile – industrial plastics factory fire spews shrapnel.
  • Ridger – Nick Baldwin & Mike Nugent film their skiing and start an avalanche that buries them.
  • Isle of Man – The 2003 Isle of Man TT. Richard "Milky" Quayle smashes into a wall at 160 mph and survives.
  • St. Petersburg, Russia – 9-story apartment building fire and building collapse.
  • Phoenix, AZ – Kevin Eldridge bails out of his burning Corsair during a race. As his bails out, he's hit by the plane's horizontal stabilizer, breaking his right arm and a vertebra in his neck.
  • Los Angeles – Southern I-405 A chain of accidents filmed by Paul Anderic.
  • Cape Canaveral, FL 8/12/98 – Titan IV rocket goes off course and is blown up.
  • Arches National Park, UT – SUV coming down Lion's Back rock crashes off the side.
  • Nantucket Island 12/92 – A Nor'easter storm rips a house away.
14 18 Dec 2008
  • Calder Park Raceway, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia – Graeme O'Brien's stock car crashes and flips 14 times.
  • British Columbia, Canada – snowmobile hill climb 's crash.
  • Oleiros, Spain – launches a paper balloon that catches fire.
  • – during a high school football game a gyroplane crashes into bystanders.
  • Oklahoma City, OK 3/21/02 – Fire at a motel.
  • Sacramento, CA – DJ Reid's 68 Camaro is driven by Greg into a wall at 100 mph.
  • Fort Hall, ID 10/4/05 – cops set up spikes and a fleeing van crashes into a police car trying to miss them.
  • Belfast, Northern Ireland 9/6/86 – 70-year-old pilot Ken Wallis crashes a gyrocopter.
  • Kingsbury County, SD 6/03 – Reed Timmer and friends film an F4 tornado forming. They get dangerously close, and one of the guys panics. Then, the tornado changes direction and heads straight for the team. They desperately back up and watch as the tornado destroys homes by the 260 mph winds.
15 5 Jan 2009
  • Chicago, IL – a 110-car freight train smashes into an 18-wheeler.
  • Del Mar, CA 7/4/01 – Bubba Blackwell motorcycle jump ends badly.
  • Bakersfield, CA – Bill Burch 1941 drag race crash.
  • Paris, TX – a four-story furniture warehouse collapses in a fire.
  • Mount Hood, OR – a helicopter crashes on a mountain top after rescuing trapped climbers.
  • Surat, India – a large building falls off its foundation into the street.
  • Maple Heights, OH – methane gas line explodes into a fire.
  • Wentworth Valley, Nova Scotia 1/94 – the Dix house is carried off in a flood crashes into the Wallace bridge.
  • Wilmington, NC – a crew putting up a civil war monument tips their crane over into powerlines.
16 12 Jan 2009
  • Mexico – Baja 500 run – saboteurs make a hole in the course and a white truck hits it and is launched and flips.
  • Denver, CO – window-washing platform smashes into a building, breaks and strands 2 men who have to be rescued by firemen.
  • Huntington Beach, CA – Paul "Flush" Fernandez gets pulled by a truck while on a bike to take a onto the roof of a house and hits the side of it.
  • Florida 8/13/04 – Hurricane Charley hits Punta Gorda.
  • Schenectady, NY Airshow 8/4/91 – Canadian Sea King shopper crashes.
  • France – Explosions follow a commuter train that crashes into a propane truck.
  • Chicago, IL – black ice causes an accident and a police car on scene is smashed by a DWI.
  • Rockford, IL – trailer crash racing.
17 26 Jan 2009
  • St. Augustine, FL – A jet dryer catches fire and exposes firemen to a barrage of devastating explosions.
  • Buffalo Grove, IL – An elderly man is pulled over by a cop for speeding. After some negotiations, the man is given the all-clear. He hops back in his car, only to accidentally reverse into the police car.
  • Willowbank Raceway, Queensland, Australia – Phil Lamattina's top fuel dragster is going at full throttle. Suddenly, it snaps in half, then tumbles down the track in flames.
  • Belfast, Northern Ireland – A Harland and Wolff crane topples, narrowly missing workers.
  • Daegu, South Korea – A truck carrying warheads catches fire in a tunnel. Everyone evacuates, then the warheads explode and send cars sliding down the tunnel due to the explosive force.
  • Hagerstown, Maryland – Jake Johnson wipes out during a Harley Davidson motorcycle race, then Brian Smith crashes into the wrecked bike and his body went flying.
  • Gulf of Tonkin – The 1967 USS Forrestal fire. When an electrical fault launches a Zuni rocket into a jet, an explosion engulfs the carrier. Military personnel struggle to put the fire out, and one after another planes and warheads explode causing a massive chain-reaction. Burning debris rains down on soldiers causing mass panic. One hundred and thirty-four are killed.
  • Lowestoft, England – During an airshow, a Harrier jump jet loses power and the pilot ejects seconds before it slams into the sea.
  • Odda, Norway 1993 – A historic village is buried by an avalanche. No one is killed.
18 26 Jan 2009
  • Las Vegas, NV - At Pro Flame, a propane plant truck unloading starts a fire, then the fire spreads to the neighboring Amerigas plant. Explosions semd fire 150 feet in the air. The fire burns for 21 hours, the tanks blew everywhere and caused $4–5 million in damage.
  • Woodward, IA 11/12/05 - A man films an F2 tornado coming right at his house, it hits his neighbor's house, goes by his house and takes out the house behind him. They run over and a woman and her dog are inside and need help.
  • Hollister, CA - Paul and his friends go onroading and up Truck Hill. Halfway up he loses control, goes backwards and flips over 3 times. His friends think he's dead, but all 4 of them are able to walk out. Paul's $7,000 truck is a total loss.
  • Burke County, NC 7/24/98 - A huge traffic jam causes cars to use an on ramp to get off the highway. A tanker truck hits a bridge, it catches fire and the steel bridge collapses on the truck and it explodes, killing the driver. But no other motorists are injured.
  • Marble Falls, TX - Lakefest Nationals dragboat racing. Todd Haas wins the race, then loses it, flips over, bounces and shreds apart. He is fished out of the capsule and is OK.
  • Moscow, Russia 2005 - In the Lefortovo Tunnel under the river, there is ice from a ceiling leak and a jointed bus wipes out, fishtails and hits the wall. A blue car hits the wall and flips over then a box truck smashes into another box truck that seemingly appears out of nowhere.
  • Twin Falls, ID 7/99 - "Flying" Mike Brown (36) does a jump over flatbed trailers in grass where he loses traction and hits the ramp, but doesn't make it and goes off his bike and under the bottom trailer. He's is in a coma for 5 weeks and retires from jumping.
  • San Francisco, Ca - The fishing boat Contender takes on water and starts sinking. The boat is full of people hanging on to the last second as boats come to rescue them. It is 50 °F (10 °C) water that is rough and spreads them around. They are all fished out except for 1; the boat was $150,000.
19 26 Jan 2009
  • Texarkana, AR 10/15/05 – a freight train derails and police go to the scene. The cop smells chemicals and backs up. Then an explosion occurs and soon night turns into day ahead of him as everything catches fire where he was. Then electrical power blows out. The next day the railyard is on fire, cars are burned up and a couple houses were destroyed. A tanker car with liquid propane crashed and burned.
  • California State Route 1 10/02 – Paul MacDonald rides his motorcycle from San Francisco to LA. He swings both legs to one side while doing a wheelie, goes into a wobble and slams into a parked car and he's hit and spins down the road. He broke his back.
  • Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, OH – During a gears classic race, Joey Hand goes into the grass and hits a mound that launches him, flipping him 10 times before he tumbles end over end hits the fence. He is able to walk away.
  • 1988 – scientists from the US and Japan crash an F4 jet into a concrete wall to test it. The jet is on a track powered by rockets and slams into it to learn how to make better structures.
  • San Jose, CA – a large homeless shelter catches fire. Firemen work on it inside and out, then an entire wall collapses and pins a man underneath. Those outside were safe, no one was inside, the buried man was OK.
  • 120 miles off VA 11/8/98 – USS Enterprise (CVN-65) launches Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowlers and Lockheed S-3 Vikings all day and night. A Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler lands at night and crashes into a Lockheed S-3 Viking and both explode into a huge fireball on deck. The EA-6B Prowler goes over the side killing all 4 crew members.
  • , CO – a group of friends go out and party. A modified Jeep goes up a steep hill and a wheel goes over the side, he tries to back up off, then flips over and over down the hill. The driver walks away.
  • – ferries dock during heavy surf and the floating pier gets covered in water. Everyone is evacuated, then the entire pier flips over and sinks. It was on ballast tanks and one ruptured.
20 2 Feb 2009
  • Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport, Mulhouse, France 6/26/1988 – Air France Flight 296 is an Airbus A320-111 low-speed flyover demonstration flight with 130 passengers and 6 crew members on board. It loses lift above the runway, goes into trees and explodes, killing 3 passengers and injuring 50 people. One hundred and thirty-three people survived.
  • Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY – Round 8 of the 2004 Rolex Sports Car Series. An endurance race continues in a storm. One loses it on a turn and hits a foam wall, then one after another slam into each other and the wall at 65 mph, followed by four more. The last one smashes into a wrecked Porsche at 90 mph. Two cars are destroyed.
  • Aniva Bay, Sakhalin, Russia – MI14 sea and land helicopter exercise. One hits the water hard, takes water and can't get lift. It nosedives and the blades rip off, killing 1.
  • Julian, North Carolina – Piedmont Dragway Powerjam. At night Donnie Krusinski revs his engine so hard it explodes. He pulled the safety too soon and the nitrous detonated and he climbed out of the inferno, and just suffers minor burns. He returns to racing the following month.
  • Montreal, Quebec, Canada – a 2-floor brick building is engulfed in fire and firemen back off and the front collapses. Right before the chief had the ladder truck back off. It takes hours to put it out. It was a welding torch that started it.
  • Manchester, SD 6/24/03 – Two stormchasers drop probes in front of an F4 tornado. It takes out a farmhouse and buildings. It was a record 100-millibar drop. (similar to episode 14's version).
  • Red Bluff, CA 5/07 – The nitro nationals dragboat racing. Problem Child (Dale Ishimaru) has trouble in a trial and they replace a prop. In the next race, it bounces, rolls and goes right over the other boat. Ishimaru's capsule is ripped off and sent flying. He's fished out with a broken back.
  • U.S. Route 129 – Rob Stewart rides the 318 twist & turn, 11-mile highway on his motorcycle in Tennessee and NC Smokey Mountains – the tail of the dragon. He passes a slow bike and hits a car head on while making a turn. The bike is a loss.
21 2 Feb 2009
  • Fort Worth, TX – chemical storage facility fire. Huge drums explode and launch hundreds of feet. Smoke can be seen for 30 miles. EPA says to let it go and it burns for 4½ hours. Methanol was being unloaded and a spark ignited it.
  • Rantoul, Illinois 8/4/03 – Tim Bernard does over 10,000 skydives and has to be extreme about them. He jumps 13,000 feet and tries to go through large open hangar doors. He wants it all on tape if he crashes. His chute catches the door on the way in at 65 mph and slams him to the ground, breaking his hip.
  • Dodge City, KS – Brain Carson does stunts. He jumps 126 feet in his car and lands upside-down on junk cars breaking his arm. Charlotte, NC – he wants to jump 250 feet over flatbeds and land on a pile of cars. He drops his suspension, lands on a fire cannon and flips over and over. It takes a crowd over 30 minutes to get him out.
  • Oklahoma City, OK 8/22/08 – 110 car train derails and catches fire. Oil tankers explode in huge mushroom clouds. It takes 5 hours to get a hazmat team in to start to put it out.
  • Las Vegas, NV – Seth Enslow jumps his motorcycle over 70 bikes. His Honda CR250 breaks in half on landing and he's thrown skidding along.
  • Fonda Speedway, Fonda, NY – Johnny "the jet" Scarborough in car #61 is clipped, flips over and over and lands upside down on the wall, then explodes. He rolls out on fire. It takes over 8 minutes to put the car out.
  • Fountain Valley, CA – gas balloon festival. One gets lift early and crashes into a building spilling the pilot out. The student is alone in the ripped up balloon as it flies off.
  • Pennsylvania Route 93, Carbon County, Pennsylvania – a runaway truck ramp is filmed by the news because it is so dangerous. Then a truck hits rocks fast, flips over, rips apart and the driver comes out bloody. Years later they remade the ramp.
22 9 Feb 2009
  • Fuji Speedway, Japan – Le Mans race in the pouring rain. The pace car goes too fast, causes Tomahiko Senako to spin out, crash hard, then Tetsuya Ota plows into him and explodes. The car drives on fire and is put out. Ota is badly injured and retires.
  • Oakland, CA – a security camera shakes and is turned to find a gas tanker plowed into the freeway. The gas tanker explodes and flames reach temperatures of 2,000 °C, causing the upper level to melt away and collapse. Another section buckles and falls onto the lower freeway. The freeway takes 26 days to repair.
  • – Juergen Brunner drives a motorcycle on mountain roads. He loses it and plows into a rock wall and is thrown. He breaks two toes and cracks a bone in his wrist.
  • Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines, 31/12/07 – The December 2007 Bocaue fire. For New Year's people buy fireworks, then a stand catches fire and blows up. It ignites 10 nearby stands and shoots rockets. It was a cigarette.
  • Wilber, NE – stormchasers find a tornado so huge they run from and a small one goes around it. They find an empty building and run in. The front of the building came off and smashed their car. It was an F4 2½ miles wide, a record.
  • Valletta, Malta – annual grand prix plane race over water. Eddie Gagan & Gabor Varga collide and go down. Eddie was able to eject, Gabor died.
  • Chandler, AZ – world boat finals. James Ray wins, but the boat flips, shreds and spits the capsule out. He broke his back again.
  • Turkey 8/07 – rivers overflow and take out the municipal building in a pile. Seventy percent of the area was covered in water.
23 16 Feb 2009
  • Toronto, Ontario, Canada 8/10/08 – The 2008 Toronto propane explosion. Sunrise Industrial Gases factory catches fire and explodes into massive fireballs. A shockwave can be felt for 10 miles. Fiery metal is launched, Freeway 401 is shut down, people are evacuated. Five thousand homes are damaged, 2 are killed. It was an illegal propane transfer that started it.
  • Bellaire, TX 10/15/04 – an inebriated driver goes on a rampage in an 18-wheeler. He hits traffic and pushes everyone out of the way. They use spikes and guns to take the truck out.
  • Oulton Park Circuit, Cheshire, England – The 2008 British GT Championship. Hunter Abbott goes to miss a car, clips it, plows into the rail, starts flipping, shredding and then it explodes. He rolls out on fire and has only minor injuries.
  • Pampa, TX 6/8/95 – Sgt. Randy Stubblefield films a large tornado forming that comes down. It's a massive F4 that rips up buildings and goes across town. Forty-three houses are leveled costing $20 million.
  • St Petersburg, Russia 2007 – Russian M12 helicopter does maneuvers at an airshow, slams into the ground and the blades fly off, then it explodes.
  • North Platte, Nebraska – a warehouse catches fire and a train goes right by it. Then propane tanks explode and the whole thing is leveled.
  • Waterford Speedbowl, Waterford, CT 7/8 – A stock car race. Jay Lozyniak races, a couple cars hit and he is launched over them and flips. His mom Jean Fritchley films it and runs down. Jay is able to walk out.
  • Montevideo, Uruguay – high speed boat racing. Peppy Delgado loses control and slams right into the judges' boat, smashing it in half. Both sink fast and everyone goes into the water.
24 16 Feb 2009
  • Mission Bay, San Diego, CA – Mark Workentine races a hydro fuel dragboat in a test. He flips it and it rips apart in 2 seconds. He opens the capsule and it takes on water, he spins over trapped, but divers get him out.
  • Wisconsin 8/18/05 – The Wisconsin tornado outbreak of 2005 where 28 tornadoes hit in 1 day. In Stoughton, Cops and civilians film from all over the area. An F3 tornado goes down, up and then down again. Then the F3 hits a farm across the street.
  • Mechanicsburg, PA – Williams grove speedway sprint car race. Scott Zeller in #21 clips #88, then cartwheels off the track, over the cameraman, across a yard, launching car parts all over and into a metal fence. The cameraman was knocked out by a tire, but is okay. Zeller walks away and returns to racing.
  • Wageningen, Netherlands – a 16-floor college dorm catches fire from lightning. The roof shoots flames and explodes. Because of construction they had gas generators up there that blew.
  • Erlanger, KY 2/13/07 – Ofc. Bill Allen goes to an accident call in the ice. The police car is hit and spun out. A woman calls 911 about her wiping out nearby. Then a semi loses it and hits a red car and slams it into the police car. No one is hurt.
  • AZ desert – 1960s Douglas DC-7 is intentionally crashed by the FAA for a test. It hits at 180 mph and it shredded in 5 seconds. The test is supposed to make aircraft safer.
  • Dubai, UAE – 400 mile endurance race. A man films a yellow Land Rover truck hit a bump, launching into the air and into the cameraman. They are battered, but not killed.
  • El Salvador 10/05 – Hurricane Stan dumps rain for 5 days. Roads are washed away, trees and power go down. Seventy-five percent of crops are ruined in 700 mudslides.
25 23 Feb 2009
  • Tacoma, WA 10/6/07 – a propane truck unloads into a storage tank. It starts to leak and smoke covers the area. Then the truck catches fire spewing up to the freeway. 8000 gallons explode destroying the area. Firemen put it out and find the driver who died later.
  • Marble Falls, TX – Todd Odom races top fuel hydro Spirit of Texas, the boat then rips to pieces and his capsule is thrown free. His blast plate came off and lost stability.
  • Cornwall, England 11/13/91 – from Australia jumps a riverboat on an ATV. He hits the top of it and is thrown into the river. A year later 8/13/92 he does it again with faster ATV and longer ramp, clears the jump, but hits so hard and is thrown. He rips out every ligament in his knee and loses feeling.
  • Howick Falls, South Africa – Jeb Corliss basejumps from anything he can around the world. He jumps from atop the falls, pulls his chute and is blown into the falls, he's knocked around, broken and attacked by crabs. He spends a month in the hospital with broken ribs and feet.
  • Geelong, Victoria – a DJ and 2 others ride in a Huey 300 helicopter around the water. He goes to land on Cunningham Pier and a downdraft knocks them in the water. All make it out.
  • Santa Fe, Argentina – a bus hits a car and goes over a bridge into a river. They use a large crane to pull it out, but it's too heavy and the crane goes over too.
  • Glamis Sand Dunes, Glamis, CA – Seth Enslow is a motocross bike jumper. He takes a jump and lands in a crowd of people when he doesn't get enough height. He's fine, bike is not.
  • Crescent City, IL 6/21/70 – the first propane train disaster. A car derails, catches fire, then blows up. A second explosion launches a car into a house. They let it burn 56 hours. It destroys much of the town.
26 23 Feb 2009
  • Enschede, Netherlands – The Enschede fireworks disaster. A fireworks warehouse catches fire and people fill the streets to watch. Then the fireworks erupt and people start running for it. The whole thing detonates, breaks glass and smashes nearby buildings. A second bigger explosion throws the cameraman. The entire area is leveled, 400 houses were damaged, and 23 are killed.
  • Santa Ynez, California – Dan Pastor makes a 200-foot jump for his motocross bike. He goes too fast, lands too far and the bike breaks on impact and he's thrown. His face is bloody, broke his pelvis, back, ribs, jaw and is airlifted out. A year later he makes the jump safely.
  • Needles, CA – Paul Curry soups up his raceboat, takes it on the river and launches. It slams down and he's thrown 25 feet across the river while his boat sinks. He floats and starts yelling about his back. He broke 4 ribs and punctured his lung. All he could save was the engine.
  • Claremont Speedway, Western Australia – Aaron Holswich races sprint cars on a dirt track. On a turn he is bumped, he flips 5 times and gets stuck on the fence up in the air as gas pours out. They yank him out and soon afterwards the car explodes. He damages his eye.
  • Denver, CO 11/8/08 – A group of people are interrupted at a restaurant by a car crashing into it.
  • Corpus Christi, Texas – Jet ski qualifying. Jerry Ellison races, stalls and collides with another jet ski. He loses his spleen.
  • Valle de Bravo, Mexico – Joe Parr paraglides and loses control. His chute gets snagged on a tree, then a moment later the chute snaps and he falls 25 feet. The tree branches helped to break his fall. He suffers minor injuries from the fall, but shattered a rib from the pull of reserve the chute opening.
  • USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) 7/11/94 – An F-14 Tomcat strikes the rear edge of the carrier USS Kitty Hawk.
27 2 Mar 2009
  • Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia 2002 – Soyuz rocket with Photo satellite nighttime launch. Twenty-nine seconds later it falls to earth in a massive explosion. Something got into an intake pipe and all engines shut down. It was worth $16 million. On the ground, 8 people are injured. 1 is killed.
  • Flagler Beach, FL 12/15/97 – men work on an 800-foot pier damaged in a storm the year before. Storms hit the pier for 8 days and 20-foot waves hit their crane, then 90 feet from the end are ripped off and float away.
  • Oulton Park Circuit, Cheshire, England – A GT race is hit by huge rain. One car puts on rain tires, but there is little visibility. Cars skid off-road and a Porsche's bumper is ripped off when it slides off the track. #8 wipes out and #9 plows into it. Track workers go out and then a Dodge Viper slides out of control and crashes. The Marshall jumps out at the last second. A Ferrari spins out, then a TVR rams into the Ferrari at high speed, then ricochets into the Dodge Viper and #9, leaving car parts and metal spilled all over the track. A million dollars worth of cars are destroyed.
  • San Bernardino County, California – Seth Enslow wants to set a record 275-foot jump on his motorcycle. Wind makes him go too far, he tries to slow down, misses the ramp, slams his face into the handlebars and shatters an eye socket.
  • Boise, ID 1998 – Chris Shivers (33) at the bull-riding blowout rides Shorty the bull. It throws him, then headbutts him to the ground knocking him out. The bull continues to trample Chris until Shorty calms down for a moment and gives rescuers time to attend to Chris's injuries. Then, the bull bashes Chris one last time before it is brought back by wranglers. Chris survives.
  • Mediterranean Sea 11/51 – George Duncan flies a F9F2 Panther on a test to land on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. He lands, goes around, then hits the edge of the deck and explodes. He survives with burns to his ears.
  • Virgin, UT – James Wolken rides a BMX bike doing jumps. He tries to jump 35 feet over a SUV and hits the other wall and falls onto the SUV and the bike breaks.
  • Sittard, Netherlands – biomass energy plant overheats and firemen arrive. The cooling system falls and pressure is releasing. Smoke pours out and turns black, then the whole building explodes. An oil leak made it fail.
28 2 Mar 2009
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina – an 18-wheeler on an overpass loses control after going too fast. It hits the wall and the entire cargo of lemons falls to the street below sending people running.
  • Blumenau, Brazil 11/08 – The 2008 Santa Catarina floods. Thirty-five inches of rain falls and mudslides rip up the countryside. A house falls down a hill and wipes out another house. Then mud covers it and more houses nearby are taken out on Herman Hoosier street.
  • Tampa, FL – Steve Trotter and 4 guys bungee jump at once on the skyway bridge. Jeff Sargent goes at the last second. The rope snaps and they all smash into the water. Two boats yank them out with broken necks and collarbones. They also were arrested.
  • , MT – Trennis Baer and friends ride their snowmobiles up the mountain, then he starts an avalanche and races it to the bottom. A year later they do it again in the same spot and the same thing happens again, this time he's launched and tumbles 1000 feet down in the snow. They find him and dig him out.
  • Bath, England – Caterham race. Paul Wickford in car #66 wipes out and flies through the air into a wall.
  • Rialto, CA – At the 5th annual desert jump championship, Chad Walton hits a ramp, His truck drops and flips 3 times, then explodes. He is yanked out, losing the competition for not driving away.
  • Farnborough, England – at the airshow a 1980 Buffalo helicopter lands too hard, it explodes and the wings break off, a propeller hits a car. Both pilots walk away.
  • Dallas, TX – An 18-wheeler wipes out and crews work on it. A helicopter on scene catches an 18-wheeler on the other side of the road crash, hitting a van and then exploding. The axle rips off and the passenger is thrown out.
29 9 Mar 2009
  • Edison, NJ – The 1994 Edison, New Jersey natural gas explosion. An asphalt plant gasline catches fire next to the Durham Woods apartments. They are told to evacuate, then the line explodes. John records it and tries to escape. A backhoe damaged it and it finally ruptured. It makes a 75-foot crater; 8 buildings are obliterated. Unfortunately, one person dies from a heart attack during the evacuation.
  • Peekskill, NY – the town is moving a 118-year-old fire house to expand the road and make it into a museum across town. An end starts to crack, then a lift fails and the whole building collapses into rubble. Workers need to be accounted for, but are OK.
  • Weston-super-Mare, England – Chris Gagnon wants to do a backflip on his ATV and trains with a foam pit. He does the ramp to ramp jump and lands hard. He does it again in Pomona, CA, but falls off midway, hits the ramp from 40 feet and the ATV lands on him. The rainy dirt ground slowed him down. He sprained his wrist and broke his leg.
  • Imnaha, Oregon 1/1/97 – John Howerton films flooding as it tears up roads and houses. Then a red house is ripped away and floats down river into a bridge breaking it up.
  • Donington Park Circuit, England – TVR Tuscan challenge – cars bump, spin out, then on lap 5 Troy Dunlop in car #4 hits Richard Stanton in car #17, he turns over, then flips again and again ripping apart.
  • Kansas City, Missouri 1/7/09 – A helicopter follows police chasing a stolen red pickup on the freeway. The truck gets off the highway, into a neighbourhood, then loses control and hits a white parked car, spins around, hits a tree, flips over and is torn in half.
  • Victoria, Australia – Victoria Air show. An ultralight loses control, takes off and goes across the tarmac into the crowd knocking people over. It goes around in circles until it hits a parked plane. A woman is knocked out. The plane was unmanned, the gear stuck.
  • Delaware International Speedway, DE – Modified dirt racing. Car #6 skids, hits #55 and it hits #54 with John Keller into the walk, launching him high in the air into a fence and tires fly off. He is stuck upside down and a tow truck flips him over. He has a concussion, bruised lung, rib and a broken arm, but returns to race again.
30 9 Mar 2009
  • Des Moines, IA – Barton Solvents catches fire. Thick black smoke fills the sky, then huge explosions erupt again and again from 55-gallon drums launching them through the air and keeping firemen back. The whole area is evacuated. Ethyl acetate was ignited by static.
  • USS Theodore Roosevelt, Persian Gulf 1991 – an A6 Intruder sucks a helmet off a man when JD Bridges is sucked into an intake of a jet.
  • – American Drag Racing league championships. Tommy Franklin races a 1968 Chevy Camero and goes right into a wall, flips over and over as he shreds it. The parachute wraps around the body. Rescuers shut down the engine and Tommy is able to walk away.
  • Lake Delton, WI 6/08 – Storms dump a foot of rain and the dam overflows into the river washing away roads, soil, trees and houses. The Fromm family works frantically to save their house, but everything washes away. The entire lake is drained.
  • Nottingham, England – British F1 boat grand prix. John Jones gets air, flies up high, flips over and over before finally landing upside down. He's knocked out; divers fish him out and an ambulance takes him away. He is back at the race later that day mad that they were warned to keep their distance.
  • Cayuga County, NY – Mod light car race on dirt. Don Fenner #28 tries to pass, hits a wall, slips, flips over, Rocco Leone #87 hits him, then 2 other cars hit them. Rocco's car is flipped, then explodes. Rocco rolls out with a glove on fire that won't go out. They put the car out and get Don out.
  • Keystone, CO – Snowmobilers jump a 100-foot ramp at 80 mph. Snow melts in the sun and it is longer when Brian Hennek jumps it. He smacks into the other side breaking both ankles, heel and vertebrae.
  • Portland, OR 1995 – Bubba Blackwell does a motorcycle jump over 13 cars, he hits the other ramp on the edge, the bike flips and he's thrown into the pavement suffering a broken collarbone, 2 ribs, scapula and a punctured lung.
31 16 Mar 2009
  • Wichita, KS 7/02 – Summer Nationals International raceway drag racing at night. Jerry Yeoman makes it to the finals, hits an oil slick and slams into a wall, goes over it and flips 18 times in a fiery wreck. He survives with a broken collarbone.
  • Cuscatlán, El Salvador 12/16/08 – a man sells propane tanks out of his house. He fills tanks, has a leak and starts a fire and causes other tanks to explode a dozen times. 9 houses were damaged.
  • Red Bluff, CA 5/26/02 – International Hot Boat Association drag race – hydroboats race. Mark Atkinson soups his up, then goes airborne, flips and is ripped apart. He opens the capsule and it flips over and fills with water. It ended his career.
  • – the Brazilian Navy's munitions depot blows up into a nuclear size mushroom cloud. It keeps exploding and burning for over 5 hours. Thirty-seven homes are destroyed.
  • Sacramento, CA – At a drag race Hans Kuesel loses it, hits the wall, blows up, then slides down the track on his side and is ripped in half.
  • Angeles Crest Highway, CA – Makoto Sullivan films from his motorcycle up the long winding road. Ten other guys ride with him and when they stop one guy clips a bike, plows into Orlando Pablo at full speed. He's thrown, knocked out and airlifted away.
  • Dorset, England – Poole Harbour ferries carry cars across. An ebb tide crashed a yacht into a ferry with a 72-year-old couple on board. They go to pull it out and it's sucked under. Two men hold on as the woman is sucked under. They throw a mat and lifering down, then a dinghy tries to pull them out. They grab a man, the people on the boat grab the other man and the woman is pulled from the other side. The 1920 boat is gone.
  • Seoul, South Korea – At a carnival, 6 elephants escape; 3 are caught and the others attack a restaurant. They get into the kitchen and people run for it as the elephants smash the windows. It reopens in 2 weeks with an elephant theme.
32 16 Mar 2009
  • Riobamba, Ecuador – On election night reporter Juan is covering voting, then an ammunition depot explodes. It causes bombs and rockets to detonate and a huge mushroom cloud forms. People run for it and explosions continue. The city is evacuated for days as the Army collects bombs.
  • Fairbanks, Alaska – World Ice Art Championships contest. The Birth of the Bluebird is worked on for 100 hours and Uniqui cuts the last pillar and the whole thing breaks.
  • Ursa, IL 12/8/89 – Stan Frasier tries to remove two 60-foot grain silos from his yard with a bulldozer. One has a tree with bird's nest. First he tries to pull it down with a chain and it breaks, the second time the silo just drops 4 feet. Frustrated, Stan pushes the silo and it collapses on the bulldozer. The cage and roof saves him.
  • Anchorage, Alaska – Mulcahy Stadium Fairbanks Bucks baseball game. A Cessna 207 skywagon loses power and crashes behind the outfield wall, hits a fence and flips over. The engine rips out and catches fire. Four people were on board and all lived. They forgot to check gas on one side.
  • Irwindale Speedway, CA – at a stock car race on lap 40 car #4 hits #34, then slides into an edge barrier and flips over. Todd Burns & Kevin Wood are inside. Wood is trapped upside down, but walks away.
  • Kernersville, NC 1/14/09 – Cops go to a house fire where a 911 call says people are inside. Firemen are told it's empty and go in to check when the whole house blows up and is lifted off the base. Only the fireman had minor injuries. A backdraft caused the explosion.
  • Blacktown, New South Wales 1994 – Eastern Creek Raceway drag racing. Romeo Capitanio's back tires blow up and he flips over.
  • Alicante, Spain – an armed 25-year-old takes over a bank with 8 hostages. He releases 6 for a motorcycle, rides off to escape and cops cut him off with a car and send him flying. Cops grab him and an ambulance takes him away.
  • Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium – Formula Palmer Series racing. Tim Mullen gets clipped in the back, spins out, crashes into a wall and catches fire. He's trapped and has to be pulled out.
33 23 Mar 2009
  • Bonneville Salt Flats, UT – Jim Meader wants to be the production car speed record of 241 mph. He gets his Mazda RX-7 up to 230 mph, adds power and goes in the air, spins around, comes apart and slides upside-down and the parachute deploys. It catches fire and he has to crawl out and put the fire out.
  • El Toro Air Show, Orange County, CA – Jerry Caddock of the Marines flies an FA18 Hornet does the square immelman on the third day and slams into the ground at 300 mph. His engine catches fire and he slides out of control. He broke his neck, compressed his spine and punctured a lung.
  • Mount Shasta CA – a crew films extreme skiers. They build 100-foot ramps and have to be towed by a snowmobile at 65 mph to make he jump. Derek Spong thinks he can make it on his own and misses because of the melting snow. He hits the ramp and is knocked out. He broke ribs, and tore his spleen and aorta.
  • Omsk, Russia 7/6/00 – a gasoline fire near 60,000-gallon train tank cars. They try to cool the cars, but one explodes in a huge fireball. It is peeled like fruit.
  • Sydney, New South Wales – St. George Speedboat race. Malcolm McCall races his boat, flips 30 feet and is thrown out across the water at 120 mph. The boat explodes and sinks. He broke 6 ribs and 3 vertebrae.
  • VA 1995 – NASA launches the Conastoga 1620 rocket. It has a malfunction and automatically self-destructs. Two of the boosters don't self-destruct and fly wildly until they explode in the ocean.
  • Julian, NC – Big Dog Shootout dragrace. Junior Ward vs. Ricky Young. At the start Ricky's axle breaks and he crashes right into Junior destroying his car. The truck keeps going.
  • 200 miles off Australia – the cargo ship Laura is knocked to one side and fuel cargo all goes to one side and it rolls over. The crew evacuates to two rafts and are stranded for seven hours. The navy rescues them.
34 23 Mar 2009
  • Willowbank Raceway, Queensland, Australia – Willowbank Raceway New Year's drag racing night fire series. Stephen Reed's car wobbles and explodes. He pulls the extinguisher, hits the wall and his body flies 30 feet up in the air. The chassis keeps going and chutes deploy. It was caused by a broken fuel line.
  • Delft, Netherlands – Delft University of Technology has a fire on the 7th floor from an electrical fire. It takes 4 hours to put it out, then a section from 6 floors up collapses and starts a new fire. The building has to be demolished.
  • Melbourne, FL – Airboat racing across 400 feet of swamp. Billy Willard wins and starts celebrating, but doesn't stabilize the boat. It flips over and he's slammed into the water. The boat lands upside-down and is destroyed while Billy is badly bruised, but recovers.
  • Chesterton, IN – St. Patrick's Church catches fire and 30 firemen work to put it out. They are warned that the steeple is on the verge of collapse. A fireman is pulling an empty hose by it and he dives trying to get away as the steeple falls next to him. It takes 3 hours to put the fire out.
  • Tulsa, OK – Chillibowl Midget nationals. Tim McCreadie was in the lead until his right rear tire broke off. He flipped 4 times and went over the fence. He couldn't get out. He broke a vertebra in his back.
  • Maui, HI – Jaws waves go from 12 to 60 feet. Surfers are towed in by jetskis to build the speed needed. Sierra Emery windsurfs a 40-foot wave and ditches when a surfer comes up on him. He's buried and a jetski comes out to rescue him, but they are knocked over by whitewater. Two more jetskis rescue both of them and his board.
  • Danville, WV – At a convenience store a soda vendor is going to leave when a truck out of control hits the pumps and crashes into the front of the store. The driver has fallen asleep with his foot on the gas. A beam flies over the cashier's head. To prevent it from reoccurring they put up boulders around the property.
  • Wildman Al Sleep jumped a garbage truck 74 feet for a record. , NY – he drives a dumptruck that catches fire and drives into a bus standing up, but he hits the side and flips his truck where he is trapped.
35 30 Mar 2009
  • Istanbul, Turkey – An oil tanker catches fire and massive fireballs erupt. The fire was not contained until next morning.
  • Chugach Mountains, Valdez, Alaska – Pro skier Garrett Bartelt loses his balance and tumbles down the mountain, over a cliff, falls 25 feet and is unconscious in the snow. Rescuers find him alive and he is airlifted to the hospital.
  • Queensland Raceway, Queensland, Australia – Round 5 of the 1999 Australian Formula Ford Championship. A blue car flips and sends sparks flying throughout the track, then goes into the grass and cartwheels. Driver Greg Ritter walks away.
  • Peru – A building is on fire and firemen come to the scene. Then, a backdraft explosion erupts and injures firefighters.
  • Queensland, Australia – A sailboat is capsized by a wave and the crew have to be rescued.
  • Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, on the USS Lexington, 10/29/89 – A fighter jet proceeds to land on the carrier, but the pilot suddenly loses control and crashes upside down onto other planes. Five are killed.
  • Mechanicsburg, PA – At the Williams Grove Speedway, a collision causes two sprint cars to cartwheel and crash. Both drivers are okay and each car costs $50,000.
  • Bogotá, Colombia – A tree causes a tower crane to collapse. The concrete blocks it was carrying smash onto a car. No one is killed.
36 30 Mar 2009
  • Bakersfield, CA – Mike Boyd is driving The Winged Express drag car, when it loses a wheel then it crashes into a wall and flips over. Mike is able to walk away uninjured.
  • San Diego, California – The 1995 Louis Vuitton Cup. While race yachts try to catch up with defending champions One Australia, one yacht tears a hole in the sail, and another tips over. Then, the One Australia race boat breaks apart and sinks, sending its crew into the seas.
  • Colorado Springs, CO – French stuntman Manu Troux participates in a motocross freestyle competition. He needs to put together a stellar run in order to appease the American crowd. He tries a notoriously difficult stunt called the Double Grab, where the rider must let go of the handlebars, touch the side panels then get back on the bike. During Manu's attempt, however, he launches his bike too far out of reach, causing him to fall dozens of feet to the ground. He is taken to the hospital with a broken femur and he will race again.
  • Melbourne, Australia – During a track bicycle race, one collision results in 15 cyclists crashing in a pile-up. Cyclist Jamie Crass is nearly thrown off the track onto the concrete floor below. The casualties suffered minor cuts and bruises.
  • Chandler, AZ – A speedboat breaks apart and sends the capsule and driver Scotty Lumbert smashing into an island at triple-digit speeds. He has a concussion, fractures his back and neck and breaks a vertebra, but recovers and returns to racing.
  • Cedar Park, TX – An F3 tornado comes down and destroys houses.
  • Immokalee, FL – A dragster wipes out and sends debris flying toward the cameraman.
  • Aichi Prefecture, Japan – A truck had an accident with a train. They use a crane to pull the truck out, but the truck is too heavy and the crane goes down with it.
37 2 Apr 2009
  • Zambales, Philippines – While testing a flare system, a flare ignites in the system of an F-4 Phantom II, busting the tail. The pilots are injured by the extreme G-forces as they eject. The plane nosedives and slams into the ground in a fiery explosion. It cost $24 million.
  • South Africa – The Oceanos cruise liner is wrecked and the crew abandons ship leaving all the passengers behind. Helicopters arrive at the scene and rescue all 180 passengers.
  • Steamboat Springs, Colorado 2005 – The inaugural season of the Rally America. Racers from around the world race around treacherous dirt roads. Stunt performer Travis Pastrana accelerates to 113 mph across a straight road, but doesn't notice the oncoming turn. The car is launched and flips 8 times. Despite the car being a loss, Pastrana walks away.
  • Mersin, Turkey – Worker Cem Tokac is waiting for a delivery by a railroad when a faulty signal causes a train to hit a truck crossing the railroad, mowing Tokac down. He miraculously survives with minor injuries and declares the day of the incident his new birthday.
  • Chandler, AZ – A speedboat crashes and the capsule bursts open, blasting racer Lloyd Bell free.
  • Ramona, CA – At an ultralight airshow, Donny Ecker performs stunts and loops with his ultralight. He tries to dive from 5000 ft and then do a loop, but the extreme G-forces snap the cables supporting the left wing. Donny pulls the chute and he floats down to a hard landing. He survives.
  • Willowbank Raceway, Queensland, Australia – A motorcycle modified for drag racing goes out of control and hits the wall, sending the motorcycle and its rider, Rodney Silvestro sliding down the track.
  • Paranaguá, Brazil – A propane plant catches fire and multiple tanks explode at once, resulting in a massive explosion. It took hours for firemen to contain the fire.
38 2 Apr 2009
  • Brooklyn, NY – A news helicopter blows a tail rotor and crashes on the roof of a building before falling. All three occupants walk away.
  • Byron, IL – A drag race wheelie competition. Jason Schubert comes up with a long wheelie, but he slips and barrel rolls down the track. He, however, wins the competition but says that the car is a $100,000 loss.
  • Västerås, Sweden – During an off-road motorcycle race, Nicholas Hermansson's bike veers across the track and T-bones racer Andre Nilsson. Hermanson only has a broken arm, while Nilsson breaks 8 ribs his sternum and a shoulder joint which ends his career.
  • Honshu, Japan 2004 – Unusually heavy rain cause multiple soil erosions. One piece of a mountain road is severely buckled and crews work on it, then the retaining wall collapses and the road slides into the ravine. One hundred miles away, officers on the scene capture fences, utility poles and trees all sliding down. In all, 100 meters of road are destroyed.
  • Australia - Len Cave miscalcutes a turn and barrel rolls his race car 10 times.
  • Brooklyn Park, MN – A car crashes into a beauty store. No one is hurt.
  • Miami, OK – , attempting to set a new world record for a jump, lands hard and wipes out, injuring himself.
  • Anaheim, CA – Three college students on a baseball tour find a light aircraft with a dead engine preparing to make an emergency landing. The aircraft touches down on a carpark and crashes into a wall at the end. The occupants walk away.
39 13 Apr 2009
  • Walton Hills, OH – A magnesium recycling plant explodes, troubling firemen. The fire is eventually put out.
  • Bakersfield, CA – Drag racer Tom Padilla is competing in his first race with his Red Dragon funny car when the body is blasted away and shoots 300 feet into the air leaving only the classis.
  • Melbourne, Australia – James "Bubba" Chiasson, an amateur daredevil attempts a stunt jump, but misses the ramp and crashes. He has managed to recover.
  • Houston, TX – Police chase a drunk driver, and the drunk driver loses control of his car and barrel rolls down the neighbourhood. He is swiftly arrested.
  • Finland – A race car driven by Julian Roderick and David Allen Holmes goes out of control and cartwheels into the crowd. No one is killed.
  • Seattle, WA 1996 – On the USS Lincoln, an F/A-18 Hornet crashes on the edge of the carrier, due to deck movement. The pilot ejects in time.
  • Orlando, FL – Eddie Timal's drag car crashes outside the track and rips into shreds.
  • Switzerland – A helicopter spins out of control while landing.
40 13 Apr 2009
  • St. Louis, MO 2005 – A gas station explodes sending hundreds of fireballs and burning debris into the air. No one is killed directly from the blasts, but one person has a fatal asthma attack from the fumes.
  • Phillip Island, Australia – Round 12 of the 1992 Superbike World Championship. Racer Stéphane Mertens wipes out and his bike continues down the track in flames before it crashes into a ditch. Fortunately, no other racer was affected and Mertens is okay.
  • San Diego, CA – Wind causes Both John Prevost and Ron Schneider's boats to flip and crash. Both drivers escape without injury.
  • Kalgoorlie, Australia – Ray Baumann attempts a world-record 45-car jump, but he comes up short and his car is literally torn in half. He survives.
  • Baker, CA – Seth Enslow jumps a sand dune and crashes violently, but he survives.
  • Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean – An F-14 Tomcat on a test flight reaches the speed of sound, then explodes. The pilots survive.
  • Sault Ste. Marie, MI – A snowmobile race ends in a pile-up with bodies flying.
  • Fremont, CA – Mike Grieco wipes out during a drag race and his car smashes into a wall shattering to thousands of pieces.
  • Sonora, Mexico – A group of friends go climbing on sand dunes. A black SUV loses it, then barrel rolls 10 times down the dune. The driver survives.
41 10 Sep 2009
  • São Paulo, Brazil – A huge chemical explosion destroys buildings.
  • Salt Lake City, UT – Freestyle skiers construct a ramp called Chad's Gap and to 720s on it. Tanner Hall tries to do it backwards, but hits the edge of the ramp and breaks his ankles. He is airlifted to the hospital and makes a full recovery.
  • Crandon, WI – The Crandon International Off-road Raceway has been marred by several accidents on the course. In one particular race, Curt Leduc cuts a turn too fast and rolls, but lands on all fours and continues racing. However, his right front axle has snapped, causing him to lose control and smash into a tree and barrel rolls. The net at the window is ripped off. Curt is okay.
  • Deerfield Beach, FL – A car crashes into a DMV office full of people.
  • Chandler, AZ – Ralph Padilla is racing his flat bottom drag boat, when it cartwheels and crashes, trapping him underwater. He suffers 3 fracture vertebrates.
  • Colombia – Multiple houses are washed away by a flood.
  • Maribor, Slovenia – Aleš Senekovič goes around a curve in a motorcycle when he wipes out and is flattened by a speeding car. He escapes the accident with a concussion, 5 broken ribs an injury to his liver and his life.
  • Lebanon – A fighter jet falls off the edge of an aircraft carrier. Pilot Charlie Boh ejects, but is slammed against the side of the carrier by a wind gust. He suffers 5 broken ribs and a broken hip.
42 10 Sep 2009
  • Jaipur, India – During a transfer of propane, a leak causes the station to catch fire. Residents watch on when suddenly, a massive explosion erupts and sends shockwaves throughout the neighbourhood. 3 are killed.
  • Andover, KS 1991 – The Andover tornado outbreak. A tornado ravages through a military base and chases storm chasers who hide under a bridge hang on to the girders.
  • Indianapolis, IN – Jet engine drag racing. A drag car flies off the track when the chute is deployed, trapping the driver, George Elliot who is uninjured.
  • Houston, TX – A series of accidents involving the Houston METRORail.
  • Chandler, AZ – A freak accident on the water catapults a racer into the path of his own speeding boat.
  • Pevely, MO – The Pevely Dairy Company Plant is destroyed under a massive fire.
  • Alaska – Amateur daredevil Mark Cude tries a jump with a motorcycle. On the first attempt, he comes up short of the ramp. On his second attempt, he misses the ramp and lands hard which breaks his femur bone.
  • Tempe, AZ – A new bridge linking Phoenix to Tempe collapses under raging floodwaters of the Salt River.
43 10 Sep 2009
  • Willis, TX – At a gas station, a truck plows into a convenience store. An 8-year-old boy is pinned down by the truck while another two people are buried by debris. The truck driver states that his brakes locked up, causing the crash. Damages to the store are $100,000 and to prevent this from happening again, the owner installs barriers around the property.
  • Winter Haven, FL – F1 Boat Racing. Greg Foster loses control of his boat and collides with Carlos Curry's boat. Curry is unhurt but Foster breaks two vertebrae.
  • Gilford, NH - During Flip Fest, motocross freestyler TJ Russell attempts to set a new backflip record of 100 ft, but under-rotates and lands upside down. He sustained minor injuries.
  • Manitoba, Canada – The 2007 Elie, Manitoba tornado, the strongest tornado recorded in Canada.
  • Bakersfield, CA – Lisa Lavoie participates in a drag race. Right from the start, she loses control and slams into her opponent Darrell Waters, causing both cars to hit the wall. Lisa suffers severe bruising. She believes that Darrell's dragster cushioned the blow between her and the wall, saving her life.
  • France – An arson fire in an industrial factory causes a massive explosion.
  • Delray Beach, FL – Pro kiteboarder Dimitri Maramenides performs stunts for a commercial. He shows off some tricks and jumps over a pier house. On his second attempt to jump the house, the wind suddenly dies down and Dimitri's rear end smashes into the beam of the roof. A gust of wind then pushes him off the roof, knocking his head on a railing. Dimitri manages to stay conscious and continues to kiteboard.
  • – During its time at NASA, the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) is involved in three accidents with each of the three pilots testing it: Neil Armstrong, Stuart Present and Joe Algranti, ejecting before the crash and being unhurt.
44 17 Sep 2009
  • Mount Waddington, British Columbia, Canada – Andrea Benning and her three male friends go skiing on the mountain. The first three skiers slide down without incident while triggering mini-avalanches. Andrea goes last, and the avalanche triggered consumes her. She falls 1000 ft down the mountain. When the dust settles, she is buried from the waist-down. She only injured her knee. The cause of the unexpected massive avalanche is the extra 59 inches of snow that piled up over the past 5 days.
  • Limon, Costa Rica 2006 – A chemical factory and a tanker truck is on fire. The area is cordoned off and more than 300 people are evacuated. The tanks burn until the pressure becomes too great and a blast 400 ft tall erupts from the inferno. The fire took 10 hours to be extinguished. 3 are killed, 20 are injured, and the fire was started when welders were working near a chemical transfer.
  • Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI – Robbie Knievel comes up short of the ramp during a jump and is thrown from his bike.
  • São Paulo, Brazil – During a windstorm, two window washers cling for their lives as the platform smashes glass windows. A woman uses her jacket to help the men into the building who only have bumps and bruises.
  • Alaska – Rob Hehnlin is jumping his snowmobile across a road with his friends, when he goes too slow, jumping off his snowmobile before his legs hit a guardrail and one leg kicking himself in the face. He shatters his knees and ankles.
  • New York City, NY – A building catches fire and firemen put it out. Just as they are about to wrap up, a water hose dislodges a chunk of mortar that hits the center of the building, causing a domino effect that collapses the whole building.
  • Norwalk, OH – Drag racing at NorWalk Raceway. Liquid gets under racer Eddie Harris' drag car and it hits the wall and barrel rolls.
  • Springfield, MO – An elderly woman suffers a diabetic seizure and crashes into an empty car parked in front of the Springfield Music store. The force pushed the car straight into the store, destroying the counter. It took office workers awhile to find out what happened.
45 24 Sep 2009
  • Monza, Italy – The 2008 Le Mans Series. Stéphane Ortelli loses control of his car and comes within inches of another racer as he cartwheels across the track. He only breaks an ankle.
  • Tultepec, Mexico – A fireworks market sells fireworks in preparation for independence day, but a stall goes up in flames then soon the entire market explodes.
  • Calgary, Canada – Zeb Lanham is knocked off a bull, then the bull tosses him 6 meters in the air. He lands hard, breaking multiple ribs and his wrist.
  • Persian Gulf July 2002 – A Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King crash lands on a naval deck then falls into the water. All 7 occupants survive.
  • British Columbia, Canada – Tracey Latham attempts a dangerous stunt and falls, severely injuring both his legs.
  • IA – A large tornado destroys a farm.
  • Primm, NV – Joe Bettencourt wipes out and barrel rolls 5 times. He suffers a cracked vertebrae.
  • Forestville, Maryland – A Ledo Pizza outlet at the Penn Mar shopping centre is destroyed by a gas explosion, along with four other outlets.
46 24 Sep 2009
  • Lamesa, TX – A tank battery spectacularly explodes after getting struck by lightning.
  • Paris, France – The Paris Air Show. A Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet attempts a downward spiral, but it can't recover and the tail nozzle scraps the ground causing the plane to catch fire as it struggles to stay airborne. The 2 crew members eject from the plane as it stalls and crashes.
  • Assen, Netherlands 08/09/02 – Round 12 of the 2002 Superbike World Championship. A motorcycle's engine catches fire and Christian Kellner is launched towards the safety barrier, where another motorcycle flies and brazes his head. Then, spilled oil causes four more motorcycles to crash causing a pile-up. While Kellner and another racer suffer a dislocated shoulder and a broken collarbone respectively, no one is killed.
  • St. Louis River, St. Louis, MO – Mayhem erupts at a hydro boat race, when racer Jim Mckay strays off course causing a collision with him and Guido Cappellini. Both are not injured.
  • Phoenix, AZ – A motel catches fire and firemen come to the scene. While trying to put out a fire inside a room, the burning roof suddenly collapses and buries two firemen. Luckily, they crawl out with minor injuries.
  • Monterrey, Mexico – A strong windstorm blows in. An overhead sign is blown down and a bus crashes into it, smashing the front window. No one is hurt.
  • Santa Maria, CA – Midget car racing. Danny Sheridan gets nudged by Michael Smith and spins out of control towards the fence.
  • Hutchinson, KS – A pickup truck smashes into a convenience store, injuring two people. The police said the accident was caused by a mechanical failure in the truck.
47 October 2009
  • Madrid, Spain – The Windsor Tower catches fire and firemen struggle to put it out. An hour and a half later, the east edifice collapses. The fire was not contained until dawn. The building was gutted and had to be demolished. It cost $28 million.
  • Rome, GA – A tower crane collapses onto a car driven by Patricia Ross. She survives.
  • Red Bluff, CA – Jerry Davis's speedboat catches too much air and nosedives. Due to the protective safety capsule, Jerry's only injuries are a broken shoulder and minor cuts and he soon returns to racing.
  • Alicante and Xàbia, Spain – Torrential rains bring heavy floods that destroy a bridge. The flood also pushed several boats into a low bridge, wrecking them.
  • Atco Dragway, NJ – Tommy "Trubble" McTague jumps on cars but then bounces off the cars and lands head-first.
  • USS Ranger 1991 – A fighter jet falls into the sea while landing after the arresting wire snaps. The pilot ejects.
  • Guadalajara, Mexico – Stunt rider Caleb Moore attempts a risky ATV backflip and lands upside down.
  • Buckeye, AZ – A man steals a Corvette and police chase him. He dodges two 18-wheelers, but then loses control and smashes into another 18-wheeler. The driver is ejected from the car, but only has cuts and bruises and is arrested.
48 October 2009
  • Lake Traunsee, Austria – During a powerboat race, an Australian speedboat driven by Peter McGrath and Bill Barry Carter hits turbulence, gets air and barrels rolls down the lake.
  • Phoenix, AZ – When the Valley Metro Rail was installed, the drivers are not accustomed to sharing the road with the Light Rail, resulting in a series of accidents.
  • Queensland, Australia – Brian Marston's dragster wipes out and smashes into his opponent, Mark Beller. The force pushed Bellers's car partially over the barrier, nearly striking a cameraman. Brian is unhurt and rebuilds his car in 3 years while Beller has severe bruises and can only save the engine.
  • Lima, Peru – A paint factory full of volatile chemicals explodes in massive fireballs that are 13 stories high.
  • Vail Pass, Colorado – Cody Smith tries a snowmobile jump but falls off mid way. He breaks his back in 5 different places.
  • St. Louis, MO – A brand new F-4 stalls and crashes on the runway.
  • Oceano, CA – Motocross stunt jumper Tracey Monterone crashes into a crowd.
  • Aurora, NE – Arsons set fire to the Fidelity Building. The building collapses from the fire.
49 22 Oct 2009
  • Wichita, KS – At about 12:37 am at night, an irate citizen suddenly crashes into the Wichita City Hall with his car. Shocked officers chase on foot, while the car drives through the elevator lobby then destroys the X-ray machine. He finally crashes into a car park wall at the end. The man was angry after an earlier incident when the officers told him to turn down the music in his car. To prevent it from happening again, they put concrete blocks around the property.
  • Hemel Hempstead, England – The Buncefield fire.
  • Amateur motocross racer Nate Adams lands upside down attempting to do his first backflip breaking his femur.
  • San Antonio, TX – The San Antonio bus line becomes the scene of multiple accidents. First, a bus driver texts while driving and crashes into a jeep. Then, two buses are travelling at high speed. Suddenly, the bus in front stops and the bus behind crashes into the front bus, sending passengers flying.
  • Western Sydney International Dragway, Sydney, Australia – Darren Morgan is racing his top fuel dragster when it loses a wheel and hit the wall. Darren is OK.
  • Edmonton, Canada – Greg Whitlow rides Lights Out the bull. Lights Out spins recklessly and Greg takes a hit to the head and is knocked out cold. Lights Out continues to trample Greg for a minute until wranglers get it back. Greg spends six months in the hospital and retires.
  • Bilbao, Spain – A bomb explodes near the Termibus stop.
  • Winterhaven, Florida – F1 Boat Racing. Mike Seebold's speedboat sharply veers left and smashes into the water. He's uninjured and races the next day.
50 5 Nov 2009
  • Persian Gulf, off the coast of Doha, Qatar – Boat driver Sheikh Hassan and his throttleman Mateo Nicolini, are racing in The Spirit of Qatar speedboat when it flips and crashes.
  • Querétaro, Salamanca and Guanajuato, Mexico 5/7/07 – The Popular Revolutionary Army or EPR bomb gas pipelines owned by Pemex, Mexico's state-owned natural gas company as a response to the government keeping Mexico in poverty. It keeps burning and exploding for 2 days, about 1200 companies are affected, but thankfully, no one is injured.
  • Louisville, KY – Jeremy Stenberg is at a stunt show when during a backflip, he falls off his bike midway and lands hard on both feet. He recovers not long after.
  • Villa Martelli, Argentina – A chemical factory catches fire. The explosions occur mere feet from firefighters. Injuries are minimal.
  • Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The annual base jump event. Pierre Pascal's parachute opens backwards and he collides with the Petronas Towers. He survives.
  • Famoso Raceway, Bakersfield, CA – Dan Horan Sr comes out of retirement and collides with Mike Chrisman's dragster. Horan is knocked out, hitting the wall several times and suffering a broken vertebrae, rib and concussion and retires again. Mike is unhurt.
  • Lake Hood Seaplane Base, Anchorage, Alaska – A de Havilland Beaver crashes after taking off just feet from an amateur cameraman.
  • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – Hurricane Kenna wreaks havoc on the western coast of Mexico. While documenting the hurricane's fury, Reporter Geoff Mackley is nearly crushed by a collapsing roof.
51 November 2009
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina – A gas station explodes in massive fireballs.
  • Ennis, MT – Police are in hot pursuit of killer George Harold Davis. Davis attempts to stall the police by braking in front of the police car and delivering gunshots while the car stops. Eventually, his car is stopped by a spike strip and tries to get more gunshots in as the police rams into his car at high speeds. Too injured to continue, the police subdue Davis. Two officers are injured in the shootout.
  • Atco Dragway, NJ – Robbie Knievel jumps, lands hard and is launched from the motorcycle.
  • Emmeloord, Netherlands – Jan Van Der Marel and his daughter's rally car wipes out and crashes into a ditch. Both are uninjured.
  • San Francisco, CA – A warehouse catches fire and firemen come to put it out. Then, a burning wall collapses on a fireman. Luckily, he wasn't killed.
  • Reno, NV – Dick Sugden's drag boat smashes into the shore at 160 mph. He jumps from the boat into the water at the last second, sustaining serious injuries to both his legs.
  • Vigo, Spain – A German helicopter performs maneuvers for the audience, but while they swoop down for a trick, they miscalculate their altitude and smash into the sea. Both pilots are rescued, and the helicopter is completely destroyed.
  • Red Deer, Alberta, Canada – Two motorcycle riders attempt to perform simultaneous wheelies. During the attempt, one motorcycle brakes, causing the other rider to smash into the motorcycle. The motorcycle and its rider cartwheels uncontrollably towards a power pole. The rider is rushed to the hospital with a broken collarbone.
  • Perak, Malaysia – The 1993 Pantai Remis landslide.
52 December 2009
  • Sydney, Australia – An enormous gas explosion unleashes a fireball 650 ft in the air.
  • Kalvesta, Kansas – A tornado bears down on a ranch and rips it to shreds.
  • Knightdale, NC – Martin Lunsford's ultralight runs out of power and crashes into the woods. He survives with 2 broken vertebrae, ribs, a fractured pelvis and a punctured lung.
  • Bristol, England – A speedboat smashes into a wall, but driver Guido Cappellini survives.
  • Portland, Indiana – Hill Climb competition. A rock crawler attempts to scale a hill, but it falls, knocks out driver Bob Standage with his foot on the gas and races into the crowd and other cars. While Standage has a concussion, no one else is hurt.
  • Taltal, Chile – A helicopter hits a radio antenna, blows a tail rotor, spins out of control and crashes. The helicopter didn't explode and the pilots survive.
  • California desert – BMX riders jump 113 feet for a music video shoot and gets pulled by a car in order to make the jump. Adam Strieby tries it out, but the car goes too fast, causing him to overshoot the ramp. Adam bails and lands feet first from 30 feet up. He sprained his ankle, fractured a leg and broke 8 vertebrae on his spine. His bike is a loss.
  • Braselton, GA – A series of crashes at the Road Atlanta Speedway.
53 December 2009
  • Eichenbühl, Germany – Speed hill climbing. A race car wipes out and rips to shreds in a ditch before tumbling down the mountain. Two cameramen are nearly hit by debris. The driver, Herbert Stenger is alive, and the car is a $250,000 loss.
  • Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – A propane explosion unleashes mushroom sized clouds and a shockwave that breaks windows.
  • Kennewick, WA – Hydroplane racing. J. Michael Kelly reaches max speed, when his boat suddenly flies into the air and smashes into the water. He climbs out of the boat with no injuries and is back racing a week later.
  • Statesboro, GA – An SUV on the run from police goes into the dirt and gets launched into the air, flipping 5 times, ejecting the driver and lands on its side.
  • Lake Wolfgang, Austria – A freak accident where Walter Mika is flying his biplane when it crashes into a lake and cartwheels nearly missing boaters. He only breaks a vertebra.
  • Brisbane, Australia - Seth Enslow lands hard on a jump and crashes into the barrier.
  • Mission, British Columbia, Canada – A truck driver tries to beat a train, but the truck is smashed violently by the train instead.
  • Salt Lake City, UT – During a demolition, a chunk of building falls on the digger. The operator survives.
54 January 2010
  • Aurora, NE 17/6/09 – A massive tornado rips apart a Nebraska factory and sends storm chasers running for their lives.
  • Hamburg, Germany 1989 - A warehouse storing paraffin wax is engulfed in flames. Concerns arise that the warehouse storing turpentine barrels next door will explode if the temperature gets too high. Eventually, the turpentine explodes. In the aftermath, it takes weeks to clear the wax on the streets, the cause of the fire was an arson, and no one is injured.
  • Cerritos, CA – Robbie Knievel attempts a 100-foot jump, but when he lands, he is thrown over the bars and slides down the road.
  • San Diego, CA – While making a turn, Chip Hanauer's red speedboat suddenly flies into the air and crashes breaking a few bones.
  • El Toro, CA – Rhys Millen attempts to complete a backflip with a truck, but he lands upside down and smashes his truck. He broke his back and suffered a fractured neck vertebra. He has managed to recover.
  • Perth, Australia - A gas station catches fire and explodes near bystanders. No one is killed.
  • Norway - During a snowmobile race, rider Bjorn Tarja Hegley tries a jump, but comes up short and crashes.
  • San Bernardino, California – At the El Mirage dry lake, a helicopter crashes nose up after the engine stopped working. The pilot only has cuts to his stomach while the helicopter is a total loss.
55 January 2010
  • Glendale, CA – A Bakery is hit by a woman who accidentally smashes her SUV into the store. It destroys much of the interior. Five years earlier, the same bakery gets plowed by a car, knocking two customers into the counter.
  • Lisbon, Portugal – A 100-year-old building is eroding. Everyone is evacuated, then the entire building collapses in a heap of rubble.
  • Crested Butte, CO – The first ever Winter X Games. During a snowmobile race, rider Dave Brown crushes racer Jason Jones, seriously injuring him.
  • Vaison-la-Romaine, France – A heavy flood washes away historic buildings.
  • Jefferson, MD – During a hill climb competition, David Price flies off his motorbike mid jump and hurts himself.
  • Oslo, Norway – Base jumping event. A base jumper pulls his chute, but wind blows him off course, and his chute gets snagged on a lamppost. The chute snaps and he falls onto the concrete pavement. He survives with serious injuries to his chest and head.
  • Butte, Montana – Spanky Spangler's attempt to jump 200 feet. He races up the ramp with his car, then comes up short of the ramp. He survives.
  • Cape Canaveral, FL – The Juno II rocket prepares for liftoff. During the launch, the guidance system malfunctions, causing the rocket to veer off course, self-destruct, and explode in a massive fireball feet from the launch pad.
56 2010
  • Spain – A small town near the Atlantic Coast is battered by a massive flood sweeping away everything in its path.
  • Curitiba, Brazil – A chemical plant explodes sending canisters flying hundreds of feet through the air.
  • Lake Elsinore, CA – Rodrigo Ampudia survives a nasty barrel roll in his off-road truck during a race. He sped into a jump and caught too much air.
  • San Diego, California – A car smashes into an office when the driver accidentally stepped on the gas instead of the brake.
  • Fontana, CA – A motorcycle race. Peter Bilicki records the race and Louis Asher, who was in front of him, wipes out. He rolls across the track and takes a direct hit from Peter's bike due to target fixation. Louis is seriously injured and retires.
  • Hiawatha, KS – A tornado comes down and sends debris flying.
  • Marble Falls, TX – Two-time speedboat champion Don Bausher wins a race but his boat goes out of control and rips apart. He's taken to shore and is uninjured.
  • Cape Canaveral, FL – The Atlas-Centaur rocket falls and explodes in one of the biggest rocket explosions in history.
57 2010
  • Heber City, UT – 400 pounds of snowmobile slam down on Steve Medrano's head as he attempts a dangerous backflip. He survives with a gash to his face, 2 fracture vertebrae and a severe concussion. Steve now rides snowmobiles recreationally.
  • Zephyrhills, FL – Skydiver David "TK" Hayes tumbles across a pond when his landing goes bust. He survives with two broken vertebrae in his neck and returns to compete in the sport of "swooping" again.
  • Brands Hatch Circuit, West Kingsdown, England – Chris Martin takes a nasty wipeout during a motorcycle race, crashing into the safety barrier. He escapes with a broken ankle, vertebra and ribs.
  • Memphis, TN – Multiple barrels of toxic chemicals explode, spewing a cloud of toxic gas that threatens the city.
  • Wiltshire, England – Rival racers Peter Chambers and Godfrey Jones crash into a dirt barrier. The only injury suffered by them is a sore neck from Chambers.
  • Tri-Cities, WA – The 2006 Hydroplane Atomic cup. Dave Villwock drives a Miss Elam Plus speedboat that flips and slams into the water. Dave and his crew repair the boat and win the championship.
  • Broadbottom, England 2005 – Comp safari racing with the Northern Off Road Club (NORC). An orange land off-road rover driven by Dave Brown and navigator, tries a jump, catches too much air and barrel rolls 7 times across the hill. Dave is unhurt, and his navigator only has a bruised knee.
  • La Paz, Bolivia – 2 weeks of heavy rain erodes a hillside, and causes multiple houses to collapse.
58 2010
  • Greece – A fire breaks out at a plant storing volatile chemicals. The tanks are sent flying like rocket missiles. Fortunately, only one man is injured and no one is killed.
  • Tapachula, Mexico – Hurricane Stan unleashes a wave of destruction on the community with massive floods that tear up houses, trees and bridges.
  • UT – BMX rider Josh Bender jumps off a 50-foot cliff. He lets go of his bike and slams into the ground, shattering his right ankle and breaking a vertebra. Josh is jumping again 1 year later.
  • San Juan, Argentina – During Turismo Carretera, Ernesto Bessone loses control and runs straight into a wall. The car then barrel rolls eight times with the driver trapped inside. Paramedics free him and he is taken to a hospital and released. Bessone believes his heavy-duty race car chair saved his life during the accident.
  • Chandler, AZ – Michelle Updegraff is racing in her dragboat, but loses control from the get-go and the boat shatters into pieces. She is fished out with several broken ribs, and scrapes and bruises. Michelle later retires from racing due to financial problems.
  • Wilmette, IL – A car crashes into a restaurant injuring 9 people after the driver accidentally hits the gas instead of the brakes.
  • Monroe County, MI - Paul Sagehorn's motorcycle stunt goes wrong when he goes too slow and hits the ramp, flipping him over. He breaks his pelvis in two places and suffers fractures to his foot and tailbone. He successfully made the same jump 9 months later.
  • Aircraft carrier – An S-3A Lockheed jet prepares for take off, but the capult system isn't at the right pressure, causing the plane to roll slowly off the end the carrier. The four crew members manage to eject out of the plane.
59 2010
  • Punta Gorda, FL – Hurricane Charley wreaks havoc in the neighbourhoods, and two storm chasers are caught in the hurricane. They film houses getting ripped apart by the massive winds and a metal roof barely misses them. One of them decides to hide under their car. Damages from the hurricane totalled $16 billion.
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina – A paint factory containing acetone, xylene and turpentine is ablaze. Firefighters continue to douse the flames when the barrels explode. The burning chemicals spill out onto the streets. It takes more than 3 hours to put the fire out, 23 are injured.
  • Crandon, WI – An off-road race. Mike Jenkins loses control and crashes into a fence. The other drivers are thrown off-guard, resulting in a massive pile-up. All drivers are unscathed.
  • Anne Arundel County, MD – Cameraman Ben Smolen tags along with a group of friends going to Travis Pastrana's stunt park compound for Nitro Circus filming. Among the ramps and rides was a backflipping foam pit named "No Right Turn". Smolen decides to give it a try and successfully executes a backflip. He tries again but he misses the pit and smacks his head on a bulldozer. He suffers blunt trauma, a broken femur and rips a huge gash in his chin. He makes a full recovery.
  • Angel Fire, NM - During the first Winter X Games, modified snow shovel racing was introduced. In the quarter finals, veteran racer John Strader raced against Eric Oliver. The race starts, and Strader goes off-course, crashes and flips 360 degrees. He broke his jaw, back and leg, cracked his sternum and bruised his heart, but recovers.
  • San Dimas, CA – Dexter Tuttle's speedboat disintegrates at high speeds and he is thrown like a ragdoll across the water.
  • Shakopee, Minnesota – A snowmobile race. Racer Bobby LePage is crushed by fellow racer Ross Martin. He survives and returns to racing.
  • A series of accidents involving fighter jets on aircraft carriers.
60 2010
  • Queensland Raceway, Queensland, Australia – The 2005 Australian Carrera Cup Championship. Racers drive with modified Porsche 911s. On lap two, Cameron McLean attempts to advance from 4th place and collides with Rodney Jane who was in front of him. McLean's car is sent barrel-rolling across the grass. Although the car is heavily damaged, McLean walks away.
  • Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia – A lightning strike causes a massive oil refinery to catch fire. Firefighters try in vain to cool down the tanks. Suddenly, a massive explosion sends a shockwave that can be felt from dozens of miles away, knocking cameramen to the ground all over the neighbourhood. The fire keeps burning for 20 hours before it is contained. Damages are worth $40 million, 4 firefighters are killed and the plant is fined $200,000 for lapses in safety measures.
  • Fort Worth, TX – A motocross freestyle competition. Thomas Pagès is behind in the leaderboard after a botched landing. In order to keep his place in the competition, he tries to execute the first-ever front flip, but he starts his rotation too slow and lands upside down, nearly snapping his neck.
  • Valdez, Alaska – James Peyrous tries a jump on his snowmobile. Racing down the mountain, he jumps, but a botched landing sends him and the snowmobile tumbling down the mountain. He had to drive himself to the hospital. He has a fractured L-2 and 3 vertebrae, a concussion and a gash on his face.
  • Parker Strip, Colorado River – A speedboat goes out of control at high speeds and crashes throwing driver Henry Hilbrett and passenger James Mayer out. Both survive with only minor bruises.
  • Almuñécar, Spain – A downpour causes a flood that ravages the town. A wall protecting a carpark from the flood gives way and water floods the carpark.
  • A Brazilian bull rider is thrown around by a bull twice.
  • Pine Bluff, Arkansas – A car crashes into a grocery store when the driver accidentally stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake. A woman resting on a bench near the window is hit by the car, dragging her 30 feet underneath the wheels. Another woman is crushed between the car and the counter. The two women were sent to the hospital and survive.
61 2010
  • Taitung County, Taiwan – Typhoon Morakot, the deadliest typhoon to ever strike Taiwan leaves 673 dead and 26 missing. Massive flooding ravages the country and an entire hotel topples and falls into the rushing river. Luckily, no one was inside the hotel when it collapsed.
  • Albuquerque, NM – A sudden gust of wind blows a hot air balloon into a roof of a tent. The balloon hits the roof and a 70 year old passenger falls out. Without the weight of the man, the balloon rises. The pilot deflates the balloon to bring it in for a crash landing. The passenger survives with a dislocated hip and a concussion while the pilot only has a minor leg injury from the hard landing.
  • Valencia, Spain – The annual Las Fallas festival is underway where residents burn statues made out of wood. While trying to ignite one statue, the whole thing explodes, sending wooden planks flying. They used too much fuel. Luckily, no one was injured.
  • Monte Carlo, Monaco – A Ferrari F50 is on a showcase when it starts raining. The car loses control, runs over a woman and crashes into a store front. The woman was okay, and the Ferrari wasn't heavily damaged.
  • Jacksonville, FL – At Peacock's Tattoo parlor, employee Sean Beaucom is talking with a friend on a couch, when a minivan crashes through the store and hits the couch which sends the men flying off. Sean suffers a compression to his spine while his friend has bruises. 10 months later, Sean is sitting outside the parlor when another car crashes into the parlor and narrowly misses Sean who jumps out of the way just in time. To prevent future accidents, bollards are put up at the front of the parlour.
  • British Columbia, Canada – A chemical facility in Fort St. John explodes in massive fireballs.
  • Dansville, NY – The Poags Hole Hill Climb competition. Matt Luna comes up with a green bike, gets off to a fast start, but accidentally launches his bike into the crowd. The bike falls and strikes a man in the head. Luckily, he was okay and no one else was hurt.
  • United States – The SM-65C Atlas prototype missile prepares for launch. A valve malfunction resulted in a loss of tank pressure, causing the entire rocket to explode on the launch pad. This was the only time the launch of the SM-65C Atlas was a total failure.
62 2010
  • Kitzbühel, Austria – A ski competition on one of the world's most notorious ski runs. Todd Brooker comes up with a practice run. During the run, one of Todd's skis shears off, causing him to tumble down the hill at high speeds. He is unconscious and severely injured, but lives. The accident ended his career.
  • Volusia County, FL – Stock car racing. Tim Senic makes a mad dash for the lead, but he hits a guardrail and his car flies off the track and lands upside down. He crawls out unscathed.
  • Los Angeles, CA – The 2007 X Games XIII. Jake Brown comes up for Skateboarding Big Air. He does a 720, but for his final jump, he loses his board and falls 45 feet to the hardwood floor. He is helped up and he walks away.
  • Bakersfield, CA - Randy Monte races in a dragboat when it flips over. His parachute activates and he is thrown from his boat. The boat then seemingly crushes him. Randy soon resurfaces, suffering multiple cracked ribs and a broken shoulder. He retires after the accident and now repairs motorcycles for a living.
  • Voronezh, Russia – A fireworks factory explodes, generating shockwaves that are felt from two miles away.
  • Berlin, Germany – A test where a propane tanker is intentionally set on fire. It later explodes sending shrapnel flying miles through the air.
  • Grand Canyon, AZ – Robbie Knievel tries to jump over a gaping cliff. He succeeds, but his landing goes bust and he tumbles across the dirt. He suffers a severely sprained ankle and 3 broken ribs.
  • New Delhi, India – A bridge collapsed on a metro site. Three cranes are brought in to remove the debris, but all three cranes topple and collapse. Though 6 people are hurt, miraculously, no one was killed.
63 2010
  • NRG Stadium, Houston, TX – Stuntman Mark Hager attempts to set a new world record for a car jump but comes up short and lands upside down. He walks away.
  • Xàbia, Spain – A waterspout makes landfall and a local restaurant is hit by the full force of the tornado. 4 are hurt, and damages to the restaurant are $132,000.
  • Assen, Netherlands 29/6/85 – Round 3 of the 1985 Sidecar World Championship. Steve Webster and Tony Hewitt are in first place when in turn 4, the cold track causes their tyres to lose traction and the sidecar to jerk to the right. They crash into a ditch and the sidecar bounces with Webster still inside. Hewitt is ejected from his seat. Both riders are taken to the hospital and proceed to win the next 3 Sidecar World Championships.
  • A series of bus accidents. First, in San Antonio, TX, an SUV running a red light smashes into a bus, then the bus loses control and crashes into a telephone pole. Then, in Albuquerque, NM, a car turns into another bus, forcing the driver to slam into a wall. And later, in Long Island, NY, a truck crossing lanes is hit by a bus.
  • Camaná Province, Peru – A fire breaks out at a shoe store. Firemen struggle to put it out, then a backdraft explosion injures them.
  • El Colegio, Colombia – a torrential rainstorm in one of the world's most geologically unstable locations triggers a violent landslide that tears up houses.
  • Vernon, NY – A sprint car race. A collision sends two sprint cars cartwheeling uncontrollably down the track, and one smashes into the flag stand, taking two men down with them.
  • United States and Soviet Union – A series of rocket crashes and explosions during the Space Race.
64 2010
  • Eugene, OR – A Mac Store is open and customers are going about their day. When an employee is trying to reboot a system near the door, a driver who mistook the gas for the brake plows through the store. The employee is feared dead, but a window pane from the impact pushed her away from the car. More than $10,000 worth of merchandise is destroyed.
  • Aigio, Greece – A BLEVE explosion fireballs across the road and sends a man too close to the fire running for safety.
  • Perth, Australia – The 2004 Australian Formula Ford Championship. Bryce Washington slows down due to a caution flag, but the racer behind him doesn't, rear-ends Bryce and sends him into the wall. Josh McCowan speeds over the hill after Bryce's crash, and when he tries to avoid other cars, he loses control and brutally slams into Bryce's wrecked car. Josh's car avoids Bryce's head by inches. Both drivers are able to walk away.
  • Skagway, Alaska – Snowmobile rider Jason Adams jumps a gaping ravine, but he lands very hard and spins. He splits open his chin, shatters his jaw, and losses 18 teeth. Jason spent several weeks in the hospital and vows never to ride a snowmobile again. He now sells snowmobiles and teaches others how to operate them.
  • Auburn, CA – A dirt bike race. Bobby "the blaze" Hedden wipes out on a turn and jams his bike's throttle. His bike goes out of control and crashes into the spectators. No one was hurt.
  • Mexico City, Mexico – A bull-riding competition. Rider Javier Diaz gets off to a good start, but after 8 seconds the bull lifts the fence separating the arena from the spectators with its horns. Javier bails, and the bull takes dead aim at the crowd. Most make it to safety, but some stragglers are hurt by the bull before it is brought back by wranglers.
  • Byron, IL – Rob Lacroix, the self-proclaimed "King of Wheelies" because of his physics-defying wheelies with a drag car, tries to perform a wheelie on a track. The drag car flips and lands upside down. Rob crawls out. The track was slippery due to a recent rainstorm and that caused his accident.
  • Beartooth Mountains, MT - A raging wildfire has Ron Michaelson and his friend trapped and has blocked all possible means of escape. As the wildfire slowly closes in on them, they decide to release their horses. Ron signs off as he proceeds to run for cover. The next morning, the two campers survive the fire and their horses have returned. Not a single tree was left standing in their campsite, more than 30 acres were burned down.

References[]

  1. ^ "Several Discovery Channel Fan Favorite Series to Return for Second Season". The Futon Critic. March 30, 2009.

External links[]

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