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Comment by mhh__ | Hacker News Reader

The younger guy in this clip actually ended up retiring because he got brain damage in a contraption he designed for this show.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58762935

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> The injuries happened when Mr Stansfield, who was 42 at the time, filmed a Bang Goes The Theory feature about the relative safety of forward and rear-facing child car seats.

> The episode saw him "strapped into a rig like a go-cart which was propelled along a track into a post".

I'm sorry but to me this reads like something out of Darwin Awards.

Exactly, this is what dummies (the inanimate ones), cameras, and sensors are for O_O

That’s why he was awarded around half of what he demanded, because BBC shared the responsibility by accepting the stunt, but he was also responsible for doing it.

> That’s why he was awarded around half of what he demanded

Which is why he asked for 4x what might be fair? I’m being facetious: I have no idea. I am just saying there is little constraint on how much damages you can reasonably ask for.

Doesn't the BBC contract out to production companies so that they're not liable as a huge organization for one small show's dumb actions? Seems odd, but maybe that's not a thing in the UK.

UK courts generally see through such things.

See through some things, but not through others? How about hiding billions of pounds worth of corrupt money in London real estate? Not so much.

That’s more of a problem of a lack of cases brought by the government than a problem with the courts. The courts have generally seen through such things quite well when the government actually brings forward cases.

This is bizarre. He knowingly, purposefully took the place of a crash test dummy? Why?

I assume he was focused on doing the experiment he (and dozens of other people) lost sight of the consequences.

As we say in America: “Hold my beer.”

Edit: Or more charitably, they underestimated the consequences.

Pretty much the latter.

This wasn’t Jackass, it was a science programme and he was the resident engineer. In theory he knew what he was doing but underestimated the risks and paid the personal consequences.

Apparently they used to do that. Here are people demonstrating the safety of seatbelts by crashing their car https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWy0hHHECdM

"Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville and this is crash test humans"

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