A New Zealand man who drove into a power pole after using dishwashing liquid for brake fluid has been honoured with a Darwin Award - given for idiocy.
Darwin Awards recognise "individuals who ensure the long-term survival of our species by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely
idiotic fashion".
Author Wendy Northcutt has gathered them into a book highlighting unintentional, foolish, bizarre, avoidable injuries or deaths.
Three New Zealanders appear in her latest book.
The dishwashing liquid man did not actually kill himself, so had to be content with a "notorious" award, for those who do foolish harm to themselves.
He opted to use dishwashing liquid as a cheaper alternative to brake fluid.
Perhaps predictably, his brakes failed as he tried to steer around a bend. His car slammed into a powerpole.
He was washed up: his car was not registered, and his licence had been suspended, so police charged him.
He was sentenced to 220 hours of community service and further licence suspension of a year.
Two New Zealanders won posthumous awards.
One man jacked up his car to repair it, using a car battery under the jack to create more height.
The battery collapsed, the jack toppled over and the car crushed him.
The other was killed when he apparently overrode the protection system of a food processing plant by putting a weight on a lever which shut the machine down. He suffered fatal injuries when he was pulled into the machine.
Past award winners have included terrorists who set their bombs on daylight saving time and delivered them on standard time, blowing themselves up.
People who tried to put garlands around a tiger's neck have been honoured, as have Cambodian men who took turns to stomp on a land mine they had brought into a bar.
* The Darwin Awards IV, NZ$27.00, published by Penguin Books
- NZPA
