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Firework Kills Woman in Front of her Kids

wxyz.com — MELVINDALE, Mich. (AP) - A 27-year-old Lincoln Park woman died after a commercial-grade firework exploded in her face in a car wash parking lot as her children and her fiance looked on, police said.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 6, 2007

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  • unusualbob, on 10/11/2007, -16/+233Darwin Award anyone? I think the last thing you would want to do with fireworks is look into the explosive end. Thats just stupidity at work.
  • Coven, on 10/11/2007, -6/+127Her kids looked on. She's already bred. Her genes live on. No Darwin Award, unfortunately.
  • NikoKun, on 10/11/2007, -9/+126You just know that they will use this as an excuse to further ban fireworks... some people are stupid... you can't fix it... so stop taking things away from people that do stuff right...
  • Ladymongoose, on 10/11/2007, -4/+112This sucks, but for god's sakes, who is dumb enough to bend over a box of mortars while lighting them? She had no idea waht she was doing, nor the danger involved, apparently. I feel for her family, especially her children, watching her die.
  • Radworld4, on 10/11/2007, -8/+75Judging from her choice of action I'd say it dook off the the body part she used the least.
  • AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -7/+68It's her fault, she looked into the morter tubes after the fireworks wouldn't launch..

    Common sense says that she shouldn't of done that.
  • herodrink, on 10/11/2007, -8/+67BOOM HEADSHOT!
  • Error601, on 10/11/2007, -2/+49As far as I know, you already can't buy 3" mortars anywhere in the US unless you're licensed.
  • LogicBomB, on 10/11/2007, -0/+44She used *COMMERCIAL GRADE* fireworks. No ***** she died. Has she every seen a commercial grade fireworks show? Firstly, it goes from ground level to hundreds of feet in seconds, they explode with a radius about the size of a football field and worst of all, SHE LOOKED OVER IT.

    My lord, and her husband agreed to this idea? I'd say arrest him for being an accomplis to endangering the children but that would just further scar the kids (although with their genes they won't last long anyway).
  • arkansaspilot, on 10/11/2007, -6/+49natural selection.
  • _skin_, on 10/11/2007, -8/+48That sucks. What a horrible way to go.
  • Namrok, on 10/11/2007, -1/+40Wow. I'm amazed she never stuck her hand in a blender when it jammed, used a knife to get her toast out of the toaster, or tried to dry off her dog in the microwave. I mean seriously, putting your head directly over a 3" commercial mortar? Hell, even the 1" mortar shells I used to get from North Carolina would probably kill you if you were dumb enough to put your head over the tube. Had this woman NEVER handled explosives before, and then jumped straight to the professional grade stuff?
  • SocialPoison, on 10/11/2007, -9/+42Darwin Award I think

    Commercial Grade (3'' mortar) firework?
    "She stuck her head over the top of it and it went off"

    Nicely done
  • Akaji, on 10/11/2007, -6/+37Common sense says that "shouldn't of" is not a proper phrase. You meant "shouldn't have".
  • Pilot85, on 10/11/2007, -6/+37you know what? As stupid as this was, I still can't find myself heartless enough not to find compassion for her children and fiance, who had to watch her die.
  • bookishboy, on 10/11/2007, -5/+35Wow, fireworks sure are dangerous. I thank god that I live in a state where the politicians and police help to protect me from my own mistakes. (they do this by arresting you and seizing your car for auction). Thanks to them, I don't have to fear being harmed by a bottle rocket that I might want to bring back from another state and light off in my backyard.

    I wonder if this ONE death-by-fireworks is statistically significant compared to the number of folks who died in car accidents two days ago.
  • Kr4t05, on 10/11/2007, -1/+30As tragic as it is, the article makes it clear that this lady was at fault for what happened. Not that she deserved to die in front of her family like that... However, she had Commercial Grade fireworks without a permit, and without permission to be lighting them at the car wash in question. Then, as if to punctuate her disregard for safety and regulations (and common sense), she sticks her head over a mortar that didn't immediately go off.

    Sounds like Natural Selection to me.
  • TheBean, on 10/11/2007, -3/+31These articles involving kids seem harder to read now that I have kids...
    (kids witnessing the event)
  • trer, on 10/11/2007, -1/+27Watch...lawsuit. I guarantee it. Somehow it will be the manufacturer's fault that she looked into the explosive end of a 3" mortar.
  • airwalkery2k, on 10/11/2007, -3/+26Tell that to practically every neighbor around me.
  • BlackAle, on 10/11/2007, -3/+25I see dumb people
  • Azimuth1, on 10/11/2007, -12/+33She went out with a bang.
  • jwdarkstar, on 10/11/2007, -1/+21Judging the close proximity that the mortar cake was from her family it's lucky she didn't kill them all. If one of those tubes had misfired they'd all be dead. This is exactly the reason that licensing is required for large professional type fireworks displays
  • raybury, on 10/11/2007, -1/+18A unmarried mother of multiple kids who has a job in a carwash exhibits bad decision-making? Whoa.
  • Akaji, on 10/11/2007, -1/+16Cockfag? That's a new one...
  • dictum, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15This is why I always visually inspect mortar cylinders which don't go off immediately after I light the fuse.
  • Anrkist, on 10/11/2007, -3/+17Maybe she couldn't read the giant warning on the box "DONT PUT YOUR FREAKIN FACE IN FRONT OF THE FIREWORKS".

    Pic of her in video =p (It did happen!)
  • TheAkolyte, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13Apparently she couldn't remember all the lessons daffy duck gave us.
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16Stupid is as stupid does.

    - Mrs. Gump
  • mt066, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13My usual approach when lighting fireworks is (1) hold lighter next to fuse, (2) run away at full speed as soon as the first spark flies off the fuse.

    And that's just for the little crappy fireworks, not commercial-grade mortars. Maybe I'm just a big wuss but it has kept me alive so far.
  • GraveyBrains, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12That was the real deal, hence the investigation by the BATF. You need a license to use that kind of stuff.
  • Dhalgren, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11Fiance, not husband. Although, he's probably been her fiance for 15 years...
  • tehpwnrate, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11I don't even put my face over the "safe and sane" fountains we have here while I'm lighting them, let alone something like that.
  • Jergens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11This happened about 3 miles from my house.
    It's worth noting that the kind of people who work at a car wash, yet still manage to gather over $1000 for a fireworks display are probably not the smartest peanuts in the turd.
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14More chlorine for the gene pool please...
  • tb0n3r, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11The type of fireworks used in this were banned by state law. And, as we all can see, banning something makes them go away entirely, right?
  • bobonut, on 10/11/2007, -7/+17While I feel for the family, this incident is clear evidence that we need to reduce government restrictions on fireworks. Perhaps if the government gave away fireworks the percent of Americans who believe the Sun revolves around the Earth would drop to 0% ?
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11That's why I still say take the warning labels off EVERYTHING and let the stupid ones do themselves in. It'll leave more smart people to breed.
  • RockStrongo1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10I helped a friend of mine set up a professional fireworks show on the 4th, and I can tell you that those shells are not to be ***** with unless you know what you are doing. Even then, there is a fair amount of risk. For a $14,000 dollar show, the insurance alone was $2,500. Those shells have so much energy behind them that I don't know how you would survive if you got hit in the dome with one.
  • glasnostic, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11Did anybody else think of the beginning of Idiocracy when the video started listing her kids?
  • nicepants, on 10/11/2007, -3/+12Ugh, this is the type of person who would look down the barrel of a canon when it doesn't fire....oh, wait....that's what she did.
  • 1b2a, on 10/11/2007, -37/+46What an explosive experience
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Well, hopefully this will be an instance of (at least) mental evolution at work. Maybe the kids will actually have enough brains to NOT stick their face over lit fireworks.

    So, in the end, Darwin FTW! (maybe)
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9"Those shells have so much energy behind them that I don't know how you would survive if you got hit in the dome with one."

    Apparently, you don't survive.
  • sabach, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8On New Years Eve 1999 I stepped outside just before midnight to hear all the fireworks going off. I heard lots of bottle rockets, firecrackers and some M80s, then I heard what must've been a couple sticks of dynamite. All the other fireworks stopped, I think everybody knew there would be cops crawling all over the place after that blast.
  • spyrochaete, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7People who speak English say "shouldn't have" because that's a grammatically correct series of words with a meaning. People who speak American say whatever the hell they want. Y'all.
  • kurtwinter, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Crap headline. It wasn't a "fireworks show" it was an idiot who was lighting fireworks illegally, and there was no "twist" because this is generally what happens when stupid people are combined with dangerous objects.

    In other news, the worldwide IQ average just moved up a hair.
  • bobpaul, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6In a free society, we should at least be free to kill ourselves. Anyone who's purchased consumer grade mortars knows they come with instructions and are safe if those instructions are followed. Commercial grade, as she was using, require a pyrotechnics license and probably don't come with instructions as you need to be licensed to use them.

    Fireworks are dangerous to the user and those around them if the user doesn't know what they are doing. Same thing goes for driving a car, rock climbing, sky diving, mountain biking in groups, and pretty much anything else that gives fun and excitement to our otherwise miserable existence.
  • cbarge, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Pretty much everyone here is calling this poor woman an idiot. I don't want to sound like a contrarian here, but how many of you have done one completely stupid thing in your life that should have injured or killed you? There's no evidence that this lady was a complete moron in all walks of life. I guess sympathy is a rare commodity these days. (I'm gonna get buried so fast)
  • cbreaker, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7Sure, I feel compassion, but c'mon, what a ***** mistake. SHE ACTUALLY STUCK HER HEAD ABOVE THE LAUNCH TUBE AFTER LIGHTING THE THREE INCH MORTAR SHELL!

    Holy *****! I mean, I feel bad that someone can be that stupid, and that her kids won't have a mother now. But you can't refute the sheer stupidity of her error!
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