Mythbusters Send Cannonball Through Minivan And Home
Have you ever wondered what kind of damage a cannonball can actually do? Well the crew from Mythbusters found out yesterday when their experiment went really wrong. The ball was fired from a cannon, hence cannonball and was supposed to land on a nearby hill. Well, it went over the hill and through the woods into grandmother's house but first also sliced its way through her minivan. Thankfully no one was hurt but production on the show has been stopped to allow for an investigation.
20 comments:
I love them, but it was only a matter of time. Thank god nobody was hurt.
Idiots.
Haha...over the hill and through the woods to grandmother's house we go.
Glad no one was hurt.
^^^LOL, Patty.
My oldest son watches this show religiously. He's a science nut.:)
Wonder what myth they were investigating?
I love these guys (and this show) and I am surprised this happened. They are always very safety conscious and are usually pretty good on measuring how far their projectiles will hurl. Glad no one was hurt!
This was a spectacular mishap, but they were trying to test safely. They were using the County's bomb disposal range, for pete's sake:
...the crew fired a homemade cannon toward huge containers of water at the Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb disposal range.
The cantaloupe-sized cannonball missed the water, tore through a cinder-block wall, skipped off a hillside and flew some 700 yards east, right into the Tassajara Creek neighborhood, where children were returning home from school at 4:15 p.m., authorities said.
There, the 6-inch projectile bounced in front of a home on quiet Cassata Place, ripped through the front door, raced up the stairs and blasted through a bedroom, where a man, woman and child slept through it all - only awakening because of plaster dust.
The ball wasn't done bouncing.
It exited the house, leaving a perfectly round hole in the stucco, crossed six-lane Tassajara Road, took out several tiles from the roof of a home on Bellevue Circle and finally slammed into the Gill family's beige Toyota Sienna minivan in a driveway on Springvale Drive.
That's where Jasbir Gill, 42, who had pulled up 10 minutes earlier with his 13-year-old son, Manvir, found the ball on the floorboards, with glass everywhere and an obliterated dashboard.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/07/BA1D1M99V5.DTL
Holy shit. Gotta be a freak accident.
Do car and home insurance policies cover cannon balls? I need to check my policy.
I really enjoy Mythbusters when my brother makes me watch it (which isn't often since we don't live in the same house). I would imagine the network will cover the costs of repair.
oh please oh please!!! don't let this be the end of mythbusters! They are one of the best shows on TV - fun, scientific, zany and educational. I can't go back to watching all the other crap that is out there.
Hopefully the network can resolve this soon and make it right.
Isn't it pretty obvious what a cannonball would do? I've only watched 1 or 2 episodes of this show but this one seems like it was more for fun than actual answers.
That cannonball was on a mission! Wow Squeezbox. Thanks for that.
What kind of cannon were they using? Two miles is a long way to go.
Also, I hope no one decides to go "sue crazy" over this. The network is going to pay for all damages, and the people it happened to have an extremely intersting story they can tell people the rest of their lives! Bringing in lawyers is just going to make the story more boring.
I love those guys! And wow that cannonball was on a mission.
My small claim to fame was one day I actually was driving next to them on I-80 heading back from the Bay Area to Sacramento. I actually got a smile and wave from them. Love em!
I saw both of them when they received an award from the Harvard Humanist group--they ran what they called their "greatest hits" of explosions, talked about what they did, and took questions from the audience. I love those guys...especially after Jamie pointed out, "Basically we blow sh*t up." :-) (And yes, when they say not to try this at home, this kind of thing is the reason why--they're professionals who take all kinds of precautions, but this still happened. Can you imagine if Joe Blow down the road tried something like this? I'm thinking that joke about a redneck's last words being "Hey, hold my beer...")
Squeezebox, now I can't stop thinking of "The Magic Loogie" from Seinfeld.
Wouldn't have happened if Scottie was still around. Miss her still .. she was a hoot. Glad no one was hurt.
@sueli: "...the gravelly knoll...a second spitter!"
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