Walt nominates Texas woman for Darwin Award

Walt is happy to see that the Official Darwin Awards website is still up and running, although apparently not getting a lot of new stories of late. For the uninitiated, the Darwin Awards are given -- posthumously -- to unfortunately individuals whose stupidity and/or bad luck has resulted in their untimely demise, thus removing them from the gene pool. Here [as seen by Ed. today. Ed.] is an example.

Every girl who aspires to be a model should have in her portfolio a shot posed standing on a railway track. Right? The thing is, someone -- either the model or the photographer -- needs to keep an eye out for oncoming trains.

From Navasota TX (just down the road from Houston) comes the sad story of Fredzania Thompson, a 19-year-old Texas mother-to-be, killed when she was struck by a train last Friday while having photos taken on the tracks in a bid to launch a modelling career.

The last photo of Ms Thompson, shows her standing between two sets of tracks in Navasota when a BNSF Railway train approached. She moved out of the way of the train but was apparently unaware that a Union Pacific train was coming in the opposite direction on the other tracks. Ms Thompson was killed instantly. The photographer was unhurt. [Who directed this? Chuck Jones? Ed.]

Ms Thompson's mother, Hakamie Stevenson, told The Eagle newspaper that her daughter attended Blinn College in Bryan, Texas, but wanted to put her education on hold to begin modelling. Walt won't give in to the temptation to end the story, as Ms Thompson's career ended, with phrases like "on track" or "off the rails". RIP.