Canadian killed by unsecured laptop during car wreck

Here's a tip folks: don't get in car wrecks. If you someday find such a situation unavoidable, however, here's another: keep that laptop of yours in the trunk, or at least in a case tucked down behind the driver's seat. Mounties in British Columbia are reporting that a Canadian woman who perished in a car accident last month was actually killed by the laptop within her vehicle. As the story goes, the 25 year old's vehicle was struck by a tow truck, flinging her laptop into the rear of her head. A coroner pegged the cause of death as a "blunt force trauma," and investigators believe that the whole thing was survivable had the machine not been in the back seat. Not surprisingly, officials are using the incident to encourage others to secure their belongings whilst traveling.

[Via Switched]

[Braden @ Apr 16th 2009 5:03PM]

First!

[Greg @ Apr 16th 2009 2:01PM]

what's with the "encourage others" link leading to articles tagged "safety"?

[CraigJ @ Apr 16th 2009 2:10PM]

makes sense to me...

[OneLove @ Apr 16th 2009 2:53PM]

sue the laptop maker!

[Jasonbot @ Apr 16th 2009 4:26PM]

lol! I thought that by unsecured they meant the wifi had no password X.x FAIL

[Graham J @ Apr 16th 2009 4:23PM]

"the whole thing was survivable had the machine not been in the back seat."

So, just do what's pictured above and you'll be fine.

[Techie @ Apr 17th 2009 12:06AM]

Sucks if you would get killed by a stack of Playgirl magazines.

[The Police @ Apr 17th 2009 12:07AM]

Someone could sure use a corona

[mickey @ Apr 18th 2009 1:42AM]

It killed her because there was too much RAM in it.

[darkmax @ Apr 16th 2009 2:01PM]

Sheesh people just don't know how to l;eave their things securely in their cars. even a pencil can be a fatal projectile in an accident, much less a laptop.

[Samboini @ Apr 16th 2009 2:33PM]

I'm sure she did it on purpose and didn't inadvertently leave it lying around like 99% of all other motorists. The key here is not to crash; even a handful of change will do you over as your face hits it at 70 mph +.

[Jake B @ Apr 16th 2009 3:17PM]

Subwoofer boxes can do this as well, except the big heavy box makes more of a splat noise when it his someone at high speeds.

[John @ Apr 16th 2009 3:47PM]

If a subwoofer hits your head during a car accident, and no one is alive to hear it, does it make a splat noise?

[ProfessorDex @ Apr 16th 2009 4:09PM]

Nope, makes a dull thud.

[tekd @ Apr 17th 2009 2:50AM]

I've been in a crazy high speed accident before and it was pretty surreal where everything in my car ended up. It was a hatchback and stuff from my glove compartment ended up by the rear window, and stuff from the back of the car was in the front. CDs and napkins and power adapters were everywhere. Thankfully the only heavy thing I had (a club) was on the floor.

At any rate, this laptop is a good example of why you should always make sure your rear seat passengers are wearing their seatbelts. I have a friend who has the annoying habit of always secretly taking her seatbelt off in the back seat of my car when I wasn't looking. Then one day my car got sideswiped by a bus (thankfully the way it hit my car it only pulled my bumper and front fender off) while she had again taken her seatbelt off. And now she always remembers to wear her seatbelt.

If the bus had hit my car at a slightly different angle she'd have been a human projectile like this laptop. And not only would she be hurting herself badly, people unbelted passengers can fly into the other passengers in a car, including the front passengers and injure or kill them. Two skulls smashing into each other at 50mph isn't good.

[darkmax @ Apr 16th 2009 2:02PM]

At least she gets to be entombed with "Death by Laptop".

[brian @ Apr 16th 2009 2:33PM]

I wonder if it had Intel Inside.......

[hemmy @ Apr 16th 2009 4:05PM]

C'mon, this was a tragic accident. Incidents like these weigh heavily on my mind.

*runs away*

[iLoveApple @ Apr 16th 2009 2:02PM]

She obviously wasn't using her head.

[Joe @ Apr 16th 2009 2:03PM]

Good thing it wasn't a Macbook Air!

[Hackettman @ Apr 16th 2009 2:08PM]

Or else it mightve beheaded her.....

[Michael Wilde @ Apr 16th 2009 2:16PM]

Heh.. MacBook air--cause of death--decapitation.

[Dead_Rebel @ Apr 16th 2009 2:03PM]

Women drivers.....

[bangladeshiluv @ Apr 16th 2009 2:07PM]

so unfunny you jerk

[GeekGirl @ Apr 16th 2009 2:27PM]

sorry we drive better then men, thats who hit her:(

[TREX6662k5 @ Apr 16th 2009 2:41PM]

She was covered by Sheilas Wheels.

[*Just some girl @ Apr 16th 2009 5:43PM]

It would be wise to the read the article before you comment.

Can you recall the last time you read an article about a fatal car accident, that involved a woman behind the wheel?

[Greg @ Apr 16th 2009 2:04PM]

what's with the "encourage others" link leading to articles tagged "safety"?

[Warren @ Apr 16th 2009 2:04PM]

Not that it matters...but any word on the make/model of the laptop? Granted, anything traveling 65+ mph colliding with your skull will probably kill you - but just wondering.

[Kate F @ Apr 16th 2009 3:24PM]

It was a PC, probably HP by the look of it. There are pictures on almost all Canadian news sites with the mother holding it.

On the other hand, Engadget's suggestion to keep the laptop secured behind the driver's seat wouldn't have helped much, since that's where it was and it had actually come from of the case it was contained in.

Bravo on *actually* reading the articles guys.

[Chuckles McGee @ Apr 16th 2009 3:47PM]

Yeah, can I buy it on eBay?

[Wwhat @ Apr 16th 2009 8:05PM]

I call BS, all cars have headrest, how the hell is she going to be hit in the head by a laptop? Probably foul play by some friend of the police, it's always the simple explanations eh.

[Vance @ Apr 16th 2009 2:05PM]

Darren, did you just use the word "whilst"? :0)

[Kaiser @ Apr 16th 2009 2:06PM]

Quick! Pass a law to protect us from ourselves!

[sarah conner @ Apr 19th 2009 12:43AM]

as so the war starts, judgement day is upon us, the machines are taking over.

[Greg @ Apr 16th 2009 2:07PM]

Austin Powers: Not the time to lose one's head.
Vanessa Kensington: No.
Austin Powers: That's not the way to get ahead in life.
Vanessa Kensington: No.
Austin Powers: It's a shame he wasn't more headstrong.
Vanessa Kensington: Hmm.
Austin Powers: He'll never be the head of a major corporation.
Vanessa Kensington: Okay, that'll do.
Austin Powers: Okay.

[George @ Apr 16th 2009 2:10PM]

Whilst I am sad for her death :( - thank you for bringing up Austin Powers :)

[Alex @ Apr 16th 2009 2:09PM]

This is actually the main reason they make you put away your laptops/mp3 players/etc on airplanes during takeoff and landing. They know they won't interfere with the plane's electronics, but they just don't want sizable electronic devices flying across the cabin when the plane hits turbulence during takeoff or landing.

[Samboini @ Apr 16th 2009 2:36PM]

I'd be intrigued to see a report whereby a seemingly innocent pencil or similar killed its owner during a particularly hairy patch of turbulence.

[Malaycobra @ Apr 16th 2009 2:51PM]

Yeah. You have to put away a 8 ounce MP3 player, but not a hardcover book. Go figure...

[To: Hell @ Apr 16th 2009 2:10PM]

Laptops don't kill people, tow truck drivers do.

[Samboini @ Apr 16th 2009 3:00PM]

GLC?

[a @ Apr 16th 2009 2:12PM]

actually the laptop had its own mind and was plotting the attack for years without the owner's acknowledgment. this case should be documented as the one of the first robotic uprisings.

[sweet greggo @ Apr 16th 2009 2:16PM]

Darwin's theory at work.

[coffins outside the door @ Apr 16th 2009 4:19PM]

Please explain, in your words, this "theory."

[cake @ Apr 16th 2009 2:18PM]

Must've been a toughbook.

[Greg @ Apr 16th 2009 2:26PM]

Update:
They found out it was Dell, and that the accident was apparently a suicide attempt. A self-written suicide note written on MS Word said, "I can no longer go on being a Dell. I'm far inferior. Give my best to the Adamo and the upcoming smartphone."

[cake @ Apr 16th 2009 2:36PM]

Hey, it looks like you're writing a letter.

[Jay @ Apr 16th 2009 2:21PM]

It's sad what happened to her. And to be honest, most people just throw there stuff in the back when they're traveling and don't really worry about it. Some of the comments on here are rather condescending as if they never do that - whether it was laptop or bag of groceries.

My question is, does her car not have a head rest? When I sit in my car, my whole body covered from the back by the seat itself and the headrest. Even if the person's tall, it can be extended and the bars would probably hold the laptop from going through.

[aj121489 @ Apr 16th 2009 4:12PM]

Yea I'm kinda surprised/disappointed that everyone on here is so quick to joke and label her a dumbass because she left something in the back seat. Don't get me wrong, I have a pretty good sense of humor and joke about shit that I (if I were politically correct, which I'm far from) shouldn't but she was KILLED in an accident that (if I'm reading correctly) wasn't even her fault...