Drunken horsing led to death
A coroner’s report on a death by misadventure last February paints a portrait of a drunken jape in which a man tried to impress his friends with antics on a 34th‑floor balcony of one of the Tours des Canadiens. He lost his grip. Not much more to be said.
Robert H 12:35 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
«Les analyses toxicologiques effectuées au Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale ont démontré que M. Mahadeo avait un taux d’alcoolémie représentant plus de deux fois la limite d’alcool permise pour conduire. Des traces d’amphétamines ont également été trouvées.»
I find this so tragic, bizarre and haunting, I admit to finding solace in having my suspicion that mental impairment via alcohol and drugs was involved confirmed. I don’t want to be smug, but it seemed to me the most likely way such an event could have occurred is if the decedent were under the influence. It also resonated with me that the unfortunate was male, too. No female would be foolish enough, even after a few shots or pills to do something so foolhardy. This brought to mind an essay I read by the late American novelist John Updike about the toll mayhem takes on men relative to women. Putting the most positive spin on it I could ever imagine, he praised what he called “the superior recklessness” of the male relative to the female. This recklessness of course being inextricably connected to all manner of advancements and achievements technological and cultural, a dubious premise. He was implying that to accomplish anything meaningful, you have to be willing to go to the edge. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ve been drunk a few times before, but never all out high as a kite. What I have seen in others of that behaviour convinced me to never let myself go like that. I’m sure I’ve missed some good times, but I’m still alive and relatively intact.
Bert 14:04 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
Robert, are you serious? What about the woman who died crossing train tracks, between rail cars and was crushed / died, a few years back. From what I remember she was a bartender, so presumably might have consumed alcohol. Stupidity has no sex.
JP 14:32 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
My reaction is similar to Bert’s…there was another train crushing incident as well, where the woman lost her legs and survived a few years. They were coming back from the bar that’s now near the new ferris wheel. They had decided to squeeze through the rail cars too.
There’s also this “trash the dress” trend….more women participate in this than you’d think:
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/canadian-bride-words-dragged-death-water-logged-wedding-gown-trash-dress-photo-shoot-heavy-article-1.1145343
JP 14:38 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
Not that it matters, but I identify as a woman.
I just felt that part of Robert’s comment made no sense.
Kate 15:06 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
JP, a Montreal woman lost her life during a “trash the dress” photo shoot ten years ago in a stream with falls near Rawdon.
JP 15:13 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
Kate, yes, I think I linked to the same story as you. It is sad.
One would think that it’s logical that all that material is going to dangerously weigh you down in water. There’s a reason people take off their clothes before jumping into the water for a swim or to save something/someone.
Blork 15:23 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
I’m trying to find a connection between falling off a balcony and getting hit by a train and I’m finding none. In the case of the balcony, the guy apparently climbed over several times and climbed back successfully, so what he was doing was pure DAREDEVIL BRAVADO.
In the case of the woman getting hit by a train she was just trying to get home. It’s not like she was deliberately playing chicken with the train.
Similarly, the “trash the dress” stunt was not about daredevil bravado. It was just following a stupid meme. The woman probably didn’t even realize what she was doing was very risky.
Do people really not see the difference?
Kate 16:40 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
JP, oof. Yes, you did.
Blork, I think the point is that women can do stupid things that go wrong, too.
The reddit sub called “whatcouldgowrong” has a preponderance of men, but there are certainly plenty of examples of women doing dumb stunts too.
Blork 16:56 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
I agree that stupidity has no gender bias. But there’s a certain TYPE of stupidity that you see far more in males — particularly young males. And that’s a kind of stupidity where the only payoff is a lot of shouting and feeling brave or whatever. RECKLESS BRAVADO stupidity.
Compare that with the train tracks and wedding dress examples above, where the goal was a specific payoff that had nothing to do with bravado, and the stupidity was the result of poor risk assessment. (Whereas the male stupidity is all about the risk; higher the risk, better the payoff.)
Robert H 16:57 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
Bert, JP, of course stupidity has no sex. But there is a specific variety of often boorish, capricious, derring-do for-its-own-sake playing with danger that’s disproportionately reflected among males. What’s more, despite the evolution in beliefs about gender this trait is still encouraged among boys and men as a desirable characteristic of masculinity. We get the message explicitly and implicitly from peers early as little boys when they dare and crudely taunt each other (C’mon! You scared? Pussy!). Boys grow into teenagers and young men who pull stupid, Jackass-style stunts (fueled by alcohol, amphetamines, etc.) for badass points with buddies and babes. Just in case we missed that, pop culture reinforces the message via TV and movies (for example) all the way from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in the silents to Tom Cruise hanging off planes in the latest action flick. The woman who died trying to cross between train cars made a deliberate, albeit foolish choice with the objective of getting from point A to point B. The young, would-be bride was not intentionally risking death, but a victim of her ignorance about the weight of a soaked voluminous gown and the strength of river currents. Blork approaches my thinking on this when he described the young man’s plunge off a Tour des Canadiens balcony as an act of daredevil bravado. This fellow put on a hey-everybody-let’s-get-shitfaced party and amongst his fellow-revelers decided to take a chance, for fun, rep, kicks, whatever. There was no other objective that could be met by his act, unless he had dared his friends he could descend to the floor below without elevator or stairs. This is the distinction I’m making. The closest I come to this behavior is hopping on a bike and peddling on the city streets, and that’s as close as I care to get, thank you.
JP 18:42 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
Fair enough. I get what both of you mean now. It resonates with me as a driver. Whenever I witness speeding or aggressive driving it’s *usually* men. Also, whenever I hear cars revving their engines, it’s always a guy driving. How anyone finds that sound remotely pleasant is beyond me…
Bert 19:22 on 2022-08-09 Permalink
Is Bobby H, Mr. Qatz?
Kate 08:15 on 2022-08-10 Permalink
Bert, I don’t think so. Consistently comment over time from different IPs.
Robert H 09:16 on 2022-08-10 Permalink
Me? Definitely NOT, I wouldn’t know him if I passed him in the street..