Today’s Plummeting Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The only high-speed motor vehicle fatality not suspected to be a suicide was that of Elroy Ponyah, age 17. On May 1, 1971, Ponyah missed a turn and drove his Ford sedan off Highway 64 at Tappan Springs Canyon. The vehicle leaped the gorge and hit the opposite wall 40 feet lower where it burst into flames. Ponyah’s skeletonized remains were discovered by a hiker on May 10.
The wreckage of Ponyah’s car
Bennett Hanna experienced an almost unbelievable accident on Hualapai Hilltop on August 19, 1972. Hanna had just dropped off some friends at the trailhead into Havasu. As he backed up to turn his car around, he reversed too far and plummeted backwards off the vertical edge for 500 feet.
Culled from: Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon
Ghastly!
Yosuke Yamahata photographed the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 10, 1945. Here’s one of his haunting images from the book Nagasaki Journey: The Photographs of Yosuke Yamahata, August 10, 1945.
“We saw a person running blindly in what he must have believed was a safe direction, but he was running on feet of bone—shock and fear prevented him from realizing that the flesh of his heels was gone. When a rescue team pointed out his grave injury, the man immediately lost consciousness and collapsed. We couldn’t bear to watch this event straight on—it was like something in a nightmare.” – Jun Higashi
“The only high-speed motor vehicle fatality not suspected to be a suicide was that of Elroy Ponyah, age 17.”
Some words are obviously missing from this sentence — unless it refers to some alternate universe I’m not familiar with. 🤷🏻♂️