Posted by Impalement is not just an ancient torture: it can also happen by accident, against a fence, a spiked gate or a post. In this article I tell five modern cases, from the Arkansas truck driver to the 12-year-old English boy saved by a neighbor who held him up for 45 minutes. Some are documented by newspapers, others are stories that circulate online and could not be fully verified.
When we talk about impalement we think of a method of torture used in various historical periods, but it is possible for someone to be impaled by accident. Here are 5 real cases of “modern impalement”. This article contains very graphic descriptions and is not recommended for particularly sensitive readers.
1) The impaled driver in Arkansas
The photo of this accident comes from an emergency room in Arkansas and has been circulating online for years. It is often accompanied by a text about a motorcyclist who survived, but that is not the case: no one knows for sure how the accident happened, and the most likely hypothesis is that the victim was a truck driver.
After going off the road, he reportedly crashed into a wooden fence, and one of the posts went through the truck’s engine, driving under the seat and then into his body.
According to this version the man reached hospital alive, but later died of infections. However, I could not find news sources confirming the story, so take it with a grain of salt.
2) Peter Langdown
On June 3, 2002, while England was celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee, 19-year-old Peter Langdown had just passed his driving test and been given a car. He left his village party in Kent to get some petrol in Hawkhurst with his cousin Adam, 17.
On the way Peter tried to overtake a motorbike, but clipped the curb on the opposite side and lost control of the car, crashing into a fence.
When a passing driver, Neville, approached the car, he saw that Adam seemed fine, but that a wooden fence post had smashed into the car and gone through Peter’s chest, pinning him to his seat. A fire had broken out near the dashboard, close to the fuel line.
With the help of other rescuers, Neville managed to free Peter from his seat and drag him out of the car, with the post still in his body. As soon as they reached the other side of the road the car exploded into flames. Peter survived, and his story was told in 2016 in the British TV series Saved.
3) Siyana Pasiwe
This story, said to date back to 2008, tells of a man, Siyana Pasiwe, who was fleeing a museum in South Africa after setting off its alarm.
In his hurry to escape he allegedly climbed a tree, but slipped and fell onto the spikes of the museum gate, impaling himself.
His screams reportedly drew the attention of passers-by, who called an ambulance, and firefighters had to cut the gate to free him. Once he recovered, he was allegedly tried for attempted theft. For this case too, however, I could not find confirmation in newspapers of the time.
4) Josh Hassan
In July 2013 Josh Hassan, 12, was playing football near his home in Chadwell Heath, near Romford, Essex. The ball went over a metal gate and Josh decided to climb over it to get it back.
Unfortunately he slipped, and one of the gate’s iron spikes, about a foot long, went into his chest just under his left nipple, coming out on the same side.
A 21-year-old neighbor, Chris Spalding, ran outside and held him up for 45 minutes, so that his weight would not push the spike in deeper, until firefighters cut through the gate. Josh was taken to the Royal Free Hospital with the spike still in his chest and operated on immediately. Doctors told the family the spike had stopped about two and a half inches from his heart.
Josh later said he barely felt any pain and only realized how serious the wound was when he unzipped his jacket. He decided to keep the spike as a souvenir and, according to his rescuer, the next day he was already back outside playing football.
5) Ceyda Oruk
Ceyda Oruk is a 35-year-old Turkish woman from Adana. She was walking home with her daughter when the little girl noticed a mulberry tree in a school garden and asked her to pick some. Ceyda decided to climb over the gate, but
unfortunately she slipped, and her shoulder was impaled on the spikes of the gate.
According to reports, she kept her cool and managed to call for help. She remained impaled for about 20 minutes before an ambulance arrived, and rescuers had to cut off the section of gate stuck in her arm to take her to hospital. Luckily she suffered no serious injuries and was discharged after 24 hours.
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