Sam Wilson, 25, is a new front runner in the 2014 Darwin Awards. Wilson, from Bingham in Nottinghamshire, was driving his car to a scrap yard, expecting to get £150 for it. However, he had the bright idea of taking parts off it with the intention of selling them separately.
He had removed all the doors, the bonnet, and – judging by the photos – most of the lights, including the indicators. The article doesn’t say anything about the brake lights, but since they are part of the rear cluster, and since the article definitely states that there were no indicators… well, you have to hazard a guess. In fact, look closely and you can see that the rear cluster is gone.
An article in the Telegraph confirms that Wilson really was that stupid, and didn’t have any brake lights either.
Championing his Darwin Awards nomination, Wilson said after he attended court:
The car didn’t have any lights on it, but my argument was that it was daylight.
It didn’t have any signals either, but I used arm signals to indicate…
…Wilson added he thought the car was safe to drive because it still had an MOT certificate…
In the Telegraph version he also claimed:
…there were kit cars on the road that also lacked features such as doors and lights.
You need to get your eyes tested, Sammyboy. You won’t see many cars without brake lights on the roads. Except for ones like yours. The police didn’t share his wisdom. They said:
It wouldn’t have taken much to realise that the skeleton of a vehicle Wilson was trying to drive on the carriageway was not roadworthy.
It beggars belief that he thought he could drive it without anyone having concerns.
It isn’t clear how or why Wilson thought the scrap dealer would pay the full £150 after he had taken the very parts off it that those who go to scrap yards are looking for which justifies that scrap value in the first place. He was eventually paid £70 for it which meant – after his £250 fine and shiny new three-points on his licence – he made a loss of £180 on the deal. Mind you, as a student I’m sure he got some great selfies and will have a great tale to tell in the Student Bar for a while.
It never ceases to amaze me that people think an MoT certificate somehow covers them no matter what condition their car is in at the time it is examined while out on the road. If a bulb breaks as you are driving away from your MoT then the car instantly becomes “unroadworthy”, and you are liable.