Driver loses hand in Jeep explosion in Spokane

[jsr]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/moving-jeep-explodes-in-eastern-washington-city/2014/01/25/92e1d704-85ef-11e3-aff8-191f8d178325_story.html

Driver loses hand in Jeep explosion in Spokane
By Associated Press, Published: January 25

SEATTLE — An explosion from a firecracker inside a moving Jeep blew off the driver’s hand early Saturday and scattered debris over half a block in Spokane, prompting initial fears over the man’s intent, police and neighbors said.

Witnesses saw a flash of light from inside the vehicle, a red Jeep with a gray top, as it drove down a residential street, police said.

Donald Wilkes, 61, said the blast rattled his house and woke up everyone inside. He initially thought someone had crashed into his parked truck, and when he ran outside, he found the street filled with smoke and the Jeep stopped just against his 6-foot-tall cedar fence.

“I looked around for something that got hit, but there was nothing,” Wilkes said. “My son reached in to pull the keys out of the ignition and make sure he didn’t go anywhere, and that’s when we saw his hand was missing. It blew it right off at his wrist — they found part of it half a block away.”

[Art_from_Ark]

1. Firecracker?

M-1000 sounds more like a miniature stick of dynamite.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. That is no firecracker!

We had similar 'fireworks' growing up in SC where they sell everything. We wanted to be far away when they exploded. We might have been crazy but we weren't stupid.

[notadmblnd]

2. it wasn't a little firecracker if it took his hand off

it was a big one.

[hlthe2b]

4. That headline is deceiving and so wrong.. The injury had nothing to do with the Jeep

automobile and EVERYTHING to do with the firecracker.

Shame on WAPO... they ought to get sued over that.

[librechik]

6. My complaint too! n/t

[malaise]

8. +1,000 n/t

[Dash87]

5. Don't you love when a news story leaves you with more questions than when you started?

Everything about this - why?

[jsr]

7. Eh, because he wanted to celebrate New Year's Eve with a sleeping family?

Inquiring minds wanna know.

[jmowreader]

10. He did it last night!

I realize a lot of people in Washington State still think this is 2013, but celebrating New Year's Eve on the 25th of January is ridiculous.

[jmowreader]

9. A satisfied customer of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe!

There is a fairly good-size reservation just a few miles from where I sit. The sale of fireworks in late June and late December are one of the tribe's primary sources of income, along with their casino, tribal convenience stores and wheat fields. They sell all the highest-powered fireworks, shit you're NOT supposed to take off the Rez - but people do it all the time.

They have firecrackers suitable for blasting stumps.