The Darwin Awards are given each year to that individual (or what
remains of him), who through single-minded self-sacrifice, has done
the most to remove undesirable elements from the human gene pool.


The 1999 "Natural Selection" Darwin Awards:

5th RUNNER-UP: Goes to a San Anselmo, California man who died when he
hit a lift tower at the Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the
slope on a foam pad. David Hubal, 22, was pronounced dead at Central
Mammoth Hospital. The accident occurred about 3 a.m., the Mono County
Sheriff's Department said. Hubal and his friends apparently had hiked
up a ski run called Stump Alley and undid some yellow foam protectors
from lift towers, said Lt. Mike Donnelly of the Mammoth Lakes Police
Department.

The pads are used to protect skiers who might hit towers. The group
apparently used the pads to slide down the ski slope and Hubal crashed
into a tower. Investigators determined that the tower he hit was the
one with its pad removed.


4th RUNNER-UP: Goes to Robert Puelo, 32, apparently being disorderly
in a St. Louis market. When the clerk threatened to call the police,
Puelo grabbed a hot dog, shoved it into his mouth and walked out
without paying. Police found him unconscious in front of the store.

Paramedics removed the six-inch wiener from his throat where it had
choked him to death.


3rd RUNNER-UP: Goes to poacher Marino Malerba of Spain, who shot a
stag standing above him on an overhanging rock and was killed
instantly when it fell on him.