Trebuchet!
How did I manage to miss this? From 2004, a story about 2 members of the Oxford Stunt Factory - an unofficial Oxford University club - being charged with manslaughter after another member died after being fired from a trebuchet which they built:
David Aitkenhead and Richard Wicks were involved in the building of the trebuchet that killed 19-year-old Wadham student Kostadin Yankov, known as Dino to his friends.
Dino was thrown nearly 100 feet by the trebuchet, and was supposed to land in a safety net “the size of a tennis court”, but fell short, suffering severe spinal and leg injuries. He later died in Bristol’s Frenchay hospital.
The biochemistry student had travelled to Middlemoor Waterpark in Somerset to experience the “human catapult”. He was joined by around 20 other members of the Oxford Stunt Factory.
The original story is 2 years older.
I’m not totally sure I understand this. A guy willingly loads himself into a fucking trebuchet, lets someone launch him towards a comparatively tiny safety net, dies in the process, and this is somehow someone else’s fault?