Skip to main content

Students received charges

Five Canadian students received criminal charges when a fun prank they planned went wrong. The engineering students had intended to lower the carcass of a Volkswagen Beetle car from the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge in Vancouver. The students clearly need to spend more time studying as they miscalculated the stresses involved and the cables they selected failed under the load. The car then fell into Vancouver harbour and the students were arrested and charged for causing over C$5,000 of damage. Canadian engi
February 23, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Five Canadian students received criminal charges when a fun prank they planned went wrong. The engineering students had intended to lower the carcass of a Volkswagen Beetle car from the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge in Vancouver. The students clearly need to spend more time studying as they miscalculated the stresses involved and the cables they selected failed under the load. The car then fell into Vancouver harbour and the students were arrested and charged for causing over C$5,000 of damage. Canadian engineering students have a history of car dangling attempts, which is used to publicise engineering week at the University of British Columbia.

Related Content

  • Study reveals high levels of US motorcyclist fatalities
    April 26, 2013
    A report by the US Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) estimates that motorcyclist deaths increased around 9% in 2012, with over 5,000 killed. This is greater than had been expected by the US Government and if the data is confirmed, 2012 will be the 14th out of the last 15 years in which motorcyclist fatalities have increased. This shocking data is in marked contrast to US road fatalities overall, which have dropped. Motorcyclists remain one of the few roadway user groups where no safety improvemen
  • Research shows fall in US motorcyclist deaths
    May 13, 2014
    New research shows a drop in motorcyclist deaths in the US. The figures compiled for the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) show a 7% drop in motorcyclist fatalities in the US in 2013, compared with data for the previous year. However, the GHSA cautions that poor weather in 2013 may have had an effect, reducing the total distance travelled by motorcyclists and therefore the numbers of crashes. Research shows 2013 to be only the second year since 1997 in which there has been a drop in motorcyclist d
  • Scotland’s new Queensferry Crossing over the Forth Estuary
    December 23, 2015
    The new Queensferry Crossing under construction in Scotland will be the third landmark bridge spanning the Forth Estuary - Mike Woof writes When the new Queensferry Crossing over the Forth Estuary opens at the end of 2016, it will be the third landmark bridge to be built spanning this short stretch of water. Lying alongside the existing road bridge and the historic rail bridge, this new structure will be as groundbreaking as the two earlier crossings were at the time of their construction.
  • Spencer Group cable access for Pattullo Bridge
    July 3, 2023
    Spencer is working on behalf of Fraser Crossing Constructors GP - a joint venture between Acciona and Aecon - on the suspension bridge near Vancouver, Canada.