That’s what it was, witnesses agree: a green, 6½-foot wooden panel which came sailing down under a clear blue sky and slammed into a man’s head. The New York Post says:

Sources say the victim, described as a male between 60 and 70-years-old, was walking northbound on Fifth Avenue near 30th Street around 4 p.m. when a green, six and a half foot wooden panel became loose from a surrounding safety wall and struck the victim in the head. The man fell to the ground near the road, bleeding.

The panel pulled off from a safety wall. God does mock our pretensions from time to time, doesn’t He?

“There is a lot of blood on the ground,” an on-site worker said. “They put sand on the ground to cover it up.”

Witnesses said two women attempted to keep the man awake while another man diverted traffic.

The victim was reportedly groggy, but remained alert and conscious throughout the entire ordeal and was transported to Bellevue Hospital by emergency units for further evaluation.

The condition of the victim was unknown at press time.

This entry was posted in When Guns Are Outlawed… on by Hognose.

About Hognose

Former Special Forces 11B2S, later 18B, weapons man. (Also served in intelligence and operations jobs in SF).

5 thoughts on “When Guns are Outlawed, Only Outlaws will have Wooden Panels

Alan Ward

Having seen a wind whipped sheet of 3/4 spruce knife through a 1/2 inch clad stud wall, I’d say he was lucky to be around still if that is the outcome.

Flying wood has been a man hazard since Neanderthal days.

Greg

No doubt a Neanderthal with a JD after his name will become involved…

Tom Stone

Howard Flitcraft?

Haxo Angmark

early 1980’s, I’m calling in for work from a public phone at Madison and 60th. It’s around noon, lots of pedestrian traffic. A flower pot of some weight falls from above and hits a guy squarely on the head. He drops and lies still on the sidewalk with a pool of blood around his head. I call 911 to get an ambulance. Meanwhile people continue to step around and over the body; no one tries to help. After a few minutes some woman steps out of the doorway near him, looks around furtively, quickly sweeps up the dirt and broken pottery, and runs back inside. New Yorkers continue to step over and around the body. Then, quite suddenly, the guy gets up, dusts himself off, and walks away. Ambulance arrives. Nobody there. I move carefully away from the phone, get on my bike, ride away

on another occasion, around 8 AM on a cold winter day, I come out in front a a building on W. 57th after making a delivery. Suddenly slip on the ice and fall backward, hitting my head, hard. I lay there stunned but conscious. There’s a guy reading a newspaper, executive type, walking down the icy sidewalk toward me. I lay there hopefully, expecting a hand. But still reading the newspaper, he steps on my chest, looks around for a moment, and continues on down the sidewalk

Quill_&_Blade

My mother taught Red Cross first aid classes. I wish I could remember some of the bizarre stories, maybe I can ask my brother or sister. Two I remember: Two guys live next door to each other, both are in their front yards, one of them is using a power lawn mower. The other guy suddenly falls over. Turns out a needle was in the grass, and was sent through the neighbor’s heart. Another story, guy’s working at a construction site, somehow gets impaled clean through with a long pipe, or 2 X 4 (don’t recall). His coworkers had the knowledge to leave the object in place, lest he bleed to death. He survived.