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January 2001, New Zealand -

The west coast of New Zealand is threaded with narrow, windy roads
that climb and descend the hills at improbable angles. A Christchurch
driver with little patience for those dangerous curves was preparing
a hot cup of tea in her car when she learned one last lesson about
respect for the road.

Nothing, but nothing, could keep our Darwin Award nominee from her 
afternoon tea that day. Well all right, one thing could keep her from 
her tea. Karma. While she was trying to brew a cuppa, her car plunged 
over a precipice and into a creek. The woman was found dead three days 
later, still holding a box of teabags, with a mug wedged against the 
steering wheel and a thermos of hot water beneath her feet.

There were no brake marks on the road.


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