Australian man dies after 'planking'

[News_Editor]

Australian man dies after 'planking'

2011-05-16 03:34:56 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA (BNO NEWS) -- An Australian man fell seven storeys to his death when participating in the internet craze of "planking," The Australian reported on Sunday.

The 20-year-old was in a unit in Brisbane when he tried to "plank" on the rail of a verandah but fell off. "Planking" involves a person lying straight, face down, with the arms beside the body and fists tightly clenched, impersonating a plank, preferably in a bizarre location.

The results are then posted on the internet, specially on social networking sites. Planking Australia's Facebook page went from 10,000 fans to 24,000 over three days last week.

Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Ross Barnett said it appeared the man had fallen "while attempting a planking episode". He added that the man had been planking with a friend in various spots on their way home, before preparing to lie on the balcony rail.

"He has tragically lost his footing and fallen to the ground below. It is what we've been fearing," Barnett said.

Last week, police arrested a Gladstone man who was photographed "planking" on the back of a police car.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-05-16

[Goshawk]

planking !?

never heard of it, til i read this post.. but after a quick search on YouTube & watching people actually 'doing it', all i can say is...

plonker(s)

[RKASA]

More proof of Darwin's thoughts - let them be weeded out the natural way.

PS it is not like this is harmful to the gene pool.

Edited May 16, 2011 by RKASA

[Ulysses G.]

This should be a warning to the rest of us. No planking. No drag racing. No bungee jumping. No mountain climbing. Etc.

[DP25]

These high rise planking accidents are really common in Pattaya

[BaronCasey]

Evidently he was a complete plank... (boom boom)

[geriatrickid]

It's rather sad. He looked like a nice kid. Young adults and teenagers do dumb things because their sense of danger is not the same as the old folks that judge them. When I was a kid, I used to trespass in a rail yard. Looking back on it, it was incredibly dangerous and idiotic.

[Wallaby]

Yes I recall being at school as a young lad and if it looked like I was going to miss the train one of my friends would force the doors open and I would run beside the train and jump in. Many times I only just made it before the end of the platform. What went through my head to do something like that is just beyond me but it was commonplace.

Poor guy looking for his 5 minutes of you tube fame.

[CrankyCarrot]

There's something funny about the whole concept of "planking" that might have a particular appeal to the Aussie sense of humour. I'm Australian, and the description of how to "plank" in the police report cracked me up - the death resulting death from doing it 7 floors up, not so much.