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| Scott May Dare Devil stuntshow at Detling Kent where a stuntman died during the show |
The Scott May stuntshow team were performing at Detling Showground in Kent today (Monday 25 April 2011) with their blend of driving skills and stunts. The show started at 3pm and having performed for nearly an hour with car crashes, two wheel driving and motorbikes flying through flames the show turned to the human cannonball stunt. Having counted down from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 the cannon went off with a huge bang and a cloud of smoke. At this point something drastically went wrong and the landing net collapsed as the stuntman was being fired from the cannon.
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| Kent Air ambulance landing at Scott May stunt show in Kent |
The stuntman was propelled from the cannon some 30 to 40 feet in the air and at the point of landing the net was lying flat on the ground giving nothing to break his fall against the hard Kent clay. Initially the crowd thought this was an even more dramatic stunt by Scott May's team but it soon became apparent that something had gone seriously wrong as the lone St John's Ambulance volunteer made his way across the arena. Ten minutes or so afterwards an ambulance car arrived on site followed by a South East Coast ambulance. After another 15 minutes or so the arena was cleared for the Kent Air ambulance to land. The paramedics rushed to the location where the stuntman was being treated and continued the treatment that their land based colleagues had begun.
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| Scott May human cannonball - the vehicle that fired the stuntman prior to the tragic accident |
Some 40 minutes after arrival the stuntman was moved into the land based ambulance and driven away to Maidstone hospital. The air ambulance flew off empty shortly afterwards. By this stage a number of police cars had arrived and officers had begun interviewing bystanders to get a picture of what had happened. The BBC have now reported that the stuntman was age 22 and was pronounced dead at Maidstone hospital.
Our video of the whole incident has been passed to the police and the HSE are now conducting a full investigation into a workplace death.
UPDATE: According on one comment left on the YouTube video below the FMX Driver also broke his ankle on the Friday 22nd April 2011
Video of the Scott May Human Cannonball act
UPDATE: According on one comment left on the YouTube video below the FMX Driver also broke his ankle on the Friday 22nd April 2011
Video of the Scott May Human Cannonball act
Scott May's stunt show has been running for 20 years and has toured the UK many times. We saw the show when it came to Sittingbourne Kent in 2003 and took this video footage of the Human cannonball as it is meant to happen.
