Saturday 13 July 2013

"Man killed by a 1.5 tonne* cow after it crashes through his corrugated iron roof"

H/t Steve Abbott, from The Daily Mail:

A Brazilian man died after a cow crashed through the roof of his home and landed on top of him as he lay sleeping in his bed.

Joao Maria de Souza, 45, had been in bed with his wife Leni when the animal suddenly fell through the ceiling of their home in Caratinga, south east Brazil. The cow is believed to have escaped from a nearby farm and climbed onto the roof of the couple's house, which backs onto a steep hill.

The corrugated roof immediately gave way and the one-and-a-half-tonne horned bovine fell 8ft onto Mr de Souza's side of the bed. His wife, and the cow, both reportedly escaped unharmed.


Tragic but bizarre - were they not woken by the sound of a 1.5 tonne cow climbing on to the roof? Was it some sort of special stealth cow?

* In case you're wondering what that is in real money, it's 1.4763 imperial tons, i.e. pretty heavy.

8 comments:

James Higham said...

Came straight over the moment I saw it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362522/Man-killed-1-5tonne-cow-crashes-corrugated-iron-roof-slept.html

... but it seems you're already up to speed.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, ta, but bloody hell, Blogger has started sending your comments to spam as well.

Unknown said...

It looks like short comment plus hyperlink = Go to Spam, Go directly to Spam, do not pass Go, do not collect £200.

Unknown said...

Typical DM, can't tell the difference between corrugated iron and corrugated cement board. The first gives a lot of audible warning of collapse, the latter gives none.

Mark Wadsworth said...

MC, yes, that appears to be the case.

But this doesn't help in working out how to tell Blogger that neither you nor JH should be treated as spammers indefinitely.

Anonymous said...

I used to live in an intensively agricultural, beef-farming area, and was sad enough to be interested in some of the breeds.
I suspect some journalistic licence here with regard to the weight of the cow. Assuming they mean cow in the sense of female, a really, really big beast (say a Belgian Blue) would weigh in at about 3/4 of a metric tonne. A merely big one (say a Charolais), a few hundred lbs less.

Even a Belgian Blue bull wouldn't get to 1.5 tonne. And they are some bloody frightening size, believe me.

Sorry, can't help with the spam filter :-)

Mark Wadsworth said...

FT, that's a good point, see here.

So perhaps it was two cows, weighing 1.5 tons together?

Anonymous said...

Crikey. Working in unison for the bovine greater good? That introduces a layer of complication...