An 18-year-old actor who said he was inspired by the TV-series "Jackass" donned a heavy white costume on Sunday and lay down on a highway through the Norwegian town of Askim. One motorist narrowly managed to avoid hitting him, but a second couldn’t stop and ran over the teenager. He died instantly, and two colleagues filming the stunt face criminal charges.
The teenager and two colleagues, aged 23 and 28, had been performing in a children’s theater in Sweden and were on their way home to Oslo when they decided to stop and take a break in Askim Sunday evening. Suddenly, according to the two colleagues, the 18-year-old donned one of their costumes based on the Moomin characters of Finland (called Mummitroll in Norway) and asked them to film him. He then proceeded to lie down in the eastbound lane of the busy E-18 highway near the Sekkelsten intersection, an area marked as having a high accident risk and where the speed limit is reduced to 70kph (about 40mph).
The driver of the first car that approached swerved over the center line to avoid hitting him, and came to a screeching halt. The 18-year-old wouldn’t give up the stunt, and with his colleagues still filming, he continued to lie in the road.
The next driver, who came along just 20 seconds later, was unable to swerve or stop quickly enough and ran over the 18-year-old. His colleagues kept filming. You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose....
Now they face charges for failing to force their colleague off the road and for thus endangering both his and others’ lives. Both told police later that the stunt wasn’t planned. The driver of the car that hit the teenager was in shock Sunday night. Police who have reviewed the film of the stunt were also shaken by what they saw. It was impossible for them to know whether the teenager had other motives for lying down on the busy highway.
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