Google me: Children, don't try these at home - or anywhere

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Reality television got a strong dose of the real world this week as Touchdown Productions, the company behind Celebrity Treasure Island, was hit with $65,000 in fines and reparations for injuries a competitor suffered in its show Going Straight.

There is no shortage of discussion on Google of good stunts going bad, whether that involves professional stunt artists or people who just like taking a risk.

Tap in the phrase "stunt accidents" and you get a lot about the R-rated practical joke-cum-stunt show Jackass. A production of MTV in the United States, and also a movie of the same name (which grossed $105 million), it has spawned a lot of copycats and not a few accidents.

The movie, for example, shows actors performing potentially deadly stunts such as the "human barbecue" in which a man sets himself on fire to grill steaks.

One of the most recent copycat incidents in the US, says Hood County News, involved a 12-year-old boy struck by a car while lying in the street with a pillow as his friends videotaped the accident. He was last reported in a critical condition.

The videotape Jackass doesn't solicit videos of home-made stunts - the movie includes a warning to viewers that it doesn't accept submissions and not to try the stunts at home - but it appears a lot of kids send them anyway.

Other Jackass-inspired accidents:

* A teenager in Vancouver got burns to 85 per cent of his body after an apparent Jackass-style stunt went wrong. The 15-year-old poured fuel over his trousers and set himself alight in the grounds of a school. A cleaner put the flames out with an extinguisher, says the Vancouver Sun.

* Florida teenager Paul Smith leaped from the roof of a five-storey house intending to end up in the pool below. Only his torso and arms made the water and the 18-year-old was taken to hospital in a critical condition. The site ABC Action news reported his accident.

On the acerbic blog site stupidevilbastard.com 36-year-old Les Jenkins comments on the Paul Smith story and says: "Kids, if you're going to do this stuff all I can say is good luck to you. But if you screw up I'm going to point you out as a good example of what not to do and if your parents try to blame everyone else, well, I'll be here to call them asshats for it. Have fun."

* Even the stunt pros get caught out. The list of stunt people killed on film sets is staggering. Between 1980 and 1987, there were 17 deaths, among them people working on The Dukes of Hazzard, Magnum PI, The Twilight Zone, and Top Gun.

Author Michael McCann says: "The observed increase in stunt-related accidents appears to have two causes: the trend towards realism, and the increased use of special effects, such as fires and explosions.

"Whereas 10 years ago helicopter chase scenes would have been simulated, today they involve live action. Helicopter accidents alone have resulted in at least eight fatalities in the last eight years in the United States."