Original Post: 12:17pm March 21, 2006

I'm not wild about unions, and I happen to think the strike by college professors in Ontario is a waste of taxpayer money & tuition. I have very little sympathy for these pampered elites at the best of times, but this is just too much.

The London Free Press reports on an "accident" that could have been completely avoided, and tries to pull as many heartstrings as possible.

After a confrontation with a motorist, the striking accounting teacher fell off the hood of a car and slammed his head on the pavement, witnesses said.

"The car just kept going and the poor man slipped and was injured," said Hill, a teacher at the college. "We were holding his hand, covering him up with blankets. We were just talking to him, reassuring him."

Okay, taken at face value, this section from the top of the article makes it sound like the teacher, Mr. John Stammers, was hit by an angry motorist. But read on...

Strikers have had the "odd brush" with motorists but nothing like yesterday's incident, she said.

Stammers apparently touched the man's 2001 Toyota Corolla as it tried to pass by, said Jiantee Jagessar, a teacher who witnessed the exchange. That's when the fight began, she said.

The driver got out of the car and the men began bickering, she said.

"I didn't expect it to escalate to that extent," she said.

She saw Stammers climb on the Corolla.

"The guy accelerated and John fell off the hood," she said.

If this guy dies from his injuries, I am nominating him for a Darwin Award.

UPDATE

It's official. John Stammers is now a nominee for this year's Darwin Awards:

A 62-year-old college teacher who was involved in a collision on a picket line outside a Toronto college has died in hospital.

John Stammers, a professor of accounting at Centennial College, was critically injured after being struck by a car while on picket duty on March 20.

Police said no charges are pending in the accident since they don't believe the driver committed a criminal offence.

The article didn't point out that Stammers brought about his own death by being an idiot.