[TheBest-Host]

http://www.tbt.com/tampabay/news/article18624.ece

Those who have a sword at home, it might be safe to take down a sword from the wall.. Let's be safe. Such loss of human being is non-sense.


=====================================

Fatal sword accident leaves trail of disbelief
Thursday, March 9, 2006


http://www.tbt.com/multimedia/archiv...06__11764d.jpg Courtesy photo
Joshua Hershberger

Joshua Hershberger, 15, sat with his 14-year-old brother and his 9-year-old sister in a bedroom in a quiet home in a typical Brandon neighborhood on Monday night.
They were bouncing a ball. The ball - about the size of a basketball - hit the wall and jarred loose a 29-inch ornamental sword that fell on Josh, who was sitting on the floor, cutting him in the neck and shoulder. Within a few hours, he was dead.
"It's just a strange thing, man," said Shawn Kart, a neighbor who ran to help.
Josh's mother told WFTS-Ch. 28 that she had bought the fantasy swords for her children for Christmas from a store called Classic Imports in Brandon. The swords come with tip protectors, but the protectors had probably fallen off the one hanging in Josh's room, his mom said.
Neighbors and friends tried to make sense of something so awful and random.
"One of them freak things that happens," said Richard Spidel, 53, who lives a few houses away.
"Weird," said Tracer Waltz, 16, who used to play football with Josh in the street.
Josh played football for the Brandon Cowboys varsity squad the past two years, but he wasn't a jock. He was honor-classes smart and joined the Future Business Leaders of America last year. He played electric guitar and listened to Cradle of Filth and Marilyn Manson.
A hearse has been a fixture at the family's house for some time. Neighbors said it showed up before Halloween and was part of a yard display. They said Josh was to drive it when he turned 16 next month.
Josh's parents, Paul and Trina, are upstanding people, their friends said. Paul served in the Army for years and now works as a computer technician for a fertilizer company.

[AntonioXYZ]

hmmm, maybe..... dont sit under it? besides, that was probly one of those 10$ CHEAP CHEAP! ULTRA CHEAP wallhangers that is a sharpened piece of metal. either way i do feel bad for the kid, but lets think, we are all kendoka's, and we like SAMURAI swords, meaning sheathed swords. keep em in the sheath.

[Teareerah]

While I feel bad for his parents and friends, I tend to be a bit of a cynical bastard. My feeling is that if someone is stupid enough to place an unsheathed sharp sword on the wall, and then sit under it while someone bounces a ball off of said wall, then their demise can only help the gene pool in the long run.

Sad stuff happens all the time, and so does stupid stuff.

[Pmeidstc]

Call me cynical, but thank goodness it was a "fantasy sword". Can you imagine the a) media beatup and b) possible legal consequences for kendo/jutsu and iai pratictioners if it had been a... [cough, splutter] "Samurai Sword"? (katana or Nihonto for those in the know )

[Obenuearema]

yeah, this is why kit-ray is laying low!

[MpNelQTU]

Is it wrong that I find the most shocking part of this article to be that the kid's parents got him a hearse?

This is actually pretty old news down here. My Grandma was actually using it to try and convince my parents that I shouldn't be doing Kendo.

[gMUVgw71]

...My Grandma was actually using it to try and convince my parents that I shouldn't be doing Kendo.

Did it work? Tell Granny you're not likely to die from a sword made of grass (that is, of course, what bamboo is) and that kendo is not a basketball-throwing/sword-flinging biathlon event.

[Johnny]

Come on guys. You surely can't suggest stupidity on the part of the boy for sitting under it. All kids have a sense of safety in their own home and it is the parent's responsibilty to make it safe. Hanging an unsheathed and unsecured sword on the wall does not make it safe. If this happened at the workplace then the company would have legal action taken against them.

The parents are at fault here.

[mloversia]

Come on guys. You surely can't suggest stupidity on the part of the boy for sitting under it. All kids have a sense of safety in their own home and it is the parent's responsibilty to make it safe. Hanging an unsheathed and unsecured sword on the wall does not make it safe. If this happened at the workplace then the company would have legal action taken against them.

The parents are at fault here.

read this


veryyyy carefully


pgsmith


and live up

to your

professionalism


forever!

[emorbimefed]

Did it work? Tell Granny you're not likely to die from a sword made of grass (that is, of course, what bamboo is) and that kendo is not a basketball-throwing/sword-flinging biathlon event.

Obviously it didn't, 'cause I'm still doing it. Ehh...She just can't understand how an activity that involves me being hit over the head with a stick over and over and over again could possibly be fun.

[netamargr]

If this happened at the workplace then the company would have legal action taken against them. That just says that something is wrong with the legal system. Stupidity often pays off in today's society. That doesn't make it right though.

Kensen-butt-oh-sigh ... I can only hope that you sit under sharp swords that are hung on your wall with push pins. The samurai did it you know. You should give it a try. It would be much easier than trying kendo, since we all know that you're too wimpy to handle that.