In Makoti, North Dakota, local daredevil John Smith, otherwise known as The Flying Farmer, was taken to intensive care due to crashing his Chevrolet Caprice during a jump. It was his first jump since 2016.
According to the Bismarck Tribune, rescue crews had to use the Jaws of Life on Smith’s car to get him out after he crashed going off a ramp. Currently, he is out of intensive care and awaiting surgery for a “slash” on his arm and shoulder. Smith was lucid when emergency officials got to him, but was “pretty out of it” at the hospital, according to Smith’s daughter, Amanda. Apparently, he didn’t remember anything of the incident.
John Smith had entered into a competition with his son Brian to see who could jump their car the farthest. According to Amanda, he was “confident but at the same time hesitant,” and she remembered him joking that he was too old to do the jumps anymore. Smith planned to go 80 mph and jump 200 feet, according to the Tribune. His son Brian his 90 feet with his successful jump. Amanda said Smith’s jump was doomed from the start because of the direction of the sun.
Smith has been jumping burning trailers and onto frozen lakes at fairs and festivals since the 1990s, and gained himself a good amount of state-wide fame. His daughter was around for many of his jumps, but she’d “never seen one end this badly,” Amanda told the Tribune.
Daredevil Jumps Bridge in Florida
Another daredevil made a jump that ended much better in April 2021; in Daytona Beach, Fla. a vehicle approached a drawbridge, then sped up to jump across it, breaking the crossing arm. The surveillance video shows the SUV’s windshield was smashed with the impact from the arm.
There was no arrest, although police were thoroughly looking for the culprit.
In July, a sky-diving daredevil took to a hot air balloon for a much less criminal good time. Robyn Young went up into a hot air balloon with her family, 5,300 feet over Perris, Calif. She then climbed out of the balloon and grabbed a rope swing, dangling far below the balloon. She swung for a bit before letting go, free-falling until deploying her parachute and landing safely.
Young is a professional sky-diver and adrenaline enthusiast who likes “kicking, punching, climbing up walls, breaking stuff with bats, ninja activities and helicopter and balloon jumping,” according to her IMDb profile. In 2017 she performed a wingsuit rodeo over Arecibo, Puerto Rico; the wingsuit rodeo involves two people, one in a wingsuit, the other sitting atop their partner. They fall to about 5,000 feet and then separate.
