Image: Sergi Karplyuk
If you've been reading the heaps of 2015 "end of" articles, you've seen the year summed up in any number of different ways. But how about weirdness? Allow Neatorama's own Miss Cellania to present you with the year 2015 in terms of its weird news. Read on for a couple of stories included in the mix:
19. VEHICLE FLATTENED BETWEEN TWO SEMIS
And the driver is fine. Despite his Chevy Silverado being crushed to the size of a smart car, Kaleb Whitby only received a few cuts and bruises in the January I-84 accident near Baker City, Oregon.
More than 100 people were involved in the morning pileup on Interstate 84, about 33 miles east of Baker City. At least three separate collisions involving more than 20 vehicles, most of them semi-trucks, injured a dozen people.
Black ice conditions led to the multiple accidents. In Whitby’s collision, a tractor-trailer jackknifed across the highway. Whitby slid into the truck. Another tractor-trailer saw the first truck and slid sideways into the first truck, crushing Whitby’s pickup. After ascertaining that Whitby was alive and not seriously injured, the second truck driver, Sergi Karplyuk, asked if he could take a picture. Karplyuk helped Whitby free himself of the crushed pickup within a half-hour. He and Karplyuk joined other bystanders to help injured people. Whitby was checked out at a hospital later and came home with two Band-aids on his finger. You can read the details, and see more pictures, at Oregon Live.
If that wasn't odd enough, try this zoo drama on for size:
9. MEERKAT EXPERT SENTENCED OVER ASSAULT ON MONKEY HANDLER
Working at a zoo can be as much of a soap opera as any other workplace. The first sentence from the Associated Press story spells it out:A former meerkat expert at London Zoo has been ordered to pay compensation to a monkey handler she attacked with a wine glass in a love spat over a llama-keeper.
Caroline Westlake, who worked with meerkats, was sentenced to 12 months of community service and must pay £800 to the victim of her assault, monkey handler Kate Sanders. The assault happened at an employee Christmas party at the zoo last year, when the two women were arguing about a third zoo employee, llama keeper Adam Davies. The designation of “former meerkat expert” does not mean Westlake is no longer an expert, but that she was fired from the zoo over the incident.
See all 20 items of the year 2015 in weird news at mental_floss.