Accident facts and facts about accidents, from the Random Facts shelf.
9 facts on this shelf
While in some countries the penalty for driving while intoxicated can be death (yes, death), in Uruguay intoxication is a legal excuse for having an accident while driving. "Please believe me officer, I really was drunk."
China's Terracotta Army is thousands of life-size clay soldiers buried with the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. Farmers digging a well discovered it by accident in 1974.
The Exotic began partly by accident, when American Shorthair breeders crossed their cats with Persians and ended up with stocky, plush-coated, flat-faced cats that became a breed of their own.
The first Ford Mustang sold was bought by accident by Canadian airline pilot Stanley Tucker.
Stephen King was hit by a van in 1999 and seriously injured.
Frida Kahlo began painting seriously while recovering from a bus accident she was in at age 18.
A magnet failure shut down the Large Hadron Collider shortly after it started in 2008.
German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays by accident in 1895.
Wilson Greatbatch invented the implantable pacemaker partly by accident after using the wrong resistor in a circuit.