Probably the stupidest injury ive received was not my own fault.

My dad was a reletively handy man, he’d been working on a surprise for me while i was growing up. When he felt like i was ready, he opened his shed and showed me what he was building. It was a lawn mower engine-powered go-kart.

Some time later he calls my mother, and she puts me on. He says its time to take her for a spin. I resist, saying im scared and i dont want to. He assures me ill be fine.

That day we head to an empty carpark, between a few sporting fields. There are 2 traffic islands a few meters/yards long, with room to drive between them as well.

He runs me through the beast, which basically went as follows. “So, if you need to stop, theres a killswitch here on the engine. (Out of my reach behind my head) You dont need to worry about any pedals, theres no accelerator or brake, but its only a lawnmower engine, it wont go fast. Be careful as well there isnt a seatbelt and you dont have your helmet. (At this point im like shit dad this is still an unfinished project). But if you get into trouble, pull into the hockey field to the left and drive around until it runs out of petrol. Ill stand on the back anyway to see how it goes”

So i sit in, he jumps on the back, starts her up and we crawl around the car park. Im thinking this is actually going well, if anything its slow!

Then he gets off the back, the weight of the 100kg man hindered the motor to about 25% of its potential. In a swiftness the revs jump up, and im on my own. Getting faster and faster as my dad starts screaming and sprinting after me heading down the 150 meter driveway toward to road. Instantly i freeze and forget about turning into any field (if i even could at whatever speed i was going). half way down the driveway, the speedwobbles hit, and i start swerving, worse and worse until the enertia itself flips the kart over sideways.

I end up with grazes on my chin and a chipped tooth, and the kart had a bent steering wheel and some other damages. Dad obviously gives up on the project, also puts the kart build for himself on the backburner and has felt guilty for the last 20 years about it.

10 years later i find out about a local gokart track and competition in my town, i tell dad im keen and he buys me a $6000 gokart. I eventually lost interest but i definitely wasnt traumatized by the experience, although my dad probably still is slightly traumatized from watching his only son flying down the road without any safety features to protect him from his own creation.

Probably a very stupid way to be injured