Why Trucks Are No Good for Backflips
Red Bull gives you wings. This may be true, or at least the energy drink makes you think it is true, but it fails to soften the landing when it all goes pear-shaped.
Rhys Millen, stunt driver and drifter otherwise known as Mad Skillz, was going to be the first person to ever do a backflip with an off-road racing truck, and in practice he managed this feat three times. But on his fourth practice run, before doing the stunt in front of an audience at the Red Bull Experiment in Las Vegas on New Years Eve, live on ESPN and in front of Guiness Book of World Records officials Rhys Millen crashed. He sustained serious yet non-life threatening injuries and is currently medically treated in a local hospital.
Rhys Millen said from his hospital bed: “After successfully landing the 360-degree backflip three times into the cardboard boxes in training, I am disappointed that our last jump ended in an accident. As I lay here in the hospital with three broken vertebrae in my neck and two compressed and broken vertebrae in my back, I am also disappointed that we cannot perform the 360-degree backflip at the Red Bull Experiment on New Year's Eve, but I'm happy that I will be able to walk again. I look forward to watching Robbie Maddison do his 300-plus-foot motorcycle jump in Las Vegas.”
Robbie Maddison did indeed make his jump, the video of the succesful jump can be found at the Red Bull website.
