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Darwin in Action; Homemade Cannon Explodes
Topic Started: Jul 6 2006, 05:54 AM (86 Views)
George K
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Finally
Man killed by homemade cannon.

July 5, 2006
Staff Report

BETHEL — Police have released details about how a Fourth of July tradition turned fatal this holiday weekend for a 20-year-old Bethel man killed by shrapnel from a homemade cannon.

Several families had gathered near the home of Randy and Pam Trask in Bethel to fire guns and a homemade cannon on a makeshift firing range on the Trask property, according to Det. Sgt. Todd Illingworth with the Vermont State Police.

The weapon had been fired without incident about 200 times since it was constructed two years ago, Illingworth said, but early Saturday afternoon the gunpowder-fed cannon exploded and killed Colby Madden.

"It's an annual event where friends and families get together and they like to fire firearms, including this homemade cannon," Illingworth said Tuesday. "Tragically, the rear portion blew apart and projectiles went 30 feet directly to the left and to the right of the cannon and he was struck by them."

He said Madden was standing about 30 feet from the device.

Madden, a 2004 graduate of Whitcomb High School who lived with his family, was working as a carpenter in Bethel. He enjoyed sketching and drawing, riding his dirt bike, target shooting and classic automobiles, according to an obituary.

"He was just an absolutely awesome and very much loved person," said his mother, Pamela Drury.

Pam Trask was inside her home when the cannon misfired. After she heard the cannon fire a second time, she said, someone knocked on her door and told her about the explosion.

When she got to the field where the cannon had been fired, she found that Madden was unconscious and bleeding from the wrist, neck and mouth, she said.

"It is the worst thing that ever happened to any of us," said Trask.

Friends made rescue attempts before an ambulance crew arrived to take Madden to Gifford Hospital, Illingworth said. He was pronounced dead at 2:17 p.m.
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