Meteorites fall to the surface of our planet constantly. However, the likelihood that one of these stones of cosmic origin hit a man, is negligible. If you believe the statistics of The Economist, a person has only 1 chance out of 74 817 414 that his life would be taken due to such circumstances. Unfortunately, the driver of the bus from the Indian city of Vellore has chosen exactly this chance.
A bus driver working in one of Indian colleges has become one of the four victims of the fall of a small meteorite. The shock of the fall was so great that the College building and the bus standing nearby, knocked all the glass and at the landing site of a meteorite crater with a diameter of about one meter. In addition to the driver injured three people, but doctors were able to stabilize their condition, so that victims of the incident is only one person. He became the first ever officially recorded victim of the fall of the meteorite.
Investigators were able to find inside the funnel small fragments of the cosmic body, and the metallic debris that has collected the meteorite, breaking in its path, one of the buildings. The probability of a terrorist attack or the explosion was excluded by the professionals immediately. The victim of the incident, and the family of the deceased driver will receive from the Indian authorities for a refund. At the moment all three of the injured are under medical observation in a local hospital. Local residents say that earlier this month in their area had been recorded the fall of the meteorite, however nobody has suffered.
Meteorites and their shards, and used to hit people. For example, one of these reported cases occurred on 30 November 1954 in the U.S. state of Alabama. Then Sulakova a meteorite weighing about 4 kilograms struck the roof of the house and ricochet hit a woman on the hand and thigh. The victim managed to escape with only severe bruises. And in 1992 a tiny (about 3 mm diameter) fragment Belskogo meteorite struck the boy from Uganda. Due to the fact that it was heavily slowed down by the collision with the tree, the child was not injured.