Everyone agrees Swiss skateboarder's Australian road tunnel stunt was stupid

A Swiss backpacker in Australia admits he was stupid to skateboard through Melbourne's busy Burnley Tunnel. The 21-year-old was lucky to survive yesterday morning's peak-hour joyride after falling off his skateboard and then walking through the tunnel as trucks and cars swerved to avoid him. The stunt caused the left-hand lane of the busy tunnel to be shut down.



Nursing badly grazed hands and knees, Mr Emmenegger later warned others against repeating his “stupid” stunt, which saw him praying for his life. Mr Emmenegger said he did not see any signs warning against riding skateboards through the tunnel. “I just saw the 60km/h sign and said `okay, why not?,” he said.

“Switzerland has a lot of tunnels but a lot of signals say `don't do it', in front of the tunnel a big signal tells you `don't skate, don't ride bicycles'. It was too dangerous ... to all the other guys out there, please don't do that like me, stupid stuff.” Deputy police commissioner Ken Lay described the stunt as “dumb, dumb, dumb”.

The newsreader also appears to agree that Mr Emmenegger was indeed stupid.

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Sergeant Mark Thomas said the stunt was the stupidest thing he had seen during his 15-year career. “In 15 years of policing, I have seen some stupid things but... I'm struggling to come up with anything that's more ridiculously stupid than that,” he said. “How he isn't dead is absolutely beyond me.” Mr Emmenegger was charged with conduct endangering life and conduct endangering person and is to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court.