Youth critically hurt while ‘tray sliding’

A dangerous stunt has almost killed an 18-year-old, who crashed into a wall at speed as he was being towed by a pick-up truck while riding a “wooden pallet” in Ta’ Qali early yesterday morning.

The youngster, Robert Attard of Żebbuġ, fractured the base of his skull and suffered a severe haemorrhage, sources said. He was in critical condition and being treated at the Intensive Care Unit after being rushed to hospital just after 1 a.m.

Sources told The Times he was “tray sliding”, a stunt that in-volves holding onto a rope tied to a moving car while sitting or standing on a tray, or in this case a pallet.

Clips on the video-sharing website YouTube, shot in 2006, show what the stunt looks like: several youngsters are seen performing tray sliding at the Luxol Grounds. The term “tray sliding” is used for two practices: either placing trays under the rear wheels of a car to get a “drifting” experience, or else gliding on a tray being towed by a car.

The online videos show cars and young men carrying out both stunts. Although the text at the beginning of one particular video warns the practice is dangerous, it says the youths do it to relieve “their boredom”.

Riding a McDonald’s tray (the fast food chain was even mockingly credited for sponsoring the event) to cushion them from the tarmac, as many as five men are towed at once by a four-wheel drive vehicle.

It looks like wakeboarding with no water to soften the “boarder’s” falls.

In fact the protagonists skid off the trays several times, grazing themselves on the tarmac. In one video a boy slams into a wall. This shot is then re-played in slow motion and shows him walking away after the spill.

For the group online it seems the falls are part of the fun, as they burst out laughing every time it happens.

Although one clip shows that the car park was visited by the police, the gang claims that this did not stop them.