‘World’s coolest dad’ builds Olympic-style luge track for his kids
In a serious bid to become World's Coolest Dad, a New Jersey father turned his snow-and-ice-covered lawn into an Olympic-style luge track for his kids.
Joseph Colangelo, 29, from Cranford, N.J., said he spent the last several weeks creating the 55-foot track outside his home.
"[My neighbors] thought I was crazy for shoveling my yard," Colangelo wrote on Reddit. "They may have been right but at least now there's a sweet ride on our property."
Colangelo, a father of three young children, said he built the walls during successive snowstorms and watered the track every day for nearly a month.
The results, captured with a GoPro camera, impressed even jaded commenters.
"Looks like you guys got some pretty good speed there," one wrote.
"Awesome!" wrote another. "I can just imagine every other child in the neighborhood wonder [sic] why their own dads aren't so creative."
"Dad of the year," another declared.
An "insurance guy," though, offered a word of caution:
I honestly applaud the work you did with the limited amount of snow you have; that thing looks pretty damn awesome and fun, even as an adult.
But I hope you live in a friendly neighborhood, because that track could be a potential liability risk. Especially because your yard and property appear to be completely open with no barriers (fence, hedge...) and nothing preventing any child or person to slide or slip on this track and potentially injure themselves. Did you take any precautions for this? Even putting something like bright orange or yellow warning tape around the track would be a simple preventative measure.
Don't get me wrong, the risk of something bad happening is very low, but you never know. The thing I hate the most about insurance is when people sue each other, so it's important to take steps to lower your liability.
The video has racked up more than 180,000 views since Saturday.
Colangelo is hoping some viewers will consider making a donation to the Covenant House.
"I was blessed to have a very stable childhood with loving parents and I hope to provide my kids with the same," he wrote in an email to Yahoo News. "Lots of children aren't nearly as fortunate."
