A Brazilian priest who floated out to sea suspended by a thousand helium-filled balloons before falling to his death has been awarded the top prize in the 2008 Darwin Awards.

Father Adelir Antonio de Carli, a 41-year-old Catholic priest, topped the online poll after attempting to set the world record for clustered balloon flight to publicise his plan to build a spiritual rest stop for truck drivers in Brazil.

The Darwin Awards salutes the improvement of the human race by honouring those who remove themselves from it through their own stupidity.

The awards are named after Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, who formulated the 'survival of the fittest' theory.

The Brazilian holy man garnered 14,093 votes in the poll, nearly three times as many as second placed Ivece Plattner, who got his Porsche lodged on a railway level-crossing last July in Italy.

Hearing an oncoming train, Plattner ran towards the train waving his hands in an attempt to stop the train from hitting his car.

However, the train struck and killed 68-year-old. The car was undamaged.

www.darwinawards.com/darwin

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