The Story of John Paul Stapp, “The Fastest Man on Earth” (2003)

Wasn't Murphy's law formulated after a technician plugged sensors into one of these sled pointing the wrong way?

The exact same problem occurred in 2004 when the Genesis space probe sample return capsule returned to earth without its parachute. It hit the ground rather hard as you can see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Genesis_crash_site_scenery...

    The Board determined the proximate (or direct) cause
    of the mishap to be that the G-switch sensors were in
    an inverted orientation, per an erroneous design, and
    were unable to sense sample return capsule deceleration
    during atmospheric entry and initiate parachute
    deployments [1].

The capsule was filled with extremely fragile silicon aerogel plates, which of course shattered on impact, and I believe dirt got inside too. Surprisingly, much data was recovered; that's what grad students are for.

[1] National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Genesis Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) Report, Volume I. 2005.

Edit: references

Apparently the original footage of him is here. Warning: he is shown after the crash, eyes bleeding.

vhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4tuvOer_GI&t=3m

Also real documentary footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XztU1bhQD7M