"Man Killed After Hitting Sound Barrier in Concord, CA"

The news crawler on the local TV station had the headline,

"Man Killed After Hitting Sound Barrier in Concord"

No further explanation was given.

We could only speculate:

• Was he blown up, the pieces of him exceeding the sound barrier as they flew apart?
• Did his jet plane go into a dive, increasing its speed until it fell apart as it hit the sound barrier?
• Was he driving a rocket car which disentegrated when it hit the sound barrier? Was he evading the police to avoid a ticket?
• Was he wearing a jet pack that exceeded its limits?
• Was he an alien who's UFO failed? 

(The UFO issue brings up a whole lot of questions: if it landed, would it be an ILO - identified landing object; if an alien came from outer space, would he be an illegal alien, subject to INS scrutiny? After it landed, would he need a visa?)

Unfortunately, what happened was much more mundane. The reporter asked the CHP officer what had happened and the reply he got was "the vehicle sustained major damage after striking a brick sound barrier running along the eastbound highway"

"According to the CHP, a sound barrier is a large wall built to shield neighboring homes from the noise generated by traffic."

TTFN
(Bright)