Earlier this month, a 28-year-old California woman died from water intoxication after competing in a radio contest that challenged participants to see how much H20 they could drink without going to the bathroom.

The prize? A Nintendo Wii.

Seemingly simple yet over-the-top contests sometimes see contestants meet their demise. Below are accounts of four such challenges, including a Dominican tequila drinking contest and a Uruguayan reality TV show competition, that ended in death.

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"HANDS ON A HARDBODY"

Rules: The Texas endurance contest, popularized in a 1997 documentary of the same name, requires people competing for a new truck to keep one hand flat on the vehicle at all times — except during predetermined breaks to eat and use the restroom. Whoever holds on the longest drives it home.

Death: After 48 hours, just before a break in the 2005 competition, 24-year-old Richard Vega left the contest around 6 a.m., broke into a Kmart across the street, grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and shot himself as police officers approached. Police don't know why he committed suicide.

Prize: A brand new Nissan truck and pop-up camper.

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CHUBBY BUNNY

Rules: This eating contest, usually played by children, requires participants to take turns stuffing marshmallows in their mouths and still be able to say the words "chubby bunny." Each successful player then adds another marshmallow to the ones already in his or her mouth and repeats the phrase until one person is left.

Deaths: In 1999, a 12-year-old girl choked to death after playing the eating-and-talking contest in a classroom at Greeley Elementary School in Winnetka, Ill. And last year, 32-year-old Janet Rudd collapsed and later died at a hospital after participating in the game during a fair in Canada.

Prize: Usually just playground bragging rights.

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"A CHALLENGE TO THE HEART"

Rules: In the reality TV show "Desafio al Corazon," or "A Challenge to the Heart," Uruguayan communities can raise funds for local charities by completing difficult tasks, such as recruiting enough people to form the shape of a heart that can be seen from the sky.

Deaths: Participants slipped and fell under the wheels of a train during a task in 2006. Several hundred citizens from Young, a town west of the capital of Montevideo, were dared to push a locomotive and two attached cars. Seven people were crushed to death and many seriously injured during the accident.

Prize: Funds for a local hospital.

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DRINKING CONTEST

Rules: While there are dozens of games that involve alcohol — from beer pong to taps — an all-you-can-drink contest is usually a test of endurance in which players compete to out-guzzle each other. Participants take turns consuming alcohol. The last drinker standing is the winner.

Death: Ricardo Ivan Garcia, the 21-year-old winner of a competition to drink the most tequila at a Mexican-themed party at a discotheque in the Dominican Republic, died from heart failure brought on by alcohol poisoning after downing more than 50 shots in 2005.

Prize: In Garcia's case? $330.

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Derrik J. Lang is an asap reporter based in New York and blogger for The Slug (http://asapblogs.typepad.com/theslug ).

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