A student was killed when he was hurled more than 30 meters through the air from a catapault (or trebuchet, if you’re a stickler for details). The incident happened three years ago, but the inquest is ongoing:
Oxford University student Kostydin Yankov, 19, suffered multiple injuries when he missed a safety net after being flung from a medieval-style trebuchet catapult.
Mr Yankov, a biochemistry undergraduate known as Dino, was part of the university extreme sports club – the Oxford Stunt Factory – who had visited the trebuchet site in Middlemoor Water Park near Bridgwater, Somerset, in November 2002.
Yankov was apparently a member of a ‘dangerous and extreme sports club’ called The Oxford Stunt Factory. So, he was hardly some naive tourist, but it’s still pretty awful.
I found some photos and personal account of a successful, uh, launch from the same device: ” I did a couple of somersaults before I hit the net”.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
I just say the pics, and let me tell you, I don´t know how somebody can try that kind of stuff… it looks too stupid and dangerous.
Another fine example of evolution in action.
The real dangerous and extreme sport would be NO net… Wimps.