• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Strange Deaths

Jumping over the automated turnstiles in the New York City subway system is a longstanding way to avoid paying one's fare. This young man - who nonetheless paid with his life - represents the first case I can recall in which someone died trying the turnstile jump.
Man Dies After Attempting To Jump New York Subway Turnstile

A 28-year-old New York man died Sunday morning after attempting to jump a subway turnstile in Queens, police said.

Officers responding to a 911 call discovered the man, who was not identified by authorities, unresponsive on the concrete floor at the Forest Hills-71st Avenue station, The New York Daily News reported. He was declared dead at the scene.

Police said surveillance footage showed that when he hopped over the turnstile at the station, the man’s foot caught and he tumbled, head first, onto the floor. ...
FULL REPORT: https://news.yahoo.com/man-dies-attempting-jump-york-071800180.html
 
The reigning world junior skeet shooting champion died after accidentally shooting himself while bending over to retrieve spent cartridges while hunting.
World junior shooting champion, 19, dies after accidentally shooting himself in the stomach when bending over to pick up spent cartridges while hunting in Italy

Italy's world junior shooting champion has died after accidentally shooting himself in the stomach when bending over to pick up spent cartridges.

Cristian Ghilli, 19, shot himself in a hunting accident near Pisa and died at around 10pm yesterday in a hospital at Cecina in Tuscany.

The world junior skeet (clay pigeon shooting) champion was given an emergency operation to try and stop the internal bleeding.

But doctors were unable to save him and he died. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...on-19-dies-accidentally-shooting-stomach.html
 
Stealing catalytic converter under car becomes thief in Rotterdam fatal
A 53-year-old man was killed yesterday in Rotterdam when he tried to steal a catalytic converter under a car. That says the owner of the car to RTV Rijnmond.

The owner suspects that the thief used the jack to crawl under the car and unscrew the catalytic converter. While he was doing that, he probably hit the jack with his feet, causing it to pop loose and the car to fall on him.

According to the owner, Toyota catalytic converters are easy to disassemble and therefore loved by thieves. He speaks from experience because at his previous home address in Rotterdam-West, attempts were also made to steal the part. New, such a catalyst costs 1500 euros, second-hand approximately 500 euros.

Fatal accident
The owner of the Toyota found the man under his car yesterday morning, when he wanted to take his five-year-old daughter to school. He put his daughter in the back seat and was walking around the car to the driver's side, when he suddenly saw two legs sticking out from under the car.

He raised the alarm but police and paramedics could do nothing more, because the man had already died.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2412716-stelen-katalysator-onder-auto-wordt-dief-in-rotterdam-fataal
 
Passerby finds fetus in the bushes near The Hague, worries about mother
In the bushes along the Blaeupad in The Hague, a non-viable fetus was found this afternoon. The police have cordoned off the area and employees of the forensic investigation have been conducting extensive investigations throughout the evening.

A passerby saw the fetus lying in the bushes of the Uithofpark around five o'clock and immediately alerted the emergency services.

In a message on Twitter, the police say they are concerned about the mother and hope that she gets the medical care she needs.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2412758-voor...-in-de-bosjes-bij-den-haag-zorgen-over-moeder
 
Stealing catalytic converter under car becomes thief in Rotterdam fatal
A 53-year-old man was killed yesterday in Rotterdam when he tried to steal a catalytic converter under a car. That says the owner of the car to RTV Rijnmond.

The owner suspects that the thief used the jack to crawl under the car and unscrew the catalytic converter. While he was doing that, he probably hit the jack with his feet, causing it to pop loose and the car to fall on him.

According to the owner, Toyota catalytic converters are easy to disassemble and therefore loved by thieves. He speaks from experience because at his previous home address in Rotterdam-West, attempts were also made to steal the part. New, such a catalyst costs 1500 euros, second-hand approximately 500 euros.

Fatal accident
The owner of the Toyota found the man under his car yesterday morning, when he wanted to take his five-year-old daughter to school. He put his daughter in the back seat and was walking around the car to the driver's side, when he suddenly saw two legs sticking out from under the car.

He raised the alarm but police and paramedics could do nothing more, because the man had already died.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2412716-stelen-katalysator-onder-auto-wordt-dief-in-rotterdam-fataal
This has happened in the UK as well.
 
A professional water diviner drowned while on a diving holiday.

I'd've put this in the Irony thread but it might look as if I were laughing at her.
Which I'm not, although it does seem weird for someone in her line of work.

Safe Worcester News link -

Tributes paid to gifted water dowser who died during diving holiday in Scotland

Linda Fentum, also known as Linda Prenter, was described by friends as a hardworking woman who was great fun when she was off duty.

An inquest will be held into the professional water diviner's death next week.
The 64-year-old, of Worcester Road, Malvern, was reported missing on Thursday, July 1 last year after diving off the coast of Sutherland near Kinlochbervie.

She never resurfaced and her body was later recovered after police searched for the missing diver.
 
A professional water diviner drowned while on a diving holiday.

I'd've put this in the Irony thread but it might look as if I were laughing at her.
Which I'm not, although it does seem weird for someone in her line of work.

Safe Worcester News link -

Tributes paid to gifted water dowser who died during diving holiday in Scotland
Yes...The irony of it got me wondering why exactly people do water divining/dowsing...I mean, is there a purpose in doing it these days, when there must be plenty of other methods of doing it?

Of course one person spending their time dowsing and enjoying the pursuit of it has no real effect on my life so maybe I shouldn't think too much about it at all. Live and let live....

Yes. The irony.
 
The equivalent of cartoon characters not plummeting from a great height until they look down and realise that they are no longer standing on anything.
1642604129971.png
 
I'm calling this a "strange death" even though I suspect the medical examiner's report will conclude the COD was pretty damned obvious.
More than 100 snakes discovered during wellness check on dead Charles Co. man

First responders in Charles County, Maryland, discovered a scaly surprise while conducting a wellness check Wednesday night on a man who turned out to be dead.

“We discovered more than 100 snakes inside the home,” said Jennifer Harris, the communications officer for the Charles County government. “Various kinds of breeds, both venomous and nonvenomous reptiles were in the home.”

Those breeds included different kinds of cobras and black mambas, as well as pythons and rattlesnakes, according to Harris, who made it clear that keeping venomous snakes was illegal in Maryland. ...

So far, the county hasn’t said whether or not the snakes played a role in the man’s death. The man was 49.

“We didn’t encounter any unsecured snakes at the scene … but we don’t know for certain,” Harris said. “The cause of the man’s death, that’s still few weeks away from being determined after [he was] sent to the medical examiner’s office.” ...
FULL STORY: https://wtop.com/charles-county/202...during-wellness-check-on-dead-charles-co-man/
 
This is distressing footage.

A woman has died in Russia, after jumping through a hole cut into ice above a river.
It was a religious act.

Her husband then jumps in after her!

Video link is dead; it's been removed. Here's the text of a news story about the incident ...

Mum swept to her death after jumping into ice hole cut in river to mark Epiphany

Anna Uskova, 40, was celebrating Christian Orthodox Epiphany the way many other believers do – by jumping into blessed water to commemorate Jesus’s baptism in the River Jordan.

The Christian Orthodox believe water which is blessed during the annual ceremony has healing powers.

Epiphany fell on Wednesday this year, and Anna did not shy away from partaking – despite the -5°C air temperatures at the time. ...

Footage shows the lawyer standing on the ice in a black swimsuit and crossing herself before plunging feet-first into a rectangular ice hole.

It quickly became clear that something had gone wrong and Anna’s businessman husband Yuri, 50, jumped in straight after her. She was never found. ...
SOURCE: https://metro.co.uk/2022/01/24/mum-...-jumping-into-ice-hole-for-epiphany-15978382/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This is distressing footage.

A woman has died in Russia, after jumping through a hole cut into ice above a river.
It was a religious act.

Her husband then jumps in after her!

That's my worst nightmare... drowning while being trapped under ice.
How did they not realize she'd be swept away if this is a river?
(Sorry, couldn't watch, too close to watching someone commit suicide for me.)
 
This is distressing footage.

A woman has died in Russia, after jumping through a hole cut into ice above a river.
It was a religious act.

Her husband then jumps in after her!

This is a very big thing in Russia at this time of year, in fact, anywhere where there is something like a Russian Orthodox Church. it's a sort of festval of ritual purification and hundreds of thousands of people might participate (the Russian Orthodox Church advises against it for people who are not in the best of health) and it becomes something of a big event, a family day out. YouTube footage, as you might expect, appears to be slanted towards younger ladies in bathing costumes and skimpy clinging shifts - there's a lot of that out there - so it took a little while to find a more objective explanatory article. i'm just surprised more people don't die or get ill - looks like not the sort of thing you'd care to do in January in Russia. I'm surprised deaths are so rare - but cutting the ice hole in a river with a ripcurrent underneath does seem to be negligient, and definitely puts a lot in the hands of God.

Also noting that this appears to Christianise a sgnificant event in the life of Jesus - his baptism - by presuming it follows Christian convention and it happened within a few weeks of his birth. I think the dear old Church of England has a much more restrained version, and just confines itself, at Epiphany, to a ritual blessing of the baptismal font and the waters it holds, noting this is too small a space for threefold immersion...

https://russianlife.com/stories/the-russia-file/russians-celebrate-epiphany-in-ice-cold-water/
 
This is a very big thing in Russia at this time of year, in fact, anywhere where there is something like a Russian Orthodox Church. it's a sort of festval of ritual purification and hundreds of thousands of people might participate (the Russian Orthodox Church advises against it for people who are not in the best of health) and it becomes something of a big event, a family day out. YouTube footage, as you might expect, appears to be slanted towards younger ladies in bathing costumes and skimpy clinging shifts - there's a lot of that out there - so it took a little while to find a more objective explanatory article. i'm just surprised more people don't die or get ill - looks like not the sort of thing you'd care to do in January in Russia. I'm surprised deaths are so rare - but cutting the ice hole in a river with a ripcurrent underneath does seem to be negligient, and definitely puts a lot in the hands of God.

Also noting that this appears to Christianise a sgnificant event in the life of Jesus - his baptism - by presuming it follows Christian convention and it happened within a few weeks of his birth. I think the dear old Church of England has a much more restrained version, and just confines itself, at Epiphany, to a ritual blessing of the baptismal font and the waters it holds, noting this is too small a space for threefold immersion...

https://russianlife.com/stories/the-russia-file/russians-celebrate-epiphany-in-ice-cold-water/
Thank you, great explanation there. :)
I'd just thought Russians liked showing how hard they are. :dunno:
Didn't know it was religious.

Loving the cross-shaped ice-hole. Once you saw that you wouldn't DARE chicken out.
 
This is distressing footage.

A woman has died in Russia, after jumping through a hole cut into ice above a river.
It was a religious act.

Her husband then jumps in after her!

I noticed how that frogman wasn't as keen.
 
Thank you, great explanation there. :)
I'd just thought Russians liked showing how hard they are. :dunno:
Didn't know it was religious.

Loving the cross-shaped ice-hole. Once you saw that you wouldn't DARE chicken out.
I blame religion for this! :(
 
Back
Top