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Strange Deaths

The 'medical episode' response might* not be revealed in the investigation but one put forward by the defence solicitor in interview.

My sister's car was rear-ended (with my nephew strapped in the back). It was on a straight road, on a well lit high street with little traffic about. The offending driver gave no clue what happened. He had been breathalysed at the time - negative. The coppers took it as a clear case of speeding and driving without due care and attention. It was thanks to the car seat in the back that my nephew suffered no injuries except a scare.
In magistrates court, he came limping in on crutches, his defence solicitor pointing out that his client suffered from injuries sustained in the Falklands conflict. Cue sympathy from the bench. Small fine, suspended sentence, off you go.
Funny how he wasn't limping at the scene, nor had any crutches, even in his care eh?
Still, my nephew grew up fine ... now being a driving instructor. :)

* might be genuine, might not.
 
Cochise said:
Or just panic. I was a passenger in a car many years ago when an inexperienced (but sober) driver , trying to make an emergency stop, slammed his left foot on the accelerator thinking it was the brake.
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Yup, a driver in my home town crashed through railings on a roundabout some years ago because, it seems, he'd had a heart attack on the approach and made that mistake. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
 
escargot said:
Yup, a driver in my home town crashed through railings on a roundabout some years ago because, it seems, he'd had a heart attack on the approach and made that mistake. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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It can happen. A friend of mine who was physically fit, and seemed in good health, set off to his local village to buy a newspaper, had a heart attack at the wheel and crashed into the side of the road. Fortunately, no one else was involved.

Also, I know of someone local to me who was apparently fit and healthy who went out for a ride on his bicycle, and was found dead, still on the bike, shoes still clipped in, and leaning against a hedge, as if he'd stopped because he felt unwell and had died on the spot.

I spent many years of my life investigating motor accidents and dealing with liability claims for an insurance company. Back in the 1980s it was common for someone to write on their claim form, "I must have blacked out..." as a way of attempting to avoid the blame. This became considerably less common once we started asking for medical reports on the basis that if they were prone to sudden blackouts, maybe we shouldn't continue to insure them.

My guess with this recent incident with the Land Rover hitting the school children is lack of concentration (using mobile phone?) and then stamping on the wrong pedal. If, in the moment, you believe you are pushing the correct pedal and you don't get the expected response, the common reaction is to push it harder. If it's the accelerator rather than the brake, things can happen very suddenly.

Back in my days at the insurance company, we had a customer who made a similar mistake and put his automatic car through the back wall of his garage. The car dropped down into the sunken garden at the rear and hit the apple tree. (In the version of the story that grew in the telling amongst my colleagues, the roof of the car was then badly dented by the falling apples.) The car had to be removed from the garden, at some expense, with the use of a mobile crane.
 
Mikefule said:
Back in my days at the insurance company, we had a customer who made a similar mistake and put his automatic car through the back wall of his garage. The car dropped down into the sunken garden at the rear and hit the apple tree. (In the version of the story that grew in the telling amongst my colleagues, the roof of the car was then badly dented by the falling apples.) The car had to be removed from the garden, at some expense, with the use of a mobile crane.
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This rings a bell. I seem to remember a similar story about this happening with a Rolls Royce on a slope and landing in the neighbour's garden.
 

California Woman Run Over by Lawn Mower While Sleeping in Park​


A California woman was run over by a lawn mower and killed while sleeping in a weed-filled area of a Modesto park.

Christine-Chavez-killed-by-lawn-mower-while-sleeping-in-park-GoFundMe-640x480.jpg


A lawn care worker “driving a John Deere tractor with a pull-behind motor” did not spot Christine Chavez’s body until after mowing over her.

Members of Chavez’s family said they found chunks of her body laid out across Beard Brook Park, [it was] reported. Her father, Christopher Chavez, was absolutely horrified after going back to see the scene of his daughter’s death.

“There were many pieces of (her remains) around there, and I called the police,” Chavez [said]. “I went there, and I still have pieces of bones, like pieces of her skull and some teeth. It’s terrible.”

https://www.breitbart.com/pre-viral/2023/07/16/california-woman-runover-lawn-mower-sleeping-park/

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:

California Woman Run Over by Lawn Mower While Sleeping in Park​


A California woman was run over by a lawn mower and killed while sleeping in a weed-filled area of a Modesto park.

Christine-Chavez-killed-by-lawn-mower-while-sleeping-in-park-GoFundMe-640x480.jpg


A lawn care worker “driving a John Deere tractor with a pull-behind motor” did not spot Christine Chavez’s body until after mowing over her.

Members of Chavez’s family said they found chunks of her body laid out across Beard Brook Park, [it was] reported. Her father, Christopher Chavez, was absolutely horrified after going back to see the scene of his daughter’s death.

“There were many pieces of (her remains) around there, and I called the police,” Chavez [said]. “I went there, and I still have pieces of bones, like pieces of her skull and some teeth. It’s terrible.”

https://www.breitbart.com/pre-viral/2023/07/16/california-woman-runover-lawn-mower-sleeping-park/

maximus otter
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Lawks, that is a truly, truly terrible story. I can't imagine what it would have been like for the family.
 

Mystery object: Australian police warn public away from huge cylinder found washed up on WA beach​

It's really interesting and, according to an expert in space archeology, it could be part of an Indian satellite launch vehicle from 2017. Certainly looks like it from the pic in the article, and it does look big - though the Guardian article doesn't give a size. You certainly wouldn't want it landing on you...

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...-object-wa-beach-green-head-western-australia

(Mods, feel free to move if there's a better home for this.)
 
maximus otter said:

California Woman Run Over by Lawn Mower While Sleeping in Park​


A California woman was run over by a lawn mower and killed while sleeping in a weed-filled area of a Modesto park.

Christine-Chavez-killed-by-lawn-mower-while-sleeping-in-park-GoFundMe-640x480.jpg


A lawn care worker “driving a John Deere tractor with a pull-behind motor” did not spot Christine Chavez’s body until after mowing over her.

Members of Chavez’s family said they found chunks of her body laid out across Beard Brook Park, [it was] reported. Her father, Christopher Chavez, was absolutely horrified after going back to see the scene of his daughter’s death.

“There were many pieces of (her remains) around there, and I called the police,” Chavez [said]. “I went there, and I still have pieces of bones, like pieces of her skull and some teeth. It’s terrible.”

https://www.breitbart.com/pre-viral/2023/07/16/california-woman-runover-lawn-mower-sleeping-park/

maximus otter
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Jesus! It's like a plot from the TV show Bones.
 
maximus otter said:

California Woman Run Over by Lawn Mower While Sleeping in Park​


A California woman was run over by a lawn mower and killed while sleeping in a weed-filled area of a Modesto park.

Christine-Chavez-killed-by-lawn-mower-while-sleeping-in-park-GoFundMe-640x480.jpg


A lawn care worker “driving a John Deere tractor with a pull-behind motor” did not spot Christine Chavez’s body until after mowing over her.

Members of Chavez’s family said they found chunks of her body laid out across Beard Brook Park, [it was] reported. Her father, Christopher Chavez, was absolutely horrified after going back to see the scene of his daughter’s death.

“There were many pieces of (her remains) around there, and I called the police,” Chavez [said]. “I went there, and I still have pieces of bones, like pieces of her skull and some teeth. It’s terrible.”

https://www.breitbart.com/pre-viral/2023/07/16/california-woman-runover-lawn-mower-sleeping-park/

maximus otter
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This is such an odd story. I love how I the comments there is a rush to blame Biden's administration for this. I suppose it should only be expected on the news source though.
 
Mr. Banooka said:
This is such an odd story. I love how I the comments there is a rush to blame Biden's administration for this. I suppose it should only be expected on the news source though.
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I share your concern that Breitbart is a questionable source, but we will not be lingering on the political opinions of the effluvia that lurk 'below the line'.

Because this is a politics-free forum.
 
Yithian said:
I share your concern that Breitbart is a questionable source, but we will not be lingering on the political opinions of the effluvia that lurk 'below the line'.

Because this is a politics-free forum.
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Of course.
 
RaM said:
This was the local Aldi today pulled on the be greeted by 5 or 6 police vehicles and 2 ambulances,
apparently the driver of the blue car had a seizure, 4 cars and 1 shopping trolly, the trolly and blue
car look like wright offs, a cop opened the door and it fell off, no one died but think one carted
off to hossy, hard to believe so much carnage can happen on a car park.


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You live in/near a town that starts with F and ends with D ;) I know it very well, and that church and that branch of Aldi!
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Woman FaceTimes here own death as tree branch falls on her head:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...falling-branch-rotten-tree-inquest-hears.html
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There are some all-to-predictable cries from relatives of "fence off the woodland" and "cut down the trees". I spend as much time as I can out hiking in nature, and you just have to accept that nature is dangerous. While I can accept that in streets and public parks trees should be maintained for the safety of users, if you're heading out into woodland, you just have to accept the risk - and it really is unlikely a tree will fall on you, sometimes it is just bad luck. As a note, I was hiking across the South Downs in high winds on Saturday, and just after I dropped down the scarp off the Downs, there was a huge crashing noise, and a tree came down about 20 yards off to one side - it made me a bit nervous passing under large trees for the remaining 3 miles of my hike, but as I said, you accept the risks if you want to be around nature (it'll probably be written on my gravestone!).
 
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You get two types of people - those who are risk averse and those who throw ALL caution to the wind.
Many times the former are the relatives of the deceased latter.
 
Stormkhan said:
You get two types of people - those who are risk averse and those who throw ALL caution to the wind.
Many times the former are the relatives of the deceased latter.
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There is actually a middle ground, which I think I belong to, where you weigh the risks and decide whether the risk is acceptable - the outdoors is dangerous, but I am not suicidal - if the conditions become too dangerous to continue then I will retreat or curtail my activity or, in very rare cases, request assistance. I have got off exposed mountain ridges pretty sharpish, interrupting my lunch to do so if necessary, if it has looked like the weather is about to set in. When I became disorientated in the jungle once, and I could hear sounds of human activity in the distance, I shouted for help - which duly arrived. It is about being aware of the tipping point to a survival situation. In the case of a tree coming crashing down - there's not much warning, all you can do is be aware of your surroundings and accept there is a very slight chance of it happening.
 
SimonBurchell said:
There is actually a middle ground, which I think I belong to, where you weigh the risks and decide whether the risk is acceptable - the outdoors is dangerous, but I am not suicidal - if the conditions become too dangerous to continue then I will retreat or curtail my activity or, in very rare cases, request assistance. I have got off exposed mountain ridges pretty sharpish, interrupting my lunch to do so if necessary, if it has looked like the weather is about to set in. When I became disorientated in the jungle once, and I could hear sounds of human activity in the distance, I shouted for help - which duly arrived. It is about being aware of the tipping point to a survival situation. In the case of a tree coming crashing down - there's not much warning, all you can do is be aware of your surroundings and accept there is a very slight chance of it happening.
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Blimey. Must have been bad.

Your idea of a relaxing break is living in the Jungle, fighting Boa constrictors and eating Tarantulas isn't it?
I bet you climb Everest every morning before breakfast. Backwards. On one leg.
 

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I have got off exposed mountain ridges pretty sharpish, interrupting my lunch to do so if necessary,
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I was on Link Hause, north of Ambleside, which was covered in snow and ice at the time, it was somewhat overcast but good visibility and I had just had a tricky time coming over snow-covered Hart Crag; as soon as the path became safe enough to do so, I sat down for lunch - a few minutes later I saw low cloud engulf Helvellyn, heading my way - in those conditions, if the cloud came down, I wouldn't have been able to move without the very real danger of going off the edge of the ridge, so I rapidly shoved everything in my pack and hiked on to Fairfield.

As it turned out, the cloud dispersed for a beautiful and sunny afternoon, but better safe than sorry.
 
Killed by a unicycle on a footpath.

A man who was riding an electric unicycle on a pavement when he hit an 88-year-old pedestrian, causing fatal injuries, has been jailed.

Tudor Manolache was travelling between 20-30mph when he hit Leonard Bailey on Hatters Way, Luton, on 5 September. Mr Bailey was taken to hospital but died a few weeks later.

Manolache, 39, admitted causing death by careless driving and causing death while uninsured or unlicensed, and was jailed for 14 months.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-66276756
 
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