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Strange Deaths

456 BC: Aeschylus, a Greek playwright, was killed when an eagle dropped a live tortoise on him, mistaking his bald head for a stone. The tortoise survived.
thats one dumm bird.

162 BC: Eleazar Maccabeus was crushed to death at the Battle of Beth-zechariah by a War elephant that he believed to be carrying Seleucid King Antiochus V; charging in to battle, Eleazar rushed underneath the elephant and thrust a spear into its belly, whereupon it fell dead on top of him.

1945: Scientist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. accidentally dropped a brick of tungsten carbide onto a sphere of plutonium while working on the Manhattan Project. This caused the plutonium to come to criticality; Daghlian died of radiation poisoning, becoming the first person to die in a criticality accident.

darwin award for thoes two.
 
Topics merged.

BTW, not sure that Harry K. Daghlian Jr. was really Darwin Award material - those are reserved for people who do outstandingly stupid things. Daghlian's death was purely accidental, as he more than most would have known the outcome of tungsten meeting plute. Not a good way to go, either :(.
 
430 BC: Empedocles, Pre-Socratic philosopher, secretly jumped into an active volcano (Mt. Etna). According to Diogenes Laërtius, this was to convince the people of his time that he had been taken up by the gods on Olympus.

Darwin Award yes or no.
 
http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2008-08.html

Run! No, Run Away

(July 16, 2008, Italy) Gerhard Adolf Zeitler Plattner, 68, was queued at a traffic light in his Porsche Cayenne sportscar. Before one reaches the light, there is a railroad crossing. As you might imagine, given Murphy's law, a train was coming.

The man did not let the queue progress forward far enough before he crossed the railroad. The safety bars came down, leaving the Porsche trapped on the rails. It took the driver awhile to realize he was stuck, according to witnesses. Finally, he jumped from the car and started to run -- toward the oncoming train, waving his arms in an attempt to save his car!

The attempt was successful. The car received less damage than its owner. He was pushed hard enough to land 30 meters away, and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

lol dumm ass.
 
megadeth16 said:
430 BC: Empedocles, Pre-Socratic philosopher, secretly jumped into an active volcano (Mt. Etna). According to Diogenes Laërtius, this was to convince the people of his time that he had been taken up by the gods on Olympus.

Darwin Award yes or no.
No! You seem to misunderstand the idea of the Darwin Award. To qualify, you have to be young, and accidentally kill yourself by doing something stupid before you get to reproduce, thus taking your dumb genes out of the gene-pool.

Empedocles was at least 60 when he died (maybe even over 100), so he had had plenty of time to reproduce. (Although history does not seem to record whether he did in fact have children.)

And the act which (allegedly) led to his death, although certainly strange, was deliberate, not accidental.
 
US skydiver lands dead instructor

A US soldier on his first skydive has landed safely despite the death of his instructor during the descent.

Daniel Pharr steered himself and the instructor clear of a house and trees, touching down about 0.3 miles (0.5km) from the intended landing point.

They had jumped from 13,500ft (4,100m) in Chester, South Carolina.

Initial indications showed the instructor had suffered a heart attack after releasing the parachute, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Mr Pharr, 25, said that once on the ground he had tried resuscitate the 49-year-old instructor, but to no avail.

He also described the moments after the pair had skydived for about a minute.

"He pulled the chute," Mr Pharr was quoted as saying by AP.

"It got super quiet. It's eerily quiet up there. I made the comment to him, 'It's surprising how quiet it is.' And he's like: 'Welcome to my world.'"

After a few seconds Mr Pharr asked his instructor a question, but got no answer - even when he asked a second time.

"And then I just looked up at him and he looked like he was conscious, but just talking to him, I realised something was wrong," Mr Pharr said.

"So at that point I realised I was just going to have to do what I had to do to get down to the ground and try to help him."

Mr Pharr said he knew from TV that he had to pull the parachute's toggles in order to steer.

Instructors on the ground said that if he had pulled too hard the parachute may have spun out of control, and he too could have died.

"They told me afterward that it was amazing that I knew to do that. This is my survival instinct at that point."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7866251.stm
 
I strongly suspect this of being an Urban Legend, like the exploding disposable lighters a few years ago.

The Daily Hate Mail


Man killed after his mobile phone explodes, severing an artery in his neck
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 10:16 PM on 03rd February 2009

A shop assistant has died in China after his mobile phone battery exploded in his pocket

A shopworker has died after his mobile phone exploded, severing a major artery in his neck.
It is believed that the 20-year-old man had just finished charging the phone’s battery before placing it in his breast pocket.
Police in Guangzhou, China, are investigating whether the phone was counterfeit.

The man, believed to be an employee at a computer shop in Guangzhou, China, died after putting a new battery in his phone.

Local Chinese daily Shin Min Daily News reported that on January 30 at 7.30pm a shop employee heard a loud bang - and saw her colleague lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
Alarmingly, local reports claimed the incident was the ninth recorded mobile phone explosion in China since 2002.

In June 2007 welder Xiao Jinpeng, 22, died from chest wounds when his own mobile exploded while at work at a mill.
A government inquiry said the phone's lithium battery had exploded due to heat from the mill.

Also in 2007 a South Korean man was found dead in a quarry with a burning mobile phone stuck to his chest. It was initially thought his phone had exploded, killing him.

However a co-worker later admitted to making the story up after he accidentally backed over the man in an excavator, pinning him to a rock and killing him. (WTF :shock: )

[/quote]
 
This is a Daily Fail story too:

Girl, 8, with phobia of dentists 'starved to death after refusing to eat or drink'

A schoolgirl starved to death in her own bed after suffering a phobia of dentists so severe that she would not even open her mouth to eat, an inquest heard today.

Eight-year-old Sophie Waller's fear was so extreme that she was taken to hospital just to have a tooth removed.

Doctors then decided to remove all her milk teeth in one go to avoid a repeat of the procedure - a decision her parents claim they did not consent to, and which made the situation even worse.

After the procedure Sophie would not open her mouth and had to be fed through a tube.

She was later discharged however, and today her mother said she had begged the hospital to have her readmitted after Sophie began to waste away at home.

An inquest into Sophie's death heard she developed her phobia at the age of four when a dentist accidentally cut her tongue during a check up.

When she cracked her tooth on a boiled sweet four years later, she refused to visit a dentist and was referred her to hospital by the family's GP after she refused to eat for three days.

After two weeks in hospital, Sophie refused to talk or swallow food as her parents tried to feed her with fruit and drinks supplemented with vitamins.

Her parents Janet, 33, and Richard, 35, claim they contacted the hospital on several occasions but were refused permission to bring their daughter back in and instead referred to a child psychologist who told them 'not to worry'.

Sophie was found dead in bed two weeks after leaving hospital. A post mortem examination revealed she had died of acute kidney failure.

Her parents, of St Dennis, Cornwall, yesterday said that by removing all eight of her milk teeth the hospital had left their daughter traumatised and unable to eat.

Mrs Waller said: 'I signed a form to consent to have one tooth being removed, but not eight.

'The next thing I know she comes out of theatre and there was blood all round her mouth. All her milk teeth had been taken out.

'She didn't like dentists already so she was very freaked out. She had blood running all down her face. The poor girl was devastated.

Janet Waller said her daughter was 'devastated' when she discovered her teeth had been removed.

'It was very scary for her. She soon needed a feeding tube because she stopped eating and drinking.'

After leaving hospital Sophie's parents say they tried to feed her watermelon and oranges but most of the food was spilled down her front as she wouldn't swallow.

Mrs Waller says they contacted the hospital with their concerns but were told not to bring her back and referred her to child psychologist Kerry Davison.

The couple claim say they rang her at least once a day but say she told them 'everything would be fine' and not to worry as long as she was eating something.

Mr Waller said: 'It could have easily been avoided if we had just taken her into hospital instead of listening to that woman.

'If I had just said 'I am going to take her anyway' we would not be sitting here now.

'I asked her to come round and see her but she kept saying there is nothing to worry about and I'll come next week.'

Sophie became so thin she could not walk on her own and died weighing less than four stone on December 2, 2005.

Her mother, a nursery teacher, said: 'I kissed her goodnight and told her I loved her as normal.

'In the morning I noticed that Sophie looked like she was asleep so went to make a cup of tea and I though I'd wake up Sophie after.

'When I went up she was lying face up and I knew she was dead. She looked cold. I took her downstairs and Richard tried to perform CPR.'

Doctors found no food in her stomach or gut after she died even though she had previously been a 'tubby girl' who loved to eat.

Mrs Waller said: 'Everyone has a phobia and Sophie's was a dentist phobia and a phobia about her teeth.

'I wish now that Kerry Davidson had come out and looked at her or if the hospital let me return it would have saved her.

'She was a bubbly little girl who loved going to school who loved her food and would eat anything.

Her parents admit that after leaving hospital their daughter was not seen by any doctor.

Pathologist Marianne Brundle carried out a by post mortem and found she died of acute renal failure because of starvation and dehydration.

The inquest, in Truro, continues.
 
Van drags body 17 miles through New York City
A person was hit by a car, then swept under a van and dragged nearly 17 miles along busy New York City motorways before the driver realised, police said.

Last Updated: 11:13PM GMT 11 Feb 2009

The badly damaged body has not yet been identified.

Raymond Kelly, the police commissioner of New York, said investigators were tracing the route to search for body parts. :shock:

The first driver notified police after hitting the person at around 6 am on Wednesday.

In the meantime, the second driver drove over the victim. It is not clear whether the person was alive at that point.

The second driver drove the van on three New York City highways from Queens to Brooklyn before stopping to check the vehicle. But he did not see the body until a pedestrian pointed it out.

Police said no criminal act was suspected.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -City.html
 
That sounds one of the more improbable cases from CSI:New York you'd have though the driver would have have noticed something was a bit wrong... :?
 
Christine Newton-John ‘exercised her husband to death’
James Bone in New York

A sex-change woman has pleaded guilty to reckless homicide after her elderly husband was “exercised to death”.

Christine Newton-John, 41, who named herself after the singer Olivia Newton-John following her operation, faces up to five years in prison for forcing her exhausted 73-year-old husband to swim in the pool of their apartment complex in Chardon, Ohio.

Newton-John, who was born John Vallandingham, was caught on CCTV dragging James Mason, around the pool by his arms and legs.

At some points Mr Mason, who was terrified of water, laid his head on the side of the pool gasping for breath.

Police counted 43 occasions on which Newton-John prevented her husband from leaving the water. Eventually he suffered a fatal heart attack.

“The man was exercised to death,” Joseph Stehlik, the police chief of Middle-field, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “The video is bone-chilling.”

Police became suspicious about Mr Mason’s death, on June 2, because they had investigated complaints of abuse involving the pair in recent weeks.

A grand jury indicted Newton-John for reckless homicide and she pleaded guilty last week.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 741797.ece
 
OK: this is life imitating CSI:New York, she might have got away with that one without the CCTV
 
"Newton-John, who was born John Vallandingham, was caught on CCTV dragging James Mason, around the pool by his arms and legs."

Maybe a fan of A Star is Born as well as Grease? That James Mason was less hydrophobic IIRC. :shock:
 
Man "murdered" with with Gyrocopter

I have heard of some odd murder weapons...but gyrocopter?

From BBC news

Murder probe after aircraft death

Two men are being questioned by police about the incident
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a hunt supporter died when he was hit by a gyrocopter at an airfield.

Trevor Morse, from Alderminster, Warwickshire, died at the scene of the incident at Long Marston airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Sam Butler, of the Warwickshire Hunt, said a gyrocopter had recently been following hunts in the area.

He said hunting was Mr Morse's life and everyone was "completely shocked".

"No higher quality of person could you find than Trevor," said Mr Butler, a family friend and joint master of the hunt. Everybody was just completely shocked and can't believe that we have lost such a good friend

Sam Butler, family friend

"First and foremost he was the most wonderful son and brother and the most dedicated and loving partner of Caroline and we feel very, very, very deep sympathy for him and them today.

"Everybody was just completely shocked and can't believe that we have lost such a good friend."

Mr Butler said it was a "tragic but fatal accident", but he did not know why an aircraft had been in the area over the last few weeks.

It is thought the gyrocopter, a privately-owned aircraft similar to a small helicopter, had landed at the airfield to refuel.

Slow landing

Gyrocopters are known to take off and land very slowly and it is thought the victim was walking when the collision occurred.

No one else was injured in the incident, an ambulance spokesman said.

Det Ch Insp Adrian McGee, of Warwickshire Police, said at the airfield on Monday: "We will be conducting a thorough investigation into the circumstances to establish exactly what happened here."

West Midlands Ambulance Service said crews were called to the airfield on Campden Road, Lower Quinton, at about 1500 GMT on Monday.

A spokeswoman said: "Crews immediately assessed the pedestrian, a man, but unfortunately nothing could be done to save him and he was confirmed dead at the scene."

The Health and Safety Executive and the Air Accident Investigation Branch have both been informed.

Souce BBC news website Here

Mr P
 
Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing

SKY NEWS

Pancake Eating Contest Winner Chokes To Death

The winner of a pancake-eating contest has dropped dead while accepting his prize for gorging on 43 of the banana and cream stuffed desserts. Skip related content

Boris Isayev, 48, from west Russia died on stage moments after winning the competition to mark the end of Butter Week.

The contest, which took place in the town of Chernyakhovsk, was part of festivities to celebrate Maslenitsa, the last week before the period of Lent starts.

According to local traditions, meat, fish, dairy products and eggs are forbidden during Lent, as well as dancing and parties.

Witnesses described Mr Isayev as "the most active participant in the contest" adding that he "ate all the types of pancakes on offer and won fairly".

The witness added: "He had really enjoyed the pancakes but then he started foaming at the mouth and went down like a sack of stones.

"People have fainted during the contests before."

Medics tried to revive Mr Isayev after he collapsed while collecting his prize on stage.

The exact cause of death is not clear but doctors believe he choked after a piece of pancake got lodged in his throat.

Celebrations are said to have continued after Mr Isayev's body was taken away in an ambulance.
 
'Spider bite' to dead backpacker

A Sussex backpacker behaved strangely and eventually collapsed and died in Thailand after reporting a spider bite, an inquest has heard.

Daniel Salmon, 32, of Lancing, was detained on the island of Koh Samui because police thought he was "insane".

He became ill in custody and died on the way to hospital on 14 April 2007.

The Worthing inquest was told he had apparently suffered a bite three weeks earlier in Laos. A verdict of natural causes was returned.

Mr Salmon, a technician, spent nine months travelling around Australia in 2006 and was nearing the end of a two-month trip around South East Asia when he died, the inquest was told.

His mother Maureen told the inquest her son's arm had swelled up as far as the elbow after the bite.

He was given anti-toxin treatment, but could not be prescribed an anti-venom as he could not identify the spider.

She said he had appeared confused and slurred his speech during phone conversations home and she became so alarmed that she offered to fly to South East Asia.

Mrs Salmon said he told her, "Don't worry Mum, I'll be fine".

She told the inquest jury he had taken large amounts of money from cash machines on the island of Koh Samui which she thought was strange because of the low cost of living.

A Bangkok post-mortem examination revealed that Mr Salmon died of failure of respiratory and blood circulation systems, but forensic pathologist Dr Mark Appleton said this was not a conclusive cause of death.

He said sections of the report, which he received in August 2008, appeared to [be] contradictory. He suspected this happened when it was translated into English.

Dr Appleton added: "Unfortunately it's not really possible to come to a conclusion as to what the cause of death might have been."

'Conflicting reports'

Thai police reports said Mr Salmon was taken into custody by police on the island of Koh Samui after they found him acting strangely.

They said he "looked insane and couldn't control himself. He looked as if he had an unsound mind."

After he was taken to a male detention room he turned on a tap and played with the water, before he was sick and became unconscious.

He later died on the way to hospital.

Mrs Salmon said the Thai authorities had not acknowledged the bite.

Mr Salmon's father Ron, 67, said: "He died doing what he wanted to do."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8062446.stm
 
Farmer facing eviction Bob Dearnley kills himself with toxic cocktail
Philippe Naughton

A bankrupt tenant farmer who committed suicide with a powerful poison sparked a major chemical alert today after he dialled 999. Emergency crews were forced out of his home by fumes and some required hospital treatment.

Bob Dearnley, who was facing eviction from Burpham Court Farm near Guildford, in Surrey, called police at 1am to report a domestic dispute at the farmhouse. Emergency crews coughed and spluttered as they entered the building and then left to avoid fumes from a glass into which he had dropped the poison.

Seven police officers and three ambulance crew were taken to the Royal Surrey County Hospital after breathing in potentially toxic fumes. Mr Dearnley was pulled out of the building by firefighters wearing protective chemical suits. Paramedics tried to revive him but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Dearnley dropped tablets or pellets thought to contain the poison phosphine into a glass of water and drank the mixture. Phosphine is commonly used for pest control, either as a fumigant or in pellet form, to kill rats and other rodents.

Mr Dearnley, who was in his 50s, was made bankrupt after losing a court case against the National Trust over its decision to open weir gates on the River Wey, which flooded parts of his 76-acre farm.

He was due to leave the farm but had refused to do so and faced a repossession hearing next month. Neighbours said that Mr Dearnley had put his assets in the name of his wife, Margaret.

A source at the farm, which specialises in rare breeds and is normally open to the public, said: “Police and ambulance crews were called to a domestic dispute here in the early hours. On arrival they found a man who told them he was trying to commit suicide. When police went into the property to try to make it safe they found that he had put some chemical tablets into water and it was giving off fumes. At first he said it was rat poison, then rabbit poison, but the liquid was giving off fumes and at that stage officers withdrew for their safety.”

Burpham Court Farm dates back to at least the 11th century when Edward the Confessor’s wife, Edith, is recorded as owning the land. More recent owners include the Duke of Sutherland and Paul Getty.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 379291.ece
 
Crime doesn't pay...

Cable theft men gassed in seconds

Two men were killed when a fire safety device flooded an electricity sub-station with carbon dioxide in seconds, a court has heard.

The men were part of a team trying to take copper cabling at the Excelsior Industrial Estate, Rowley Regis, on Wednesday evening.

A third man, Jonathan Deeming, 24, of Dudley, was jailed for six weeks after pleading guilty to burglary.

Craig Bull, 18, of Dudley, is on bail having also admitted burglary.

Halesowen Magistrates' Court heard the two men who died, who have not yet been formally identified, were using a pulley system to strip two tonnes of copper from a disused factory.

Prosecuting, Barry Sealeaf told JPs that while three of the men were in the room with the copper they set off an emergency system leading to carbon dioxide flooding the room within seconds.

"Sadly, two of them were asphyxiated," he said.

Deeming, of Foxglove Road, was saved by the emergency services after they were alerted by Bull, who was acting as a look-out.

Paul Selby, acting for Deeming, said he had been leaving the building to swap places with Bull, of Maple Road, when the safety system was triggered.

"He owes his life to the quick thinking of Mr Bull," he said.

Bull is expected to be given a community penalty when he is sentenced on 10 July.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west ... 097296.stm
 
Case reopened of woman who died after sister injected drug
James Thompson, Charlotte Chambers and David Brown

Police are reinvestigating the death of an Oxford graduate who collapsed after being injected by her sister with an experimental drug that they hoped would reverse ageing.

Yolanda Cox, 22, suffered a massive allergic reaction after being given three times the normal dose as part of a test of the unlicensed drug invented by their mother. Mrs Cox had been married for just nine months when she agreed to be a guinea pig for the drug, which was administered by her elder sister, Dr Yvonne Pambakian, a GP.

Both sisters worked for the company set up by their mother, Dr Apri Matossian-Rogers, which has spent more than £3 million developing the drug, known as B71. Details of the extraordinary background to the tragedy were revealed during an inquest into Mrs Cox’s death this week.

St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard that Dr Pambakian, 38, had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and that detectives were reviewing the investigation into her sister’s death. Mrs Cox collapsed after receiving an injection of the drug in the living room of the family home in Hampstead, North London, in June 2007.

Hospital doctors and paramedics described feeling uneasy after her family resisted requests to give them information about the drug even when she was in a critical condition in intensive care, the inquest heard. Ambulance staff were the first to contact police with their concerns.

Dr Alexander Mackay, of the Royal Free Hospital, said: “The family were extremely reluctant to go into detail about the drug. I got the impression it was an experimental drug.

“They wouldn’t say what was in it, and said I didn’t need to know anything and the drug was extremely safe. I said Yolanda is extremely unwell and I asked for a sample of the drug. Some time later the family brought in paper information in two files.”

Mrs Cox’s husband, Patrick, 24, said his wife had initially complained about itchiness in her arm after the injection.

“Two minutes later she was inside sitting on the sofa and she was struggling for breath,” said Mr Cox, who has a masters degree in biochemistry from Oxford University, “we called the ambulance. She was treated with oxygen and taken to hospital. I think her heart stopped beating for a long time.” Mr Cox described his wife as “a very faithful woman, who knew the gods believe in her”.

Hospital tests carried out against her relatives’ wishes revealed that Mrs Cox’s brain was irreversibly damaged and four days later her life support machine was turned off, despite threats of legal action from her family.

Mrs Cox’s mother, who qualified as a pathologist, had spent more than a decade attempting to perfect the drug, which was being developed by the family’s pharmaceutical company, Amro Biotech.

She had developed the drug during her research into insulin.

Dr Pambakian told the inquest that there was “always the element of the unknown” when giving a patient a drug, as “you don’t know how they will respond”.

etc...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 489149.ece
 
It may not have reversed aging, but it certainly stopped it.
 
Disease pioneer's helium suicide
Academic with MS feared being sent to care home and instead took her own life
Sarah-Kate Templeton

Police are investigating the suicide of an academic who pioneered treatment for multiple sclerosis but could no longer live with the disease herself.

Cari Loder, 48, a former university lecturer, killed herself at her Surrey home by inhaling helium gas that she had ordered over the internet.

She had also purchased a hood online and had acquired a suicide guide called Final Exit.

Detectives believe Loder may have received help and arrested a 70-year-old neighbour soon after her death on June 8. The man was later released on bail.

Loder’s death will reignite the debate over euthanasia. Campaigners for the introduction of medically assisted suicide say Loder may have lived longer had she known that doctors would have helped her to die when she felt she could no longer endure her illness.

They say she was obliged to organise her own death before her MS progressed to a stage when she was no longer able to make the arrangements.

However, opponents of assisted suicide fear the practice may encourage society to “throw the towel in” on the terminally ill.

Loder, a former lecturer at London University’s Institute of Education, discovered a treatment for MS by accident

in 1994. It involved combining an antidepressant, an amino acid and a vitamin and became known as the “Cari Loder regime”.

At the time of the discovery, Loder said: “One day I had been hardly able to walk without crutches; the next I was able to dance to Top of the Pops.”

Loder wrote a book, Standing in the Sunshine, about her recovery and 138 other MS sufferers volunteered to take part in a trial of her treatment.

The trial found that patients underwent slight improvements in their disabilities and symptoms, but concluded that more research was needed.

Ultimately, Loder’s own condition advanced to the stage where she feared being sent to a care home — a fate she was determined to avoid.

etc...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 544601.ece

Suicide by helium is a new one to me... :(
 
Umpire dies in cricket accident

A cricket umpire has died after being hit on the head by a ball.

Alcwyn Jenkins, 72, was umpiring a league match between Swansea and Llangennech at the St Helen's ground in Swansea on Saturday.

The widower, from Skewen near Neath, was struck on the head by a ball thrown by a fielder and was airlifted to hospital but failed to recover.

Neil Hobbs, honorary chairman of the South Wales Cricket Association, said it was a tragic accident.

"I've umpired with Alcwyn - great guy. He was well respected throughout the league and everybody knew Alcwyn," said Mr Hobbs.

"He's umpired for the best part of 25 years. He also does junior league matches.

"Everybody probably in south Wales knows Alcwyn through cricket. It's a very very sad day and I feel sorry for his children."

The match, which was abandoned, was a league game in division one of the South Wales Cricket Association.

A message on the association's website says: "We are shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic accidental death of umpire Alcwyn Jenkins from an injury sustained on the field of play at St Helen's today. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time."

Mr Hobbs, who was not at the game, said he was told that Mr Jenkins collapsed after being hit by the ball.

"I'm led to believe it was one of the most freak accidents you could ever imagine on the cricket field," he said.

"The fielder collected the ball in the outfield and threw it in at the stumps and it hit Alcwyn on the head."

He said efforts were made to resuscitate Mr Jenkins before he was taken to hospital by air ambulance.

etc...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8134885.stm
 
Literally death by chocolate.
Sky News

Man Dies After Falling Into Vat Of Chocolate

A 29-year-old man has died after falling into a vat of molten chocolate at a factory in the US. Skip related content
Vincent Smith II was with three workers dumping chunks of chocolate into the simmering liquid when he somehow lost his balance and fell in.

TV pictures showed one of his distraught colleagues standing outside the factory in Camden, New Jersey, his clothes covered in chocolate.

He had apparently tried to rescue the man, who had died by the time emergency services arrived at the scene ten minutes later.

Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said an investigation has been launched into the incident.

"He somehow slipped and fell into the vat," he said.

"Inside the vat, he was hit by a piece of equipment called the agitator that's used to stir, and that killed him."

Mr Laughlin said the vat at the Cocoa Services Inc plant was around 8ft deep.

"At this point there's no suggestion of foul play," he added. "It appears to be an accident.

"This man unfortunately fell into this hole and passed away before anyone could rescue him."

Cocoa Services employs another company - Lyons and Sons - to do the mixing at the factory.
 
Horror as taxi driver decapitates himself outside cafe
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:41 PM on 10th July 2009

A taxi driver decapitated himself after tying a rope around his neck and a post before driving off at high speed.
The incident took place just metres from a 24-hour cafe.

The man, believed to be in his thirties, is said to have then driven off at full speed in the early hours of this morning, aiming straight at a pillar.

His head was found yards from his taxi in Great Suffolk Street in Southwark, London.

A cab driver, who preferred to remain anonymous, said: 'One of the drivers was at the scene just afterwards.

'He saw the cab all smashed up against the pillar, with the driver’s body still inside the vehicle.

'He then saw the head lying on the side of the road next to some rope. It is horrific.'

The death happened shortly after midnight at a disused petrol station yards from a 24-hour cafe used by black-cab drivers.

The witness added: 'The driver who arrived at the scene just afterwards alerted the police and ambulance service.

'Some people from the flats nearby also came running out of their homes when they heard the crash.'

Scotland Yard said the death was not being treated as suspicious but it was investigating.

Ambulance services attended at 12.40am and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police were trying to trace the driver’s next of kin today. They were also trying to establish if the dead man was a genuine black-cab driver.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... s-cab.html
 
Father dies in maternity unit hours before first son is born
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:53 PM on 18th August 2009

A father-to-be dropped dead at a maternity unit hours before his fiancee gave birth to his first child, it emerged today.
Dave Robertson, 21, visited hospital on the morning his partner Sharon was about to go into labour.
But the call centre worker, from Swindon, Wiltshire, suddenly collapsed on the maternity unit ward at the town's Great Western Hospital, and despite attempts to resuscitate him he died later that day.
Just 10 hours after Mr Robertson's death, Sharon gave birth to his son Sam, weighing just over 9lb.

A post-mortem examination was completed after his death on August 7, but a cause of death is yet to be established.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0OcdSoqPI
 
Suicidal woman crushes pedestrian to death after leaping from eighth floor
By Tom Worden
Last updated at 11:59 PM on 02nd September 2009

A suicidal woman who jumped from an eighth floor window crushed a passer-by to death in an horrific accident.

The woman hurled herself from the balcony in Viladecans, near Barcelona, and landed on top of a 50-year-old pedestrian who was walking below.

The jumper died instantly, and the man, from the Ukraine, died in hospital shortly afterwards from his injuries.

His wife, who was walking with him at the time, escaped with minor injuries in the incident, which happened at 5.45 on Monday evening.

A spokesman for the Mossos d'Escuadra, the local police force, said: 'This is a terrible tragedy and a horrific way to die.
'We are not releasing the names of either of the deceased out of respect for their families.
'"The dead man's wife is distraught.
'We don't believe the woman who jumped had any intention of harming anybody else.
'It was just horribly bad luck that the man was walking underneath at the moment she jumped.'

Reports in Spain said the 50-year-old man was from the Ukraine.
But the police spokesman said: 'He was Spanish, from the neighbouring town of Gava.'
A unnamed neighbour said: 'I heard a horrible thud and a scream, and then the sirens of the police and ambulance.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... z0Q2Cd5nQq
 
Funeral in SA for ID suicide man
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8235324.stm

It is difficult to obtain documents if no parent can vouch for your identity
A 22-year-old South African man who committed suicide after being refused identity documents he needed to start a job is being buried in KwaZulu-Natal.

Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will address the mourners at Skhumbuzo Mhlongo's funeral.

The minister broke down in tears before journalists earlier this week when she was telling them about the case.

She is expected to announce the outcome of an investigation. She said she suspected an official expected a bribe.

"The minister has vowed to leave no stone unturned to ensure that the perpetrators of this act are brought to book and indeed to safeguard against any other citizen of this country suffering the same fate," her spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said in a statement.

Complaint line

In his suicide note, Mr Mhlongo explained how an official had torn up his application, calling him a foreigner.



The BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says the Department of Home Affairs has come under heavy criticism over the years for its inefficiency in issuing ID documents, birth certificates and passports, with some people claiming to have waited up to four years.

She points out it would be even more difficult to obtain the documents if you have no parents to vouch for your identity.

In response to the case, the Department of Home Affairs has set up a hotline for people to register complaints about its civil servants: 0800-2044-76.

The line, which did not work when the BBC tried it on Monday, is now accepting calls.

Mr Mhlongo, who will be buried in Hillcrest near Durban in Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, had been due to start the new job at a factory which manufactures bird food on Monday.

Mr Mamoepa said the Department of Social Development has assisted the family with the burial arrangements.

Mr Mhlongo had been raised by his mother, who disappeared in 2000, leaving him to care for his younger siblings.

He had apparently been trying to get an ID card for some time without any luck and had been told to bring someone who could vouch for his nationality.

But the official did not believe that the man he brought along was his father, tore up Mr Mhlongo's papers and called him a "kwere-kwere" - a derogatory term used for foreign nationals.

He apparently left the suicide note before hanging himself.
 
rynner2 said:
Suicidal woman crushes pedestrian to death after leaping from eighth floor

I read about the same thing happening in Eastern Europe decades ago in a book of strange occurences. Only this time it was a cuckolded man who fell on his wife, kiling her and surviving himself (or it might have been the wife who fell on the husband). Anyone remember that?
 
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