January
A truck hauling produce
crashed into a church van carrying mourners to a funeral in New Mexico
on Saturday, killing three people and injuring several others, police
said.
All of the fatalities were in the van, which was turning into the Tinnie Cemetery when it was rear-ended by the 18-wheel tractor-trailer on Highway 70 between Ruidoso and Roswell about 200 miles (320 kms) southeast of of Albuquerque.
Investigators had not determined a cause.
At least nine people were hospitalized with at least two in critical condition, police said. The driver of the truck, which overturned after the crash, was among those hurt. He was not identified and his condition was not reported.
The van was from the First Baptist Church in Alamagordo, New Mexico. The truck was headed to Ontario, Canada. Reuters - 8 January
A German tourist was killed by
a giant king bass on the island of Phangan in Thailand last January. It bit chunks
from his shoulder, hands and thighs in a frenzied attack. Holiday-makers dragged the
screaming man ashore, but he died before help arrived. Police said that bass were
fierce predators, but it was unknown for one to attack a human. Mirror
- 8 January 2000.
A bus driver was killed after he was struck by his bus.
The man, who has not been named but is believed to be local, appears to have got off his bus in the Allerton area of Liverpool to investigate a problem.
He was then hit by the vehicle - a North Western bus with no passengers on board - as it began to roll and died later of his injuries.
Accident investigators were called to the scene and are trying to establish whether there was any fault with the bus.
An inquiry is to be opened by the Department of Transport. Top Stories - 13 January
February
When Donna Jo Norder, 46, a retired
Air Force lieutenant colonel reservist, drove into a parking lot at MacDill Air Force
Base in Florida on 18 February, a 3ft (91cm) barrier popped up underneath her car,
even though she had used a clearance card to access the lot. The car windshield was
smashed, both airbags deployed and the front end of the car was perched on top of
the barrier when rescue workers arrived. She died at the scene. Associated
Press - 19 February 2000
Chalil Chathothu Ravindran, 45,
retired to a room in his house in Chelora, a town in southern Indian state of Kerala,
on 19 December. He told his mother he would come out of the room after 41 days of
prayers with complete abstention from food and water, and that he would have divine
powers. When he failed to come out after the specified period, neighbours tried to
break into the room but were prevented by his relatives. After 50 days, police forced
open the door and found Ravindran's decomposed body. Gold Coast
Weekend Bulletin (Queensland) - 12 / 13 February 2000.
March
WINNIPEG - A young Canadian
man watching a hockey game has died after a puck accidentally flew
into the stand and hit him in the head, a coroner said on Monday.
``The cause of death (March 3) was a left epidural hemorrhage as a result of being struck in the head by a puck,'' said a statement from the coroner in the western province of Manitoba.
The man, 21, died in a hospital several days after attending a February 26 game in a small town near the provincial capital of Winnipeg. His condition worsened following the game.
The impact of the puck also caused a skull fracture, the coroner said. Reuters - 7 March
Christina Shire, 48, who was fit
and healthy, bled to death after nicking a vein while cutting her toenail. She had
probably carried out her pedicure four days before police discovered her body on 14
October 1999, surrounded by towels she used in an attempt to staunch the flow. Hornsey
coroner's court in north London heard that she might have survived had she not walked
around trying to clean up the blood. "Had she lain down," said a pathologist, "[the
bleeding] would have stopped very quickly." Daily Telegraph -
9 March 2000
Saliamin
Akrami, 32, an Afghan asylum seeker residing in Willesden, west London, accidentally
killed himself on 23 October 1999 by urinating on a live rail at the deserted Kensal
Green railway station. Six hundred volts formed an arc into the tip of his penis,
causing him to convulse and collapse on the rail. The alcohol in his blood was more
than twice the drink-drive limit, and it was likely he was drunk, Pathologist Rufus
Crompton identified the cause of death by a tiny, precise burn mark to the urinary
opening of the penis. Guardian - 10 March 2000
The body
of Amarsinh Mavji, 40, was found in a temple in Gadhula village in the Bhavnagar district
of Rajkot. The police claimed he was a victim of 'Kamal puja,' in which a person's
head is chopped off to appease the goddess. Members of the Vaghri community had allegedly
gathered at the temple to seek forgiveness of sins committed during the past year.
As part of the ritual, Amarsinh chopped off his own head with a sword. Exactly how
he managed to do this is not explained. Times of India - 10 Mar
2000
DOVER TOWNSHIP, N.J., A
10-year-old boy has been charged with stabbing his father to death as
the two argued over a missing can of chocolate cake frosting,
authorities said.
Andrew Harms, 38, accused his son of taking the icing, goaded the boy and even handed him a 5-inch kitchen knife during Monday night's argument, Ocean County Prosecutor E. David Millard said.
``The discussion became heated and emotional. At that point, Mr. Harms picked up a knife and placed it in the juvenile's hand and stated that if he hated him that much, then he wanted him to stab him,'' he said.
His son then allegedly plunged it once into the man's chest. Harms died an hour later.
The boy, a fourth-grader whose name was not released, has been charged with manslaughter and illegal possession of a weapon. He was being held without bail Wednesday in a juvenile detention center.
The boy is too young to face charges as an adult, but could get three years of juvenile detention if convicted, Millard said.
``The focus with very young offenders like this is usually toward rehabilitation,'' he said.
Millard would not discuss the prior relationship between the boy and his father except to say there had been ``some emotional turmoil.'' Associated Press - 15 March
HAMILTON, New Zealand, An
audience of hospital patients applauded when a magician collapsed and
died during a show, thinking it was part of his act, his family said
Friday.
Ron Watson, known as Uncle Ron the Magician, was trying to cheer up stroke victims in the Tokoroa Hospital, including his wife Sheila, when he fell to the ground minutes into his act.
The audience thought the collapse was part of it - except his wife, who tried to get up to help him, despite being partly paralyzed.
``Everyone thought it was part of the act, but of course she knew it wasn't,'' said his son, John Watson.
Doctors spent 45 minutes trying to revive Watson, 69, without success.
John Watson said his father died doing what he loved. His magician idols had been escape artist Houdini and Englishman Tommy Cooper, who also died while performing.
Watson was a former member of England's Bognor Regis Magic Circle and gave performances for charity since he retired 15 years ago. Associated Press - 16 March
A Greek fisherman hauling in his
nets on 17 March found the body of his son who had been missing for a month. Panagiotis
Vettas, 22, fell overboard on 26 January during a fishing trip with his 60-year-old
father, Giogos, southeast of Kimolos Island, 90 miles (145km) southwest of Athens.
The search had been called off after a few days. Associated Press
- 18 March 2000.
April
Stephen Hyett, 38, of Haverhill,
Suffolk, who six years ago survived a pioneering transplant in which his stomach,
liver, kidney, pancreas, duodenum and small bowel were replaced, died from head injuries
after falling off a chair while changing a light bulb. Express
-15 April 2000
Arvin Jah, 48, was killed by a
plant pot dropped by a monkey from the sixth floor of a block of flats in New Delhi.
The Sun - 17 April 2000.
A 23-year-old Italian man
died during an Easter re-enactment of Christ's passion, probably
because the noose he was wearing in the role of Judas Iscariot was too
tight, police said Sunday.
Watched by his parents, Renato Di Paolo had taken part in a re-enactment of the Via Crucis, or way of the cross, in Camerata Nuova 75 km (47 miles) outside Rome Saturday night.
He played Judas, who betrayed Christ, allowing him to be arrested and crucified on what Christians commemorate as Good Friday. Engulfed by remorse, Judas hanged himself from a tree.
Di Paolo, who had played the part safely Friday night, jumped from a height of about 30 cm (one foot) and lay immobile on the ground with a noose around his neck while the play continued. A fellow actor raised the alarm after noticing that he looked too rigid. Di Paolo was rushed to hospital but could not be saved. Reuters - 24 April 2000
DUBLIN (Reuters) - A
prisoner was stabbed to death in an Irish jail over Easter after his
snoring drove a cellmate into a violent rage, newspapers reported
Tuesday.
Thomas Brady, 22, was stabbed with a sharpened table knife as he slept in his cell at Dublin's Mountjoy prison early on Easter Sunday. He was rushed to a hospital but could not be saved.
``The Gardai (police) have told me that Thomas was stabbed in his sleep because he was snoring,'' the victim's father told The Star newspaper.
Police said they were questioning a man over the killing but did not disclose his identity. Reuters - 25 April 2000
A 22-year-old
Ugandan man known as Namerya ate live caterpillars, snails, snakes, lizards, butterflies,
rats and frogs for a living. He made 60p for each snake. A report in the New Vision
newspaper in Kampala said he died after eating a chameleon, when a swelling developed
in his mouth. BBC News - 27 April; AFP - 28 April 2000
A cheerful
man killed himself so that he could avoid losing his feelings of happiness. Syrian
police said Najib Saddi, 35, the boss of a fish firm, left a suicide note saying he
was "perfectly happy" but was afraid of "future unhappiness". Daily
Express - 29 April 2000
May
Louise Joseph, 26, from Hull, drowned
on 2 April during a day out on Papabasam beach in Trivandrum, south India. With her
friends Kiran Jhite and Anna Boyd, she was paddling 5ft (1.5m) into the water, which
was only 8in (20cm) deep. A fierce rip tide carried them 20ft (6m) out, Kiran and
Anna were rescued, but Louise was not so lucky. Daily Telegraph,
Daily Express - 12 May 2000.
Neil Micklewright, 19, died after accidentally stabbing
himself in the eye with a screwdriver while breaking into a church safe in Oldbury,
West Midlands. He was found writhing in agony by paramedics. Daily
Record - 13 May 2000.
Builder Ian Miller, 55, was cycling along a road near Ayrsgarth
in North Yorkshire on 8 May when a pheasant got caught in the spokes of his bicycle.
He fell, hit his head on a wall, and died in hospital three days later. Halifax
Evening Courier - 19 May 2000.
George
Story featured in the inaugural issue of Life magazine 64 years ago as a newborn
baby dangling by his feet. From that appearance he was known as "the Life Baby". As
the magazine grew into an American institution, it continued to track its first star
as he married twice, became a father and retired. He appeared in the magazine's final
issue in May 2000, this time under the headline "A Life Ends". A few days after it
was announced that the magazine was to fold, Mr. Story died from heart failure. It
was, as the article said, "sad and altogether strange". Man and magazine had been
entwined. Sunday Telegraph - 21 May 2000
Gloria Terrell, 43, was detained
by guards at a Value Village store in Detroit who suspected her of shoplifting a pair
of shoes. She made a run for it and hid in a garbage compactor, where she was crushed
to death after workers returned from a break and started the machine. Associated
Press - 31 May 2000.
June
A Chinese fisherman was killed
by a two-foot (60cm) long arrowfish when it leapt from the sea and skewed his lungs
with its pointed head. The young man from the province of Fujian, was fishing with
a lamp from a small boat when the green fish. which has sharp spines and a long sword-like
beak, shot out of the water. A fishery official said the fish might have been frightened
by the lamp. Daily Telegraph - 27 June 2000.
A thief died trying to flee an
art museum in Bonn. Peter Grüber panicked after being surprised by a security guard
at the Klausmann Museum of Art and when he raced around a corner, impaled himself
upon a 4ft (1.2m)-long sword held by a statue of a blindfolded soldier. The exhibit
is called "The Weapon of Justice". Guardian - 29 June 2000.
Salesman Emmanuel Broust, 42, from
Los Angeles was due to meet buyers in Tokyo, but suffered a heart attack and died
in bed in the Ichi Haisin Hotel before making the appointment. For four months, staff
continued to obey the "Do not disturb" sign on the door. His body was eventually found
by a maid who had just started in the job and thought the room was empty. Initially,
she wanted to resign in shame for having disturbed a guest. Metro
- 30 June 2000.
July
At an evening barbecue in August
1996 an Australian fruit bat alighted on the back of a small child. A young woman
picked it off and was bitten on the finger. More than two years later, she died from
a rabies-lik illness, the second reported case of bat Lyssavirus in Australia. Information
about this emerging threat is scarce, but all bat species in Australia are potential
carriers. British Medical Journal - 1 July 2000.
An 81-year-old man died on 30 June when lightning struck
his house in Safety Bay, south of Perth, Western Australia, and cut power to his respirator.
Sunday Mail - 2 July 2000.
Joshua Thomas Burchette, 23, of
Ocean City, Maryland, complained of hiccoughs after a couple of beers on 1 July and
asked a friend to punch him in the chest to try to get rid of them. When his friend
reluctantly obliged, he collapsed on the sidewalk and died. Burchette's mother, Jeri
Ann Fisyer, said her family has a history of heart problems and her son often complained
of chest pains, but had never been hospitalized or placed on medication. Associated
Press - 3 July 2000.
On 28 June a 69-year-old man in
Vögisheim near Müllheim in Germany fell off a ladder while picking cherries. He died
in Freiburg hospital the following morning at the same time as a 68-year-old man in
Ebringen, only 6 miles (10km) away, who fell off a ladder while picking cherries and
died immediately. Der Rebland-Kurier (Müllheim) - 5 July 2000.
Joshua Thomas Burchette, 23, of Ocean City, Maryland,
got hiccups after a couple of beers on 1 July, and asked a friend to punch him in
the chest to try and get rid of them. His friend obliged; Burchette collapsed on the
pavement and died. His mother said her family had a history of heart problems.
Queensland Times - 5 July 2000.
LLandis Burdon, 56, a retired
civil servant, was shot dead after working in his garden in Talybont-on-Usk, near
Brecon, Powys, on 6 July. The gunman was his next door neighbour of more than 20 years,
Reg Bowen, 61, with home he had been having a dispute over a Leylandii hedge. The
6ft (1.8m) hedge was neatly trimmed on Mr. Bowen's side, but in need of a cut on Mr.
Burdon's side. Apart from that, both gardens were in immaculate condition, full of
summer blooms, hanging baskets and plant pots. The Times; Daily
Telegraph; Daily Express - 7 July 2000.
A monster catfish said to be 9ft
(2.7m) long pulled an angler into a lake and towed him to his death. Anto Schwarz,
45, shouted to his friends that he had hooked a huge one as his rod bent double. After
a struggle lasting several minutes, the fish pulled him off balance and Schwarz, entangled
in his line and unable to swim, drowned in Eva Maria Lake near Vienna. The huge fish
lurking in Austrian lakes and rivers are legendary. Daily
Express - 26 July 2000.
Esther Penn, 35, a securities administrator from Brooklyn,
was putting the day's stock receipts away in a basement vault of the Depostory Trust
and Clearing Corporation on Water Street, Lower Manhattan, on 27 July 2000, when she
was accidentally locked inside. She pulled the fire alarm at around 9pm, thinking
it would summon help, but instead it triggered a carbon-dioxide-gas-fire extinguishing
system which sucked all the air from the vault and suffocated her. Associated
Press - 29 July 2000.
August
Jose Rojas Mayarita, 39, hooked
a 10ft (3m) blue Marlin off Acapulco. He struggled with it for hours, and as he reeled
it in, it leapt and landed on top of him, impaling his stomach with its sword. He
drifted in the Pacific for four days until he was spotted by a U.S. helicopter. His
pulse was week, but he explained what had happened. Intestinal fluid had leaked into
his kidneys and he died of renal failure in hospital on 1 August. Independant
- 2 August 2000.
Seven Mexicans died during an exorcism after the room in which they were holding the rite filled with carbon monoxide
fumes, local radio and newspapers reported Sunday.
National Formato 21 radio said self-styled ``witch'' Teodoro Martinez was ridding a 15-year-old boy of evil spirits in the town of Tetla, in the central state of Tlaxcala, Friday when the tragedy occurred.
It said authorities found burning coal in the room, which led them to conclude the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning. Two people were being treated in the hospital. Reuters - 14 August 2000
Lightning killed a 24-year-old Frenchman as he strolled in a Paris park Sunday, police
said.
The thunderbolt hit a metal railing in the Tuileries gardens on the north bank of the river Seine before striking the man, they said. The park is popular with tourists.
French meteorologists predicted violent storms for the next 24 hours in the region around the French capital and the city's mayor ordered the closure of parks and cemeteries. Reuters - 21 August 2000
Three young park concession employees
jumped into a 178 degree F (81 degree C) hot spring, thinking it was an ordinary cold-water
pond. The three were burned on 21 August in the Cavern Spring, a 10ft (3m) deep pool
in the Lower Geyser Basin, seven miles (11km) north of Old Faithful in the middle
of Yellowstone National Park. Sarah Hulphers, 30, of Oroville, Washington, was burned
over her entire body and died a few hours later in a Salt Lake City hospital. The
other two - Tyler Montague, 18, and Lance Buchi, 18 - were in critical condition.
Associated Press - 24 August 2000.
SHAWNEE, Okla. An
82-year-old man was killed when his wife accidentally backed over him
with their car while trying to drag him to the house after he had
fallen in the driveway, police said.
Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Detective Tracy Warkentien described Franklin Gray's death Thursday as a ``freak accident.''
Gray, who is legally blind and uses a cane, was going for a walk along the driveway when he fell. His 87-year-old wife, Leta, tried to help him up but couldn't.
Gray asked her to drag him back to the house with a rope attached to the couple's car, Warkentien said. She came back with an extension cord and tied it to his belt.
The belt broke as the car started moving up the 44-foot driveway. The wife then tied the cord to Gray's ankle, Warkentien said.
When the extension cord broke, police said Gray asked his wife to back the car closer to him so he could reattach it. But, police said, her foot apparently was on the gas instead of the brake and when she put the car in reverse it backed over him. Associated Press - 26 August 2000
Amigdalia Balta, 86, found dead
of starvation in her home on the Greek island of Evia, has £350,000 in bank
accounts and jewellery. A recluse for many years, she had also amassed 150 gold sovereigns.
Daily Telegraph - 30 August 2000.
September
A Romanian man who wanted to kill
himself had a heart attack before being able to hang himself from a rope he had tied
to the ceiling. Iosif Capota wrote farewell notes, then locked himself in a Calimanesti
hotel room. The rope was hanging nearby. Evening Standard - 13
September 2000.
Jenny Rider, 41, poured petrol
over her clothes and set it alight. As it flared, she changed her mind and plunged
into a river in New Norfolk, Tasmania, to douse the flames. She then knocked herself
unconscious on a rock and drowned. News of the World - 24 September
2000.
A camel herder at Jizan in southern
Saudi Arabia paid with his life for beating one of his beasts, the Al-Iqtissadiya
newspaper reported. The camel waited all day after the morning beating before trampling
the sleeping herder to death and biting his neck. The blood-stained camel was shot
dead after the herd's owner found the body. Adelaide Advertiser
- 27 September 2000.
Lesley Hovvells, 39, of Llanelli,
Carmarthenshire, known as Red Sonia because of her flaming red hair, had 118 body
piercings - 28 ear studs, 13 earings, 11 belly bars through her navel, 18 other bars,
six lip rings, six nose studs, and 36 body rings. She is believed to have had over
40 piercings in the year before her death. She eventually died of septicaemia and
bacteria in the bloodstream when her body was "overwhelmed" by infection. She went
to her local pub with friends to celebrate the Millenium Eve and collapsed at 1:30am.
She died in hospital 11 days later. The Times, Daily Telegraph
- 29 September 2000.
October
Scott Dominguez, 24, was water-skiing at 112mph (180km/h)
on the Clarence River, near Grafton, New South Wales, when a flock of swans took fright
at the noise of the boat and flew across his path. He slammed into 5 swans and was
knocked unconscious. Medics were unable to revive him. Adelaide
Advertiser - 3 October 2000.
A 20-year-old Yemeni bride was
killed by a Scorpion which a jealous older wife had hidden in the younger woman's
wig. Reports from Taiz in south Yemen said the creature was hidden in the hairpeice
with the help of a hairdresser. The bride felt the stings as she was dressed to be
taken to her future husband's house, but the coiffeur told her the pain was from hair
pins. Doctors said she died of 24 stings. Less poison was enough to be fatal. Muslim
men are traditionally allowed up to four wives. Melbourne Herald
Sun - 13 October 2000.
November
Greek
twins born 73 years ago died almost simultaneously on 5 November. Paul Kalaitzakis,
who was in a coma, died 20 minutes after his brother Anthony. They were born in the
village of Agia Barbara, near Iraklion. Daily Telegraph - 6 November
2000
Julian Hendricks, 24, died when a tree fell on power lines,
causing a power cut to the ventilator that kept him alive. The Bournemoutt and Poole
coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death. The Times - 8
November 2000.
German tourist Hermann Roag somehow
survived a fall from the window of his 8th floor hotel room in Lausanne, Switzerland
with no more than a broken ankle; but on the way to hospital he fell out of the ambulance
and died under the wheels of a passing bus. Guardian - 23 November
2000.
December
Antonio Mazelli, 24, whose friend Ricardo Lestrada handed
him a mobile phone with a superglued handgrip - as a joke - to answer while driving
along Milan's main highway, lost control of his vehicle and struck a crash barrier
while trying to dislodge the unit from his right palm where it had stuck. He suffered
minor injuries in the crash, while Lestrada died from internal injuries at the scene.
Media Milano - 5 December 2000.
Thomasina Thomasa, 27, constructed a home-made bazooka
out of an old piece of iron piping which he loaded with an empty beer can filled with
gravel, using as propellant a teaspon of petrol vapour ignited by a car sparkplug
screwed in the pipe base. The can knocked the TV aerial off his own near Buenos Aires
in Argentina. The structure fell on him, causing multiple injuries from which he subsequently
died. Correpondio Argentina - 18 December 2000.
Two men survived the crash of a
small plane in the Swiss Alps - only to plummet over a cliff to their deaths while
groping through wind-driven snow in search of help. A third man, one of two passengers
aboard the Air Zermatt flight to Milan, which crashed after take-off on 23 December
from Aosta, reached safety by heading in another direction. Adelaide
Advertiser - 27 December 2000.