Tyron
Watson, 48, a worker at JR Wheel, a wheel manufacturer in Akron, Ohio, was killed
on 29 December 2001 when he walked into a cage housing a robot to work on it. The
robot, which had not been properly de-energized, reactivated and smashed him into
a conveyor belt. Akron (OH) Beacon Journal - 3 January 2002.
Joseph
Stoyer, 51, bled to death after tripping and falling with a mug of coffee when he
stepped out of his front door in Seaford, Long Island. The mug broke and a 4in (10cm)
shard went through his carotoid artery. Newsday (NY) - 22 February
2002.
A 51-year-old
man from Perth was cleaning a truck-mounted cement mixer in the town of Carnarvon
on the western coast of Australia when the cement bowl shifted and he became caught
in the agitator. He died from massive internal injuries. Adelaide
Advertiser - 9 March 2002
A 28-year-old
South African was mauled to death by tigers after robbing a cash desk at the Rhino
and Lion Reserve at Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, on 9 March. The man and an
acomplice held up an entry kiosk and then ran off in different directions after being
chased by an employee. One rushed towards a waiting car, while the other climbed a
high fence and found himslef in the tigers' den. "They grabbed him and first
played with him," said a police spokeswoman. "He died of a broken neck and
a fractured skull." The body was removed after the tigers, a male and female,
had been sedated. Reuters - 11 March; Gold Coast (Queensland)
Bulletin - 12 March 2002.
A Doctor
mistakenly declared a 72-year-old woman dead in Mettmann, Germany, and sent her body
to a mortuary, where she froze to death in a refrigerator. An undertaker raised the
alarm when he found the 'corpse' was still warm, but it was too late and she died
from hypothermia. Metro - 13 March; Toronto National Post, 14
March 2002.
A 30-year-old
man was killed instantly on 15 March after jumping a red light in Mesa, Arizona and
colliding with a pickup truck driven by his older brother, aged 44, who suffered minor
injuries. Both lived in mesa, but not near the crash site. Arizona
Republic - 16 March 2002.
Susie
Stephens, 36, of Winthrop, Washington State, America's top pedestrian safety expert,
was run over and killed by a bus in St Louis, Missouri, last March. She was in the
city advising a cycling and walking conferance on safety. The driver of the tour bus
said he didn't see Ms Stephens as he made a left turn. Ananova
- 22 March 2002.
The
Body of Robert Dean Eaton, 60, was found naked and chained to a large oak tree on
a rural game trail off Coyote Lane, near Happy Valley, California, on 23 March. He
had been missing since 25 January. A police spokesman said Eaton had a history of
mental illness and has chained himself to trees before. Foul play was not suspected.
Redding (CA) Record Searchlight - 24 March 2002.
A 62-year-old
man choked to death after swallowing a live octopus at his home in Seoul, South Korea.
Doctors removed the octopus, which was still alive and clinging to the man's gullet.
Live octopus is a popular but often fatal Korean snack - choking six people a year.
Mirror - 30 April 2002.
A New
Zealand diplomat who died in the Solomon Islands appearewd to have accidentally stabbed
herself. Bridget Nicols, 50, the new deputy High Commisioner, died from a single knife
wound on 17 March. An investigation found that she slipped while carrying kitchen
goods into her house in Honiara, and landed on a knife which pierced her just below
the heart. Initially, police thought she had beed murdered, and even held two men
in custody briefly. Adelaide Advertiser - 16 May 2002.
Roger
Wallace, 60, was flying his radio-controlled plane near Tucson, Arizona, on 18 May
when he turned toward the sun and lost sight of it. The place, which weighed nearly
7lb (3kg) and had a wingspan of nearly 5ft (1.5m), then flew into his chest, killing
him. Tucson (AZ) Citizen - 20 May 2002.
Police
arrested an Egyptian farmer who buried his unmarried sister alive in an "honour
killing" after she became pregnant. The 35-year-old, who had reported his sisted
missing, confessed to the police that he had killed her. Associated
Press - 26 June 2002
A woman was shot dead by her fiancé after she jumped out of the wardrobe to surprise him. Benjamin Kult, 25, thought 21-year-old Pang Yang was a burglar and shot her in the head with his glock handgun. The couple, from Nebraska , had announced their engagement two days earlier. Metro, 20 June 2002.
A snake
managed to escape from the claws of an eagle and fell into a car near Khaf in the
Iranian province of Khorassan, where it bit four passengers. Two were killed instantly
and two others injured and taken to the local hospital. Khaf is 160 miles (258km)
south east of the provincial capital os Mashad. Islamic Republic
News Agency (IRNA) - 30 June 2002.
A 37-year-old
man weighed down with more than 50lb (23kg) of stolen cameras and CDs, among other
items, drowned when he refused to let go of his loot while swimming across the Arkansas
River on 16 August. Police from Tulsa, Oklahama, were chasing him when he jumped into
the muddy water with a duffel bag containing the goods. "He got about 40 yards
out and yelled for help," said police spokesman Lucky Lamons. "The officers
took of their shirts, shoes and belts and jumped into the river. By the time they
reached him, he had gone under." His body was retreived about an hour later.
Reuters - 18 August 2002
An
Iranian beheaded his seven-year-old daughter after suspecting her uncle had raped
her. However, a post mortem examination showed she was a virgin. "The motive
behind the killing was to defend my honour, fame and dignity," the father told
the Jomhuri-ye-Eslami newspaper. Reuters - 9 September
2002
William
Potogi, 33, was given a ritual bath by a witch doctor in Paramaribo, Surinam, to make
him bullet-proof. He asked the witch doctor's assistant to test whether it had worked
and was shot dead with his own sawn-off shotgun at point-blank range. According to
Ronal Gayadhar, a policeman; "Both men deny murder and claim Potogi died because
he lacked faith in the spell". Sun - 10 September 2002
A man shot his brother dead after an argument over a television remote control in Spain's south-west Huelva province. Ignacio Ruiz, 34, used a hunting rifle to blow out the television set before shooting Rafael, 39, in the chest. Independant - 11 September 2002.
Filipino labourer Randy Cruz killed his neighbour Rogelio Lopez over who had the more famous surname. A witness told police he saw the two men arguing about their surnames as they walked down Manilla street. At the height of the argument, Cruz, 27, repeatedly stabbed Lopez with a knife. Daily Star - 15 September 2002
A Buddhist monk and two nuns died on 29 September 2002 when they filled bath tubs with 60 litres (13 gallons) of petrol, sat in them and set them alight at the wat thmar sar pagoda in Cambodia's eastern province of Prey Veng. They left suicide notes expressing their belief that ritual suicide was the only way to achieve true nirvana. Three other monks who tried to commit suicide by stabbing themselves in the chest were saved by nearby residents. The mother - herself a nun - of the one monk who died was seen kneeling down and worshipping in front of her blazing son, saying "god bless you". Provincial authorities were seeking to arrest a senior monk who led the group in its suicide bid, but failed to go through with the act himself and fled the temple. Reuters, 1 Oct 2002.
Three motorists were killed and dozens injured by rockslides on the road between the Russian resort cities of Adler and Krasnaya Polyana. People in the area blamed Caucasian bears, which started killing cattle by rolling rocks down the mountains and graduated to humans. Not for eating though. Vladimir Tkach, a hunter, said the creatures were attacking people on the road "just for entertainment". Independant on Sunday - 20 October 2002.
An Indonesian man, using a home-made stunning device to catch fish, electrocuted himself and drowned. Syahrul, 42, had attached electric cables to a diesel engine and was trailing them in the Mentaya River in Kalimantan. He supposedly dipped his foot into the water, received an electric shock and fell in. Associated Press - 20 November 2002.
Malaysian snake charmer R Anbarasan, 23, who lost patience with his lazy King Cobra, was killed 21 November when he pulled the snake out of its box and it bit him on the hand. He was performing at a trade fair on the Indonesian island of Batam when his snake took exception to being hurried. AFR; Reuters - 25 November 2002.
Steven Brasher, 42, from Texas, shot and killed his long-time friend Willie Lawson, 39, on 5 November 2001 after accusing him of drinking the last beer in his fridge. "There were only two beers left," he said "so I took one and told Willie not to take my last beer." Newark (NJ) Star Ledger - 6 December 2002.
A Minesota man stabbed and shot his aunt to death after they argued over the flavour of her home-made chilli. Richard Bruestle, 38, of St Paul, was arrested for the murder of Lorene Neil Mcintyre, 50. NY Post - 11 December 2002.
Mark Billington, 35, of Halifax , west Yorkshire , died when he suffered an epileptic fit, fell out of bed and got his head stuck in a wastepaper basket. He was found with a duvet wrapped around him and his head securely wedged in the 10in (25cm) deep basket. D.Express, 21 December 2002