Diana Durre, of Chambers, Nebraska, died after a 75-foot (23 m) Taco Bell sign fell on top of the truck cab she was in. The pole broke at a welded joint about 15 feet (4.5 m) above the ground owing to strong winds. The sign fell right on top of the quad-cab pickup. The Taco Bell sign was installed and built in 1999 by the Tri City Sign Company of Grand Island. It cost $17,000, according to the sign permit. Diana was meeting a Wyoming couple to sell them some dogs. They had agreed to meet in North Platte, Nebraska, at about 1 p.m., “right underneath the big Taco Bell sign.” The dogs were in the back seat and were uninjured. They were taken to the North Platte Animal Shelter. They consisted of a female Yorkie and a male Norich Terrier.
The Wyoming couple showed up after the accident.
The National Weather Center Office in North Platte recorded wind speeds of 30-35 miles an hour at the time at the North Platte Regional Airport, with an occasional gust of 40 miles an hour. Signs of that size are generally engineered to withstand straight line winds of up to 110 mph, according to Sharon Neglay of Custom Craft Sign Company. She said that flexible faced signs are engineered to bend and flex with increased winds. The Taco Bell sign is not even the first high rise sign to fall in North Platte, On March 11th, 1988, a $170,000 tour bus bound for Honolulu Hawaii, was crushed by a 100-foot Motel 6 high-rise sign. The bus was being transported to Oakland Calif., where it was to be shipped by boat to its final destination. The sign broke about 15 to 17-feet above the ground and fell in the middle of the bus. No one was inside and there were no injuries. The sign fell after a winter snow storm moved through the area.
A depressed businessman going through a divorce killed himself with a rope he had shockingly shown to his wife just two weeks earlier, an inquest has heard. Gerald Mellin, 54, of Neath, cancelled his life insurance and ran up debts in order to leave his 33-year-old wife “with nothing”. He sent her a text saying "Congratulations XXX" and that was the last time she heard from him. Swansea coroner Phillip Rogers recorded a verdict of suicide. Mr Mellin's widow Mirrielle told the hearing she had won a court order the day before her husband's suicide for an extra £100 a week from him to help with the running of the house. A UK businessman, committed suicide by tying one end of a rope around his neck and the other to a tree. He then hopped into his Aston Martin DB7 and drove down a main road in Swansea until the rope decapitated him.
Early on 14 September 2007, Mr Mellin used the rope along with his open top Aston Martin DB7 to kill himself in a car park on Mumbles Road in Swansea. A suicide note was found in Mr Mellin's pocket detailing his funeral wishes. The hearing was told Mr Mellin owned a gym and sun tanning centre, where his wife worked as a beautician. The couple married in 2002 but had split up in 2007 and Ms Mellin continued living in their farmhouse at Crumlin, near Neath. She told the court: "Our marriage was horrendous most of the time. After we split he phoned me and said he wanted to do a deal with selling the business. "He had been to see an accountant but the way he did it was all wrong. I said it was about time we stopped arguing and started behaving like adults. "That was when I met him in the pub and he showed me the rope. "As we made our way back to our cars he opened the boot and said 'there's my rope, that's what I'm going to kill myself with'. "I told him to grow up and give me the rope. But he just laughed."
A Silver Aston Martin DB7 Convertible vehicle similar to the one used in Gerald Mellin's suicide.
"He would say suicidal thoughts, but I never actually believed that he would do anything. It was always a cry for help with Gerald. That's why I find it hard to believe this time around," she said. Ms Mellin told the hearing she would have to sell the farmhouse to pay the debts. She said: "Gerald created the debt because he always said if I left him he would leave me with nothing." Detective Con Ceri John said Mr Mellin was being treated for depression at the time of his death and was first seen by a psychiatrist for anxiety at the age of four. Mr Rogers recorded the cause of death as decapitation. He said: "On the evidence I have heard - notwithstanding Mrs Mellin's view of her husband's actions in the past and on this occasion that this was a cry for help - I'm satisfied no-one could have done what Mr Mellin did without realising the consequence of such an action would be his own death."
On May 13, 2008, then Minister for Public Service Dalmas Otieno, received a chilling email about his son Isaiah- that he had died in a tragic helicopter crash. In the news that made international headlines, a Bell 206 Jet Ranger crashed on Isaiah, who was walking along the streets of a Canadian city, just an hour after he was on phone with his father. What puzzled many was how the 23-year-old failed to notice the imminent danger of the crashing aircraft while everyone in the vicinity scampered for safety.
Isaiah Otieno is pictured here..
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"There was a pedestrian walking on the street across from me and he was just about at the back alley and I don't think he even knew what hit him," Elmer Bautz, a witness who narrowly escaped the ordeal told the press. It was later established that Isaiah had his headphones on and was listening to music when the helicopter came crashing down on him. Witnesses questioned how loud the music was that he did not hear the sound of the chopper or the attempted efforts of those that witnessed the accident to warn him of the nose diving out of control helicopter..
A loss of engine power caused a helicopter to crash into the streets of Cranbrook, B.C., last year May 13th 2008, killing four men, the federal Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.
Among the victims was Isaiah Otieno, the son of a Kenyan cabinet minister. The 6'9" student was walking down the street listening to his iPod when the helicopter crashed down on top of him, killing him instantly.
Helicopter pilot Edward Heeb, 57, and BC Hydro employees Dirk Rozenboom, 45, and Robert Lehmann, 37, were also killed.
The board's final report on the crash said the single-engine Bell Jet Ranger, chartered from Bighorn Helicopters Ltd. by BC Hydro to visually monitor transmission lines, was functioning properly until an event caused it to suddenly lose power at 120 feet over the residential neighbourhood. "This power loss caused a rapid decrease of rotor RPM's and the helicopter descended quickly," the TSB's Bill Yearwood said. "Before it was too low the pilot was able to maneuver to avoid a house but soon lost control." What caused the engine to power down remains a mystery, Yearwood said. Chief investigator Damien Lawson said the last 85 feet of the flight was "essentially a free fall." "The three men on board could not have survived the impact injuries."
The single engine helicopter was too badly damaged in the post-crash fire to determine why it encountered a power loss, however, a resulting lack of control of the craft is cited as a causal factor. Lawson said Transport Canada rules should have prevented the chopper from flying at such a low-level over the residential area.
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Transportation Safety Board investigators examine the remains of a helicopter in Cranbrook, B.C., on Wednesday, May 14, 2008. (Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Witnesses gave varying accounts of what transpired in the few minutes prior to the crash. Elmer Bautz, who lives on the street where the chopper crashed, said he watched the crash happen. "I thought at first it hit a tree, like the propeller hit a tree. But it didn't appear that it did. Anyway I saw it come down from about 300 feet almost at a 45-degree angle and whomp, she hit the sidewalk right across the street from me," he told Canada AM. Bautz said the helicopter was "sort of fluttering" before it began to descend, and he speculated that it may have had a fuel problem. Bautz said the pedestrian was just walking on the sidewalk and had no chance to escape the danger. Richard Fairchild, who also saw the crash, told CTV Newsnet on Tuesday 13th May 2008 that the chopper had barely cleared a large pine tree and "within a second-and-a-half it crashed right in front of us -- literally in front of our window." "It didn't crash at a high speed. The pilot had been trying to control it, but the motor was out at that point and he fell the last 15 feet."
Jennifer Lea Strange, 28, was found dead in her home in Rancho Cordova, California., after competing in a contest on a local radio station called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” — with the prize being a Wii video game console to the person who drank the most water without peeing. The coroner’s preliminary findings are her death is due to water intoxication, which occurs when someone drinks excessive water over a short time period. The contest was held by station KDND in Sacramento, which promotes itself as “The End”. (Sacramento Bee) …No doubt it was billed as “Another killer promotion!”
Nintendo Wii Console.
Jennifer Strange is live on Air..
Strange had drunk about two gallons of water, by the way. She still came in second, behind Lucy Davidson. Strange was a “selfless” woman who was “totally devoted to her babies,” said friend and co-worker Tracy Beam. “She had her hands in anything that had to do with humanitarian activities, diseases, save the Earth or children. I called her a modern day Mother Teresa. Everything was about what she could do for somebody else.”
“She didn’t have any idea of the health factors,” Beam said. “She didn’t know the extent of what that kind of thing can do to you.”
During the radio station contest where Jennifer Lea Strange died from water intoxication, a nurse called the radio station to warn them that what they were doing was extremely dangerous. One DJ said he was even aware of such a case that ended in death, and another shrugged it off: “Yeah. They signed releases, so we’re not responsible.” (Sure: that’ll keep her alive!) The radio station has fired ten people over the incident, including the DJs, and — sure enough — the family is filing a lawsuit over it all. (One headline I saw: “Strange Family To File Wrongful Death Lawsuit”!) That’s not the station’s only worry: the county sheriff has opened a homicide investigation. And no, Ms. Strange didn’t even win the contest, which she entered so she could get the game console for her three kids.
2 US Liquid Gallon = 7.57082 Liters
Mrs. Strange drinking another bottle of water during the contest. The radio station took lots of photos: it was a big promo for them.
While staying hydrated is important, there’s also such a thing as a fatal water overdose. In severe cases, hyponatraemia that is not treated can lead to seizures, coma and death. This is why experts say that early detection is crucial for preventing severe hyponatremia. How severe water intoxication becomes depends on how much and how quickly water was consumed, and the rate at which the sodium concentration in the blood falls. For water intoxication symptoms to be experienced someone would have to drink more than five cups of water per hour.
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When someone has normal/healthy kidneys they should be able to excrete about 800 milliliters to 1 liter of fluid each hour. This is equal to about 3.3 to 4.2 cups, 0.21 to 0.26 gallons, or about 0.84 to 1.04 quarts per hour.
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Drinking more than this amount will cause an imbalance of electrolytes and likely some early symptoms associated with hyponatremia. Also remember that if someone is heavily exercising (such as running a marathon or training or a sport) while also drinking lots of water, they will hold onto even more water because their body is experiencing a stress response.
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Water intoxication is not likely to happen unless someone drinks a large volume of water within a short period of time (one or two hours). Water intoxication can be prevented if a person’s intake of water does not grossly exceed their water losses via urine or sweat.
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In one case study, water intoxication was the cause of a 64-year-old woman dying due to severe hyponatremia. She had drank 30–40 glasses of water within several hours before going to sleep. Because she was experiencing delusions, she kept drinking more and more water even though she was vomiting and not feeling well. (6)
Every 15 minutes contestants were given 236.588 millilitres or 8 ounce bottle of water to drink. 0.236588 Liters equivalent..Contestants were eliminated if they could not consume the water in a timely manner or if they vomited or gave in and went to the bathroom..
As well as the water every 15 minutes, contestants were also intermittently visited by the hosts of the morning rave programme. They would also be taken into the studio to complete interviews or give updates on there progress. The hosts were upbeat and would joke with the contestants about there discomforts. As well as doing everything they could to create an atmosphere of excitement and competition. As the competition progressed several people called in to comment. A nurse practitioner was one of the callers and said that drinking too much water could be dangerous. In response to this the DJ's assured her that the contestants had signed wavers and thus they would not be responsible in any way if anyone died from the competition stunt.. The DJ's additionally voiced there conviction that if any contestant did drink too much water they would simply vomit it back up again rather than suffer any serious health problems consequences..
The DJ ALSO admitted he knew of the case of Matthew Carrington, a 21-year-old student at California State University, Chico, who died from water intoxication during a Chi Tau fraternity hazing incident in 2005. A tone point a Dj joked that a contestant was in so much pain and discomfort he was just about to die. "We got a guy who's just about to die"..
His colleague then laughed and jokingly said "Make sure he signs the waver first"..
As the hours passed the contestants dwindled down dramatically as many decided to give up when hosts started to hand out much larger bottles of liquid refreshment. Most left on there own devices after deciding they had had enough and needed to urinate.. (One contestant vomited from the water consumption) After several hours Jennifer Strange also decided she could not continue. She was interviewed by the hosts who noticed she had drunk so much water her stomach had become bloated and had made her appearence similar to a pregnant woman.. She complained of a severe headache which she contributed to excess consumption of water, she also said that she would simply vomit if she did indeed drink to much liquid.
Matthew Carrington
Jennifer was very close to becoming the winner and was placed in second place behind Lucy Davidson..Becoming a runner up she won some Justin Timberlake concert tickets instead..Disappointed and in significant pain she called a co-worker to let them know she was heading home. Although the co-worker did not know at this time it would be the last time anyone spoke to Jennifer..She was already in the early stages of hyponatremia/water intoxication and had just a few short hours to live..
Chico is about 85 miles north of Sacramento — within radio coverage of station KDND. A member of his fraternity pleaded guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor hazing; two others pleaded guilty to being accessories to manslaughter and hazing; a fourth pleaded guilty to hazing. The case led to Matt's Law in California, which boosted such severe hazing cases to Penal Code felonies, rather than Education Code misdemeanors.
The Strange’s lawyers asked for $34 million from KDND’s owners, Entercom Sacramento LLC, and its corporate parent, Entercom Communications Corp. of Boston. The station denied negligence. But even when they discovered the station knew the dangers of the stunt, the jury wasn’t completely sympathetic. They held Strange herself was not negligent in her own death, and the radio station was; but rather than $34 million, Billy Strange and the couple’s three children were awarded $16,577,118.
Chico, California..
Entercom said they would not appeal. “Jennifer Strange’s death was a tragedy,” said spokesman Charles Sipkins. “Our hearts go out to all of her loved ones, including, in particular, her husband and children. While legal restrictions preclude us from commenting further on the verdict, we respect the jury’s decision and hope that it will assist the Strange family in coping with its loss.”
$1,590,000
4 bd6 ba5,200 sqft
3381 Keefer Rd, Chico, CA 95973
KDND first went on the air in 1945, and the stunt led to the station’s death. The Strange family’s attorney petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to revoke the station’s broadcast license on the grounds that the station had not operated in the public interest — a requirement for a broadcast license in the United States. The FCC apparently took no action, but when the station’s license came up for renewal in 2013, a local activist (and former radio/TV producer) contested the renewal on the same grounds. It took the FCC three years to take action: it placed the renewal of the station’s license “under review” — subject to a public hearing. Entercom decided instead to turn the license in and flee the market. But that didn’t hurt them too much: as of 2018, they own 235 radio stations in the U.S. KDND shut down at 12:01 a.m. on February 8, 2017. Its call letters have not been reassigned.
Up-and-coming Canadian folk singer Taylor Mitchell was killed by coyotes, park officials say
A rising Canadian folk singer was killed by coyotes in a national park in Nova Scotia, a park spokesman said Thursday October 29th 2009. Taylor Mitchell, 19, was at the beginning of the Skyline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park on Tuesday 27th Oct 2009 afternoon when she was attacked, according to Chip Bird, the Parks Canada field unit superintendent for Cape Breton.
The coyote (Canis latrans) is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf.
Bird said hikers saw the coyotes attacking Mitchell and called 911. She was airlifted to a hospital in Halifax, where she died about 12 hours later, he said. Mitchell was recently nominated for Young Performer of the Year honors by Canadian Folk Music Awards. She was touring the Maritime provinces and had a break between gigs to go hiking her manager, Lisa Weitz, said in an e-mail.
Skyline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park
"She loved the woods and had a deep affinity for their beauty and serenity," she wrote. "Words can't begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman," Weitz said. "Her warmth, loving nature, astounding artistry, and infectious enthusiasm will be so missed and forever remembered." Mitchell, who was originally from the Georgian Bay area in Ontario, lived in Toronto, Weitz said. Bird said the area where the attack occurred is popular and well traveled. It remained closed, and park authorities had shot one coyote believed to be involved. A pathologist will test the animal's body for diseases that might have triggered the attack, he said.
Searches for other aggressive animals in the park continue, he said. "Public safety is our primary concern," he said. He said no other coyote attacks had ever occurred in the park. "We've had coyotes approach people too closely," he said, and about six years ago one nipped a person. That animal was killed because of "lack of fear," he said. But Tuesday's attack is "unprecedented and a totally isolated incident," he said. In a written statement, Emily Mitchell described her daughter as "a seasoned naturalist and well versed in wilderness camping. She loved the woods and had a deep affinity for their beauty and serenity. Tragically it was her time to be taken from us so soon.
In memory of Taylor Mitchell: Clarity
In memory of Taylor Mitchell: Clarity
"We take a calculated risk when spending time in nature's fold -- it's the wildlife's terrain," Emily Mitchell's statement continued. "When the decision had been made to kill the pack of coyotes, I clearly heard Taylor's voice say, 'please don't, this is their space.' She wouldn't have wanted their demise, especially as a result of her own. She was passionate about animals, was an environmentalist, and was also planning to volunteer at the Toronto Wildlife Centre in the coming months."
Michael Johnston, Mitchell's producer for her debut album, "For Your Consideration," said the singer was a "brilliant and beautiful light that people were naturally drawn to." "She was so young and talented. Her big dreams were a perfect match with her big, kind heart." He said he and his family would soon be organizing a celebration of her life. Coyote attacks on humans are extremely rare, said Michael O'Brien, wildlife manager of furbearers and upland game for Nova Scotia. It is "not expected or normal behavior," he said, although he said there had been aggressive incidents in Nova Scotia before, but no deaths. Illness, injury and familiarity with humans can affect an animal's behavior, he said.
Researchers say that on Oct. 27, 2009, when singer-songwriter Taylor Mitchell set out alone in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, resident coyotes had adapted to a limited food supply by learning how to hunt and kill moose — a trait believed to be extraordinary among these “generalist carnivores.” Stanley Gehrt, lead author of a paper recently published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, said that with the park’s coyotes preying on such a large animal, it stands to reason they would be less inhibited about killing a human. “When (coyotes grow) used to taking a 700-pound animal, and you have a single woman walking by herself … it seems perfectly natural to assume that they simply saw her as a novel food item,” Gehrt, a professor at Ohio State University, said in an interview. “Our argument would be that (the coyotes’) ability to survive … is tied to their ability to switch from one food source to another. And those (coyotes) were eating a diet completely of moose.”
Virtually all recorded coyote attacks are the result of exposure to human food. But that wasn’t the case with Mitchell. Of the five coyotes killed after the fatal attack, including the two directly responsible, none showed evidence they had eaten human food beforehand, the study says. Gehrt said it’s worth noting the park’s coyotes are not subjected to hunting or trapping, which means they don’t have a natural fear of humans. Coyotes in the park resorted to “prey-switching” because their typical prey, mainly snowshoe hare and white-tailed deer, were in short supply at the time, the study says. As well, the park’s unique ecosystem supports only a small population of rodents, which can otherwise sustain coyotes that have little else to eat. Mitchell’s violent death was only the second fatal coyote attack recorded in North America. She was 19 years old at the time and about to embark on a solo tour to support a promising musical career.
Before and after the 2009 tragedy, Gehrt's project noticed a few dozen less-severe human-coyote incidents in the park as well. He and colleagues even fitted them with what are basically GPS trackers so they could document the animals' movements and better understand why they were behaving in such surprisingly vicious ways.
Stan Gehrt with a captured coyote being tagged and fitted with a tracking device.
Stan Gehrt
Here's what it looks like to put on one of the GPS collar types, as done in this study.
Urban Coyote Research Project
We had been telling communities and cities that the relative risk that coyotes pose is pretty low, and even when you do have a conflict where a person is bitten, it's pretty minor," he said. "The fatality was tragic and completely off the charts. I was shocked by it -- just absolutely shocked."
To arrive at their conclusions -- that coyotes in Cape Breton National Park were feasting on large moose – the team first collected whiskers of both the coyotes implicated in Mitchell's death and those related to other more minor incidents between 2011 and 2013. They then collected fur from a wide range of potential coyote prey such as shrews, southern red-backed voles, snowshoe hare, moose and even humans -- for humans, they gathered hair from local barber shops.
Seth Newsome, a professor of biology at the University of New Mexico and corresponding author of the study, performed an analysis of specific carbon and nitrogen isotopes within all the samples.
Eventually, Newsome confirmed that, on average, moose constituted between half and two-thirds of the animals' diets, followed by snowshoe hare, small mammals and deer, according to the press release. Plus, the researchers analyzed coyote droppings, which confirmed the isotope findings further.
Anthony Hensley, 37, a father of two, drowned in 2012 after falling out of his kayak when he was attacked by a swan at the Bay Colony Drive condo complex near Des Plaines. (Family photo)
An attack in 2012 by a swan toppled a Des Plaines man’s kayak, sending him plunging into the water of a retention pond. The aggressive swan, which had been nesting, continued to lunge at the man as he attempted to swim to shore. He never made it. Anthony Hensley, 37, a father of two daughters from Villa Park, drowned April 14, 2012, at the Bay Colony condominium complex near Golf Road in unincorporated Maine Township. The case re-emerged this week when Hensley’s widow on Tuesday filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the property management companies that owned and operated the complex. The bizarre event left his family heartbroken and residents of the condominium complex without a regular in the community. Hensley was a frequent visitor at the complex, where he was in charge of tending to the mute swans, which had been brought in to control the geese. He often brought his kayak and sometimes his dog to feed and care for the birds.
Anthony Hensley, 37, here with his wife, Amy, drowned after an angry swan attacked him in his Kayak.
Amy Hensley’s lawsuit says the negligence of the companies, as well as the homeowners and condominium associations, caused her husband’s death. The companies “should have known the swans are strongly territorial with a dangerous propensity to attack,” according to the lawsuit.
Hensley is seeking at least $50,000 in damages. Her attorney did not return messages seeking comment.
Mr Hensley was at the pond because he was hired by a company to try to keep geese away from the housing complex along Bay Colony Drive.
The procedure the father of two young daughters was supposed to use to keep the geese away was to bring a swan to the area to deter the other birds.
Anthony Hensley, 37, of Villa Park, Ill., worked for a company called Knox Swan & Dog which used swans and dogs to keep geese off the condominum's properties.
Hensley was in a kayak on the condo's retention pond checking on the animals Saturday morning when one of the swans swam at him, causing him to fall out of his kayak into the water.
Frank Bilecki of the Cook County Sheriff's Department, told ABCNews.com that Hensley struggled to stay above water. Two witnesses saw Hensley resurface a few times in the pond and called police, but by the time crews arrived he had been fully submerged. He was not wearing a life vest, Bilecki said.
Dive teams pulled Hensley, a husband and father of two, from the water, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after.
Investigators believe Hensley had traveled too close to the swan or swan's nesting area, prompting the attack. Family and friends are puzzled.
"Maybe he didn't fight back enough when the swan attacked him," said father-in-law George Koutsogiannis. "Maybe he didn't want to hurt the animal. I can't understand how this was possible."
A devoted family man with his Wife Amy..
Heartbreaking: Tony Macri, Mr Hensley's brother-in-law, said the family, which includes wife, Amy, and two daughters, are going to miss him
Stumbling Block: Mr Hensley's father, Raymond said his son was a good swimmer, but heavy clothing and boots made it difficult for him to stay above water
On August 22nd 2017, 26-year-old bodybuilder Dallas McCarver, a former top 10 placer at Mr. Olympia and the boyfriend of WWE star Dana Brooke, died suddenly, reportedly from choking on food. McCarver was found unconscious at his home by Dana Brooke just after midnight on Tuesday 22nd August 2017 morning after they spoke on the phone. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital, and officials say that there aren’t any signs of foul play. “Dallas was an exceptional body builder, but I didn't see him for that .. I saw him for HIM AND HIS HEART!! He is the best individual I have ever met—my ying to my yang..,” Brooke wrote on her Instagram Page. Just hours before his death, McCarver posted a video of himself chest pressing 160-pound dumbbells on his Instagram page. It garnered over 1 million views at that time..
Back in March 2017, McCarver collapsed on stage during pre-judging at the Arnold Classic Australia. On his Instagram page, McCarver explained that he had been battling an upper respiratory infection that progressed into bronchitis, leaving him unable to catch his breath. The cause of death appears to be choking on food, Brooke told TMZ, but it hasn’t officially been confirmed. Choking when you’re by yourself can be terrifying—and if you don’t dislodge the obstruction fast, it can be deadly. In fact, if you don’t get the food unstuck within four to six minutes, your brain can suffer serious damage. And irreversible brain death can occur in 10 minutes, Richard Bradley, M.D., professor of emergency medicine at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council said..
WWE star Dana Brooke
Footage of Dallas McCarver collapsing on stage...
Footage of Dallas McCarver collapsing on stage...
The autopsy for Dallas McCarver has now been revealed..
Anthony Roberts, the same person that published the autopsy report of Rich Piana has just published the autopsy report of Dallas McCarver.
Dallas McCarver, IFBB professional bodybuilder, died after an unwitnessed cardiac event contributed to by of combination of coronary atherosclerosis (a buildup of plaque in the arteries) and an enlarged left ventricle (a thickening of the heart muscle that causes it to work harder). McCarver had a family history of cardiovascular disease including both hypertension and atherosclerosis. Dallas was found on the floor in his living room with food scattered around his body shortly after midnight on August 22nd, 2017. Paramedics were called and he arrived at the hospital in full cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at 1:03 A.M. An autopsy was performed the following day.
Noted at the time of autopsy was an enlarged liver and kidneys, nephrosclerosis (a hardened liver), heavy lungs, and a papillary thyroid carcinoma. Prior medical history includes cholesterol issues (high LDL/ low HDL), elevated aminotransferase levels, a chronic cough and shortness of breath, and childhood asthma. His testosterone levels were within normal range at the time of death, despite having an elevated epitestosterone level (indicating testosterone replacement, though not abuse per se). Trenbolone metabolites were also present. Screening for additional steroids was negative, although he tested positive for caffeine and marijuana metabolites (neither of which are mentioned as contributing factors in his death). No other recreational drugs or narcotics were present. Also noted (but neither tested for, nor listed as a contributing factor in Dallas’ death) was a prior history of hGH and insulin use.
McCarver burst on to the bodybuilding circuit when he was 21 and immediately began winning big competitions. He was a 6'1", 300-lb beast who was crazy strong in the weight room. McCarver placed 8th in the 2016 Mr. Olympia competition.
The artist who created an inflatable artwork which blew away in a high wind, killing two people, will not face a retrial on manslaughter charges, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced this morning (Friday 6th March 2009..) Maurice Agis, 77, faced a four-week trial for manslaughter by gross negligence after Elizabeth Collings and Claire Furmedge fell out of his Dreamspace sculpture when it flipped over in a gust of wind while on display at a park in County Durham in July 2006, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict and he was discharged. Agis, of Bethnal Green, east London, was convicted by the jury at Newcastle crown court of breaking health and safety rules in relation to the incident.
Claire Furmedge, 38, of Chester-le-Street, and Elizabeth Collings, 68, of Seaham, both County Durham, died in July 2006 when the PVC structure rose into the air and flipped over before crashing to the ground in Riverside Park, Chester-le-Street.
Extra ropes were ordered to be fixed to Dreamspace V by artist Maurice Agis.
Claire Furmedge was killed on 23rd July 2006 when the inflatable structure, which she was inside with her two children, broke free from its moorings. She was a dedicated supporter of STEPS and had been helping to raise funds for the charity for more than 7 years. She came in contact with STEPS when her daughter was diagnosed with a hip condition as a baby.
Elizabeth Collings, 68 also died inside the huge sculpture called Dreamscape..
Artist Maurice Agis
The court was told Agis, of Bethnal Green, East London, lived on a £125 weekly pension and that only a financial penalty he was able to repay could be imposed.
The accident happened after ropes tethering the 50-yard by 50-yard inflatable sculpture were not strong enough and the artwork broke free, flipping over and tumbling across a park before crashing into a CCTV pole, where it deflated. Among those injured by the artwork was a three-year-old girl, whose life was saved by a passing anaesthetist and the prompt actions of an air ambulance crew who flew her to hospital. The families of both Mrs Furmedge and Mrs Collings were in court to see Agis, the council and Brouhaha International sentenced.
Dreamspace accident
Dreamspace accident
The court heard Agis, from Kirton Gardens, Bethnal Green, east London, wrote to the families after the tragedy, vowing never to show Dreamspace again. Mr Langdale said Agis had been an artist his whole working life after growing up in an orphanage. He relied on grants to fund his artwork and his sole income is a £125 a week state pension. Durham Police, the Health and Safety Executive and the Crown Prosecution Service spent more than £200,000 on the inquiry into the tragedy.
And fun it was because the visitor count to the large-scale inflatable construction has been estimated to be around 250,000. The CPS has now said it will not ask for a retrial of the artist on the remaining charges of manslaughter. Its reviewing lawyer, David Scutt, said: "We carefully examined the evidence that the jury had heard and decided that due to the manner in which certain crucial prosecution evidence came out at trial, there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction in respect of those charges. We have offered to meet with the families (involved) and we continue to extend our sympathy for their loss."
A view inside Dreamspace: 27 people were injured by the incident in Chester.
Furmedge, 38, from Chester-le-Street, and Collings, 68, from Seaham, died when they fell from the airborne artwork. The 15m by 15m work was on display at the Riverside Park, Chester-le-Street, when a gust of wind lifted the PVC structure off the ground. The ropes tethering the inflatable sculpture did not hold it, and it broke free, flipping over and crashing into a CCTV pole, where it deflated. Born on December 7, 1931, Maurice Agis was a British artist whose main focus was sculpting and installation. His works have been ongoing attractions long after his death on October 12, 2009, particularly because they were artistic spaces that his audience could get into and experience with their entire body. Before going into space art, however, Agis had been involved in site-specific artwork for 40 years.
The creator of an inflatable artwork that blew away, killing two women, won an appeal today against the £10,000 fine imposed on him for breaching health and safety regulations. Artist Maurice Agis, 77, who was convicted at Newcastle crown court of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to ensure the safety of members of the public, had the penalty reduced to £2,500 by three judges at the court of appeal in London. Reducing the fine to £2,500, Lord Justice Goldring, sitting with Mr Justice Griffith Williams and Mr Justice King, said: "We, of course, are very conscious that it bears no reflection of what happened and cannot even begin to reflect the suffering to which the [trial] judge referred. "However, these are very unusual circumstances and we are dealing with a very elderly appellant who is very ill." The court concluded that it was "highly unlikely that he will ever be able to work again" and his only income was his state pension and some money remaining from savings of £4,500.
Lottie Michelle Belk
A visit to the beach turned deadly when a 55-year-old woman was impaled by an umbrella that took to the sky after heavy winds... The beach umbrella broke away from its anchor on the Virginia beach sands and without warning hit the woman before she could avoid the missile..Lottie Michelle Belk died from her injuries resulting from the beach umbrella and passed away while in hospital care..
Ms Belk, who had worked in mental health professions for years, her daughter says, had just earned her master’s degree in business. Virginia Beach police reportedly dispatched homicide investigators to the scene, but found no evidence of foul play.
An eyewitness Hugh Martin told local CBS affiliate WTVR-- I saw the beach umbrella go up into the air, it literally hit the woman very quickly knocking her to one side..
Ms Belk was at the beach celebrating her birthday and wedding anniversary, according to her eldest daughter, Ashley Denton. She is survived by her two daughters, stepdaughter, stepson, and her husband.
She was described to 911 dispatchers as being in cardiac arrest - which emergency responders said resulted from a “life-threatening” injury.
According to Tom Gill, Captain of the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service, this is the first time he has ever heard of someone being killed by an umbrella in the Resort City. Gill says he has heard of people being injured by an umbrella that gets loose, but considers Belks' death, a freak accident. Beachgoers can still protect themselves by securing their umbrellas with a stake and ropes. Gill says it is also important to readjust and check your umbrella after strong bursts of wind. If winds seem too strong, Gill suggests taking the umbrella down. Owner of Surfing Adventure and Ocean Rentals, Rob Lindaur, says the umbrella should always face the wind. If the wind is 15 mph or higher, he recommends lying the umbrella on the ground and installing it like a fort. Whether you are taking a simple walk to the water or down the beach, Lindaur says to never leave the umbrella. "It's just being vigilant," he says. "Just collapse it, it's so easy, then pop it right back up when you're sitting next to it."
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A father of six died during a trip to the beach after a huge wave threw him onto the sand and broke his neck. Lee Dingle, 37, was enjoying the surf at Oak Island Beach in North Carolina with three of his children when the freak accident happened. The force with which he was thrown onto the sand snapped his spine and broke his neck, this made his throat swell up so much that his brain was starved of oxygen for too long for him to recover. Lee, who ran an engineering company, died the next day, with his wife Shannon Hope Dingle paying tribute online.
Oak Island Beach in North Carolina.
“An intense wave hit him just right to slam his head into the sand and break his neck,” Shannon Dingle wrote of the “freak accident” that she says took “my partner, my love, and my home.” “Some heroes – including our kids – tried to save him, but it wouldn’t have mattered what they did. His body couldn’t recover from the initial injury,” she wrote.
They got married and started a family. They had two biological children -- Josie and Robbie. Then they adopted Zoe from Taiwan. After that, they added three siblings from Uganda -- Patience, Phillip and Patricia.
“We met when I was 18 and he was 19, and we’ve been together ever since,” added his wife, a writer who calls herself a “sex trafficking survivor” in her Twitter bio. “I wasn’t supposed to be saying goodbye at 37. I don’t know how to be a grown up without him, but I’ll learn. I just wish I didn’t have to,” she said, asking for prayers and saying she will “cuss and smash stuff.” Dingle was an amazing dad to his six kids, including four the couple adopted, family friend April Schweitzer told WRAL.. “How he saw each child for who they were uniquely and just supported them in that, encouraged them and was just always there for them,” Schweitzer said. She continued: “Anyone who knew him was a better person from their interactions with him.”
The Dingle Family...
Lee also loved his job at Atlas Engineering. "He was thrilled to be doing that work, he started right out of college with them and was named president of the company three weeks before he died," Shannon said. After he died, people rallied around him and his family. Donations poured in to a GoFundMe which at the time in 2019 stood at $317,000. "The one sweet reality in folks being able to pull him out and work on him as long as they did is that his organs were viable," she said. "He was never deprived of oxygen long enough for there to be any issues with vital organs or tissues to benefit others." Carolina Donor Services said his organs saved four lives, will also give sight to one or two patients and ultimately help 55 people.
"I do a lot of crying at night," Shannon said. "I had to figure out how to deposit a check at the bank, I had to figure out what bills we have and how to pay them because he did that. We were very much a team. Some couples operate in parallel to one another, but he and I were so interwoven that it was not always clear where one of us ended and the other began." And, when it comes to the many lives Lee saved through organ donation, she said it wasn't a hard decision. A few years ago she underwent reconstructive knee surgery and walks pain-free today thanks to donated tissue.
But does she want to meet the people who received Lee's organs? At the moment, she's not sure.
"Right now, I'm not sure I can partake in their joy in the way that I would want to," she said.
So for now, she's just focusing on the legacy her husband left behind.
That's mainly through his favorite phrase: Be A Good Human.
"His focus was on being a good human," Shannon said. "Why can't they just be a good human? No matter what the other kids are doing, we are still good humans. I can't hear the phrase without thinking of him."
DANCE music ravers have remembered one of the clubland DJs behind the explosion of drum ’n’ bass music, 20 years after she was killed by a motorway “cat’s eye” that flicked up from the road.
DJs and dancers paid tribute to Kemistry, who was known in Camden Town for her days working at the famous Red Or Dead clothes shop and being one of the founders of the Metalheadz club night at Dingwalls. The performer, whose real name was Kemi Olusanya, died aged 35 in the freak incident on the M3 near Winchester. A “cat’s eye” light was dislodged by a lorry in front and flew threw the windscreen. It is the only such incident involving a “cat’s eye” recorded on Britain’s roads.
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DJ Storm, who had been Kemistry’s DJ partner, said: “It was so special I was overwhelmed. The vibe was incredible.” At the time of Kemistry’s death, they were sharing a flat in Finsbury Park. Metalheadz became the go-to club night, switching venues across the city as its popularity grew.
DJ Rap, another artist who helped transfer the mushrooming popularity of drum ’n’ bass to a mainstream market in the 1990s, said: “The fact that 20 years have passed and this legend and beautiful soul is still in our hearts is the measure of her beauty, talent and grace.”
And Doc Scott said: “Twenty years ago we lost our sister. A part of the foundation of Metalheadz, a trailblazer for female DJs, but more importantly a beautiful human being.” He added: “I feel blessed to have known her for as long as I did and that I could consider her a friend.”
Kemistry (left) and Storm in Washington DC in 1996.
Kemistry at the Notting Hill carnival in 1994.
Valerie “Kemi” Olusanya was born in 1963 to a Nigerian father and white English mother. She grew up in Kettering, a south Midlands quarry town, and it’s there that she befriended Jayne Conneely, AKA Storm. “I was a new romantic and she was more new wave,” Storm recalls. “I worked in this restaurant, and she’d come in with these two guys who looked like David Sylvian from Japan. I thought: ‘Ooh, hello, I’d love to know what they’re up to.’”
One of the Sylvian replicas asked Storm on a date. He played saxophone in a nine-piece post-punk band. Kemistry was dating the keyboardist and living with them in an anarchic house. The budding romances didn’t last, but the young women became friends.
“I always thought of Kemi as this wise owl,” says Storm. “She was a Libra, so would always weigh up the scales of justice in her mind.” She notes that Kemistry had a positive outlook, but sometimes struggled. “Her father left when she was around four years old and her mum had to bring her up on her own, which was difficult,” says Storm. Kettering in the late 70s wasn’t the most open-minded of towns. “I know she got badly bullied because she was mixed-race. She didn’t want to go to school. I think racism crushed her spirit a bit.”
The pair went in different directions after they left Kettering in the mid-80s: Storm to Oxford to study radiography, Kemi primarily to Sheffield, where she studied fashion. They reunited in 1989 when Kemistry moved into a flat in Finsbury Park, north London, with some Midlands ravers. They would sit up late, reconnecting over spliffs and records that Kemistry had bought “up north”: Cabaret Voltaire and Nightmares on Wax were the rough to Storm’s smooth (she loved synth-pop and Prince). Their love of music from across the spectrum would later characterise their DJing.
After graduating from Oxford, Storm slept on a mattress on Kemistry’s floor and their weekends gathered steam. Thursdays were dedicated to Rage at Heaven with drum’n’bass progenitors Fabio and Grooverider. Fridays they would drive to Coventry to see Doc Scott play at Amnesia. Sundays were spent in warehouses around Charing Cross, listening to UK techno DJs such as Steve Bicknell. By now, they were soul sisters.
Kemistry (L) Goldie (M) Dj Storm (R)
On a flight to a gig in Florida, Kemistry and Storm felt a dark cloud come over them. They were tense and bickered, something they never did. They wondered what was wrong. They looked at each other and said, almost in unison: “Someone’s going to die.”
Back in London 48 hours later, they left voicemails for each other: “Hi, sorry, it’s your crap friend here. Don’t know what that was about!” They had a gig in Southampton that night. Driving home in the small hours, the uneasy sensation lingered. “Kemi said that she always felt that she was going to die young,” says Storm. “She didn’t want to be old. She said, ‘I’m going to be the Marilyn Monroe of this scene. I’m going to be notorious.’”
A new generation of fans often ask her about Kemistry. “It’s nice all these years later for other young lady DJs who tell me their story, about how we encouraged them,” she says. “We had such an adventure and I miss her terribly, but I still think I’m Kemistry and Storm when I’m DJing and that comforts me. I look at it now and I have to ask myself that question: would I have done it on my own? Because it’s so much nicer to have someone beside you.”