Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman
10 Kite String
Every year, on August 15, thousands of the citizens of India celebrate their independence day by engaging in kite duels. As they fly their kites in the streets or atop roofs, they guide them so their strings cut those of competitors' kites, sending them plummeting to the ground. Catering to the duelists, stores sell “glass-laced” kite strings known as Chinese manjha, which “make it easier to cut others' strings.”
A boy using manjha, wire that cuts other kites' strings
In
2016, during the duels, three people died after the manjha slit their
throats. Two of the victims, Saanchi and Harry, were three and four
years old, respectively. The third was a 22-year-old man. In 2014 and
2015, in Delhi and elsewhere, 15 others were killed in the same way.
As a result of the three deaths in 2016, Delhi officials placed an
“immediate ban on the production and sale of Chinese manjhas.”
Anyone who defies the law could be jailed for five years and receive
a 100,000-rupee ($1,500) fine. (LINK 1)
9 Golf Ball
On
January 31, 2013, Alminda bt Jalimin, an undocumented 12-year-old
Filipino girl working as a caddy, was struck in the neck by a golf
ball at the Keningau, Malaysia, golf course at which she worked.
Unconscious, she was transported to Keningau General Hospital, where
a doctor gave her emergency “outpatient treatment.” She was
unable to walk, so her father carried her, and he and her mother took
her home. Although, at first, she was able to discuss the incident,
she later “complained of headaches and began vomiting,” as her
condition worsened, and she died on February 1, 2014. (LINK 2)
8
Shoe
Recently, Andersson had moved in with her. During a dispute between them, he'd grabbed her, she told police, and they'd struggled. At some point, she'd beaten her lover to death with her shoe. According to Jim Carroll, a former manager of a motel where Trujillo lived, she'd said, on a previous occasion, “If anybody ever messed with her,” she'd take care of her attacker with her shoe. (LINK 3)
During her trial, Trujillo maintained she loved Andersson and never intended to kill him. He'd been abusive to her, she said, and she'd only wanted to escape him. However, prosecutors pointed out that Trujillo had no “injuries from her confrontation with Andersson,” but he'd sustained “defensive wounds on his hands and wrists.” Trujillo's attorney, Jack Carroll, also argued that his client had acted in the heat of sudden passion. This defense would limit her sentence to between two and 20 years. However, the jury found otherwise, and, on April 11, 2014, Trujillo was sentenced to life in prison. (LINK 4)
Emily Gardner
In 2015, Emily Gardner and her 15-year-old friends Gemma Gadsden and
Holly Pritchard, all of Gloucester, England, were passengers aboard a
speedboat operated by Gardner's father, Paul, 50. When the boat
struck a wave and flipped over, the boaters were thrown into the
water. Gardner was unable to free herself from her life jacket, which
had caught on the outboard motor. The others were also unable to free
her. Lifeguards took her to the hospital, where she was pronounced
dead. As Julie Peters, 45, of Brixham, observed, the accident was “
a
cruel irony.” The life jacket meant to save Gardner's life ended up
taking it. (LINK 5)
6
Toys
Toys have caused death in several cases. A 14-year-old Utah boy was killed by a “small replica of an 18th-century cannon,” which went off, striking him in the face. The victim and a friend of his liked to fill the toy cannon with black powder and “tinfoil cannonballs.” On January 23, 2012, the boy was peering down the cannon's six-inch barrel when the miniature cannon fired. “It was an accident that shouldn't have happened,” the boy's grandmother observed. “It was just a toy.” (LINK 6)
Toys have caused death in several cases. A 14-year-old Utah boy was killed by a “small replica of an 18th-century cannon,” which went off, striking him in the face. The victim and a friend of his liked to fill the toy cannon with black powder and “tinfoil cannonballs.” On January 23, 2012, the boy was peering down the cannon's six-inch barrel when the miniature cannon fired. “It was an accident that shouldn't have happened,” the boy's grandmother observed. “It was just a toy.” (LINK 6)
Roman Pirozek
Nineteen-year-old
Roman Pirozek's helicopter, a Trex 700 model, which cost $1,500, was
a formidable toy. It had a 62-inch blade span, weighed six pounds,
and had a rotor that spun at more than 2,000 rpm. He was flying the
remote-controlled toy in Brooklyn's Calvert Vaux Park when the
chopper struck him, its spinning blades slicing off “a portion of
his head,” and he died at the scene, before emergency personnel
arrived.
On past occasions, Pirozek, who liked to perform stunts with the helicopter, had had to outrun the whirlybird when it sped toward him at close range, and, according to a police spokesperson, on September 5, 2013, Pirozek “was executing a trick when he was struck.” (LINK 7)
In Germany, while Gruener Heiner, 45, was piloting a remote-controlled model airplane outside Stuttgart, his toy plane veered off course in strong winds during “stormy weather,” struck a 53-year-old man in the head, and killed him. (LINK 8)
5
Icicle
Building in Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Huge
icicles hanging from a corner of building's roof in Krasnoyarsk,
Russia, were featured on a local television news program, The
Last Warning,
as
reporters urged authorities to “clean the roof.” The next day, a
de-icing crew responded. In the process, some of the icicles fell.
Hearing screams from inside their women's clothing shop, a sales
assistant and others rushed into the street, where they saw a man in
his early forties lying beside “a communal service's truck,” an
icicle through his head. Parents among passersby hid their children's
eyes, protecting them from the gruesome sight. Although the sales
assistant and others tried to help the victim and telephoned an
ambulance, doctors pronounced the man dead at the scene. (LINK 9)
4 Coffee Cup
4 Coffee Cup
Anthony Grove
A moment's anger resulted in a lifetime of punishment and regret for Anthony Grove of Canton, Ohio, when he threw a ceramic coffee mug during a quarrel. The mug struck and killed 2-month-old Zeeland Grove, the baby of the woman with whom Anthony was arguing on February 10, 2015. The Summit County medical examiner determined the baby had died from blunt force trauma to the head. Neighbor Edwin Davis said Anthony, with whom Davis had been drinking earlier on the night of the homicide, “loved that baby.” Anthony was jailed on charges of murder, child endangerment, and domestic violence. (LINK 10)
On June 11, 2015, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to eight years in prison. (LINK 11)
3 Sneeze
Old Age Pensioner John Oram, 79, a retired design engineer, of Torquay, Devon, England, died on October 24, 2009, after violent sneezing caused him to suffer a brain hemorrhage and a heart attack. He had a heart condition and diabetes and was taking the blood-thinner Warfarin. Coroner Ian Arrow said, “On the balance of probability, it was likely it was the sneeze which led to his death.” (LINK 12)
2 Robot
Regina
Elsea, 20, was to be married in two weeks. Instead, she was killed in
a freak accident at the Cusseta, Alabama, automotive plant at which
she worked. According to the US Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, the assembly line stopped on June 2016, 2007. When
employees were unable to contact maintenance, Elsea and three other
workers went into a “robotic station to clear a sensor fault.”
Regina Elsea
Kendall Dunson, of Beasley Allen Law Firm, said, the company for which Elsea worked expected workers to get stalled machine “up and running” again “as quickly as possible.” Elsea was able to reactivate the robot, but, when it started up, it crushed her to death. Dunson said precautions should have been taken to prevent the robot from activating in such a situation and it should have been taken off line and tagged to notify employees it was defective. Elsea’s mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company. (LINK 13)
1 Headstone
In March 2015, Easter was approaching, and Stephan Woytack, 74, and his wife were tying a cross to the headstone of his mother-in-law's grave in Saint Joseph's Cemetery in Throop, Pennsylvania, when a toppling headstone struck him in the head and killed him. Ed Kubilus, a caretaker, said, as the ground thaws, headstones tend to sink into the ground, making them apt to tip over.
Woytack's wife ran up to Kubilus as he was working in the cemetery. “Help me; the stone fell on Stephen!” she cried. The irony of Woytack's death did not go unnoticed by Bishop Joseph Bambera of the Diocese of Scranton, who remarked, “It is unimaginable to think that a visit of a faithful couple to the grave of loved one in anticipation of the celebration of Easter could have ended in such a tragic manner.”
Woytack was buried in a plot adjacent to the headstone that killed him. (LINK 14)
LINK 1:
LINK 9:
http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0801-man-40-killed-after-being-hit-on-the-head-by-falling-icicle-in-krasnoyarsk/
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