Unusual ways to die

[classic33]

Eight people died in the London Beer Flood of 1814, when a giant vat at a brewery burst, sending over 3,500 barrels of beer pouring though the nearby streets.

 

[Accy cyclist]

A Lad i knew decided to hang himself from a tree to 'see how it felt'. Luckily for him he didn't put a loose rope around his neck and jump. Instead he put a taut rope around and swung off the tree branch. After he started to turn blue he decided he'd had enough and gasped "help". Someone spotted him and climbed the tree to haul him in then revive him. I know all this as it was in the local paper (about 1975). 15 or so years later he was shot in a woods after a 'gangster' drug deal went wrong. He met up with the supplier. It was a trap to take his money but not give him the drugs he'd come to buy. He survived that,but his luck ran out 2 years after that when he had a shoot out with another 'gangster' and was shot dead,leaving 50,000 quid in his car. He was a nasty piece of work,who was into vile things, badger baiting being one of them.

 

[Accy cyclist]

How about 'Alan Bradley' being killed by a Blackpool tram. It's almost as if he dived into the tram,rather than trying to avoid it.

Besides,what speed does a tram travel at? To me it looks about 15 mph. Not exactly high impact is it!!

 

[ColinJ]

How about 'Alan Bradley' being killed by a Blackpool tram. It's almost as if he dived into the tram,rather than trying to avoid it.

Besides,what speed does a tram travel at? To me it looks about 15 mph. Not exactly high impact is it!!

Roughly equivalent to doing a bellyflop from 7.5 feet onto a hard-ish surface... I wouldn't fancy it!

 

[Dave7]

A woman was once telling me that,while her neighbours husband was working nights she had a lover in. Sadly (for them) that night he died 'on the job'........try explaining that to your husband

 

[Eric Olthwaite]

One day, whilst on a ferry en route to France, he dropped down dead, in the crew rest room. It would have been a beauraucratic nightmare to sort this out with the French authorities, so he was quietly left alone until the ship was back in UK waters on the return trip, whereupon the matter was reported to the Captain, and UK legal processes took over.

A friend of mine is a nurse. Some years ago she was on a long distance flight, and after a while it became apparent to her that the nice old man sitting next to her that she had been chatting to earlier was now dead. She had a quiet word with the cabin crew and explained she was quite happy to carry on sitting next to him for the rest of the flight until everything could be sorted out calmly at the destination.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

There was the famous case of the Spanish man who died "in flagrante" with a chicken when a rock fell on the unlucky and unconventional lovers, pinning them in place.

 

[Drago]

A Lad i knew decided to hang himself from a tree to 'see how it felt'. Luckily for him he didn't put a loose rope around his neck and jump. Instead he put a taut rope around and swung off the tree branch. After he started to turn blue he decided he'd had enough and gasped "help". Someone spotted him and climbed the tree to haul him in then revive him. I know all this as it was in the local paper (about 1975). 15 or so years later he was shot in a woods after a 'gangster' drug deal went wrong. He met up with the supplier. It was a trap to take his money but not give him the drugs he'd come to buy. He survived that,but his luck ran out 2 years after that when he had a shoot out with another 'gangster' and was shot dead,leaving 50,000 quid in his car. He was a nasty piece of work,who was into vile things, badger baiting being one of them.

It was originally 100 grand, but the police of the day liked to get their cut.

 

[sheddy]

There was a guy working in a tree cutting and throwing branches who decided to save time by lightning a bonfire below....

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

And, of course, we have the; https://darwinawards.com/

 

[Mr Celine]

I was around for a couple of bad ones at work when guys lifted a steel plate covering a hole and one gut walked forward and fell around 80 feet to his death. Another changed a number of H&S laws offshore as guys would be attached to a wire around 200 feet above them on the drill floor and they would work on a vessel like acrobats, using a radio to contact the drill floor getting them to raise or lower them to get the job done on the BOP's. Not exactly sure what happened exactly but the drill floor winched one guy up very very slowly then decided to go for tea or some such as the guy had a long time to realise his date and I can only assume was dragged through the mouse hole screaming for help. Most unpleasant job I think I have ever done was erecting a scaffold to try and recover his body. Not pretty

The winch not stopping reminds me of the Hattonrigg colliery disaster. In that case the winchman controlling the winding engine had some sort of seizure and the cage with 8 men in it struck the top of the winding tower, breaking the cable and sending the cage straight back down the mineshaft.
Why don't we learn from previous industrial accidents?

http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/51.html

There are a lot of other very gory accidents on that website. I can't find it now, but there is one where two men were sitting on the boiler of a stationary steam engine tightening leather straps which were holding a patch onto the boiler, which was in use at the time. Their employer's lease on the mine was due to end the next day, so he didn't want the expense of a proper repair. After the explosion one man was found 50 yards away, the other was blown to bits.

 

[Pale Rider]

A driver broke down on a dual carriageway late at night and decided to use an emergency phone on the opposite side of the road because it was nearest.

He crossed his side of the road, vaulted the armco barrier, not realising there was a gap of about two feet between the carriageways - he fell through the gap to his death.

There was also the widely reported case of the YouTuber who wanted to prove a paperback book could stop a pistol bullet.

It couldn't, so he shot and killed the bloke holding the book.

Perhaps he should have used War and Peace.

 

[byegad]

The late Arthur Askey a diminutive comedian of his day, wanted to be shot, aged100, in bed*, by a 26 yr old jealous husband!
Sadly it didn't happen that way.
*😜

 

[Chris S]

What about Tommy Cooper having a heart attack on stage? People thought it was part of his act and laughed. He seemed to be smiling back.

 

[KnittyNorah]

There was the Boston(US) Treacle Flood in 1919 in which a newly-filled molasses tank burst and sent warm molasses (warm as it had just come off a tanker ship from the Caribbean) flowing fast through the chilly winter-in-Boston streets where it quickly cooled and thickened to an inescapable goo, killing 21 people by a variety of means...