Archive for the 'Freak Accidents' Category
Saturday, May 12th, 2007
Notorious shark feeder and soon to be host of the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, Jimmy Hall, is dead after a daredevil stunt took a tragic turn. Hall, 41, was performing the stunt for a camera crew when he slammed into the side of a mountain.
Hall, the owner of Hawaii Shark Encounters, was infamous for harassing marine wildlife and endangering public safety by feeding sharks for thrill-seeking tourists off the coast of Oahu.
His debut performance for the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week was only half completed when he died. R.I.P. Jimmy.
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Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
John Blackman, 55, (above left) is still missing after a huge wave hit his 50 ft. yacht in Australian waters. The 36 ft. wave snapped his lifeline and he was washed overboard.
Other crew members were also banged up. Dale Peterson (above right) broke a leg when the yacht was knocked down and Nicholas Lawson, 38, has a badly bruised leg and cuts to his head.
No sign had been found of the missing sailor.
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Thursday, April 19th, 2007
A sturgeon jumped out of the Suwannee River and hit a woman riding a water scooter causing some serious injuries.
Sharon Touchton, 50, of St. Petersburg, suffered a ruptured spleen and had to have three fingers reattached by surgeons, but she lost her left pinkie finger and a tooth. Her fingers had been ripped off by the sturgeon’s bony plate. They were hanging by a strip of flesh. Ew.
She was taken by helicopter to Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where surgeons did their best to mend her injuries.
Thanks Jason
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Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
A freak fish attack sent a man to the hospital in when a 57-pound king mackerel — measuring nearly five feet long — jumped into his boat and bit him! The fish tore into the guy’s hand and leg in two places requiring more than a hundred stitches.
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Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
A young couple survived four hours in shark-infested waters after falling about 54 feet from the balcony of a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico. The couplw was hauled out of the water naked following a search in the dark after their friends reported they had fallen overboard about 1.30am. The pair, who specified they did not want their identities revealed, were not married and she did not know how long they had known each other. It’s not clear how the drunks couple fell off the Grand Princess cruiseliner, but it’s believed to have been an accident.
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Thursday, March 15th, 2007
A Delray Beach, FL man got a nasty surprise after dragging a shark to shore.
Watch it here.
Sunday, March 11th, 2007
A snorkeler was whacked by a whale’s tail after bumping into it’s calf on a dive trip off the Dominican Republic. Usually, divers swim within feet of the giant whales without any problem. But in the last hour on the last day of Randy and Gwen Thornton’s dive trip, a whale flipped her tail and sent Randy’s wife Gwen sailing 20 feet, while Randy broke his leg. And another diver was knocked unconscious! Watch the video here.
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Monday, March 5th, 2007
The propellers of a boat named Paradise Found killed one diver but only chewed up the flippers of another diver who survived unscathed Saturday morning.
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Saturday, February 10th, 2007
A man accused of shooting a snorkeler in the head told investigators that he mistook the swimmer for a large, water-dwelling rodent. William Roderick, 60, of Reedsport, OR was arraigned Thursday on assault and other charges. The victim, John Chessman, 44, remained in serious condition at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland. Roderick told detectives he saw what he believed to be a nutria swimming in the Smith River. He said he grabbed a rifle and shot at the rodent from a deck overlooking the water. After realizing that Chessman was not a nutria, Roderick helped pulled him from the water. Hutson said Chessman was conscious after the shooting.
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Friday, December 29th, 2006
A woman who suffered face, chest and neck injuries after being crushed when a bottlenose dolphin leapt out of the water and on to her boat also had 2 heart attacks on the way to the hospital! That must’ve been some serious trauma! Kelly James, 27, is still listed as in critical but stable condition. A second woman on the boat was also flung through the windscreen and canopy. She suffered minor cuts and bruises. The dolphin rolled off the boat and swam away.
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