Cask(et)ade

Marc Bourjade, a French undertaker, died when a pile of coffins in his workshop fell on him in 1982. One of those caskets was used to bury him.

Rematch, anyone?

The largest number of game-ending injuries in a football (and by football we mean soccer) match occurred in 1998 during Bena Tshadi-Basanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, when a lightning bolt struck the pitch and killed all the 11 players of Bena Tshadi. The other team left the field unscathed, and heavily accused of witchcraft.

Oh, the irony!

In 1989, a guy called Michael Anderson Godwin was waiting in his death row cell for an execution day, as he was supposed to be sent to the electric chair.

One day, his TV broke and the guy decided to try to fix it playing around with the cables, or more specifically, chewing on them while he was on the toilet. The Universe at that point must have decided that the Criminal Justice system was a bit slow, because with the metal toilet as a conductor, Godwin died by electrocution. Oh well, it was going to be a matter of time anyway.

(Please get the Tywin Lannister reference).

Not im-pressed

The inventor of the web-rotary printing press died in an accident caused by his own invention. During the installation of a new machine in Philadelphia his foot got crushed, and he didn’t make it through the amputation.

Once you pop…

Frederic J. Baur, better known as the man who created Pringles crisps packaging, died in 2008 and asked for his ashes to be stored in a Pringles can.

Safe and sound

Jack Daniel, and I am assuming I don’t need to explain you who the guy is, died age 61 in 1911. He met his maker as a result of a toe infection after kicking a safe because he forgot the combination. Alcohol may or may not have been involved.

 

(Un)happy hour

London, October 1814. In central Tottenham Court Road brewery, a fermenting vat bursts allowing its content – 1.2 million litres of ale – to flood nearby buildings and causing the death of 9 people, one of which supposedly for alcohol poisoning.

 

A rough awakening

In 2011, a woman died at her own funeral. After Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49 years of age, was declared dead in Kazan (Russia), her friends and relatives gathered together to pay their respects. Apparently though she was very much alive, because she woke up hearing people praying for her soul, and it must must have been quite a shock for the lady who died – this time for real – of heart failure 12 minutes later. 

 

Corked.

Statistically, you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than a spider.

Drowning in irony.

1985: Jerome Moody, 31 years old, died drowning at a pool party. The thing is, the party was organised by the lifeguards of New Orleans to celebrate their first season drowning-free. Four of them were on duty.