Mike Stewart, 31, of Dallas was filming a movie in 1983 on the
dangers of low-level bridges when the truck he was standing on
passed under a low-level bridge -- killing him.
A fierce gust of wind blew 45-year-old Vittorio Luise's car
into a river near Naples, Italy, in 1983. He managed to break a
window, climb out and swim to shore -- where a tree blew over
and killed him.
Two West German motorists had an all-too-literal head-on
collision in heavy fog near the small town of Guetersloh. Each
was guiding his car at a snail's pace near the center of the
road. At the moment of impact their heads were both out of the
windows when they smacked together. Both men were hospitalized
with severe head injuries. Their cars weren't scratched.
George Schwartz, owner of a factory in Providence, R.I.,
narrowly escaped death when a 1983 blast flattened his factory
except for one wall. After treatment for minor injuries, he
returned to the scene to search for files. The remaining wall
then collapsed on him, killing him.
Depressed since he could not find a job, 42-year-old Romolo
Ribolla sat in his kitchen near Pisa, Italy, with a gun in his
hand threatening to kill himself in 1981. His wife pleaded for
him not to do it, and after about an hour he burst into tears
and threw the gun to the floor. It went off and killed his wife.
In 1983, a Mrs. Carson of Lake Kushaqua, N.Y., was laid out in
her coffin, presumed dead of heart disease. As mourners watched,
she suddenly sat up. Her daughter dropped dead of fright.
A man hit by a car in New York in 1977 got up uninjured, but
laid back down in front of the car when a bystander told him to
pretend he was hurt so he could collect insurance money. The car
rolled forward and crushed him to death.
Surprised while burgling a house in Antwerp, Belgium, a thief
fled out the back door, clambered over a nine-foot wall, dropped
down and found himself in the city prison.
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