Man Dies Checking on His Boat during Hurricane

Bronx father of 13 whose body was found yesterday floating at a City Island marina just hours after Hurricane Irene tore through the area may be the city's only storm-related fatality, officials said.

José Sierra, 68, a plumber, arrived at the Sunset Marina at around 8 a.m., at the height of the storm, and waved to the its owner as he checked on his prized 16-passenger boat, which he'd purchased just last week.

The marina owner found his body at about 4:40 p.m.

"He was a fisherman, and he died doing what he loves," said his heartbroken daughter Carmen Sierra.

"He was a self-made man. Everybody knows him for his kindness and his charity. After fishing, he would just give out the fish to people. He was a beautiful man."

His cousin Denise Gonzalez, said, "He helped every house on the block for free. He did lots of plumbing for free."

In Rockland County, a 50-year-old good Samaritan was electrocuted after he rushed to help a father and son who were injured by a downed live wire.

The dad, 43, and his 6-year-old boy were checking out the damage near their Spring Valley home when they were shocked.

David Reichenberg, a father of four, rushed over to help and was killed.

"He was a fantastic man and husband. It was just like him to have done that without thinking," said his stepmother, Lillian Carleen.

"David was caring, he was such a good father."

The boy was critically hurt while his dad was in stable condition last night.

There were other storm-related fatalities in the area.

On Long Island, John Rocco, 68, drowned around 4 p.m. in Shirley after going out windsurfing.

And in Westchester, one man died after the inflatable boat he and four others were in capsized.

Rescue crews pulled them out of the Croton River near the Croton-Harmon Metro-North station at around 8 p.m., but the victim died at a hospital, the Journal News reported.

Via The New York Post

Seychelles shark attack kills honeymooning man

A British man on his honeymoon has been killed by a shark in theSeychelles, less than a fortnight after a French tourist was also fatally bitten in the waters off the same island.

The 30-year-old, named as Ian Redmond from Lancashire, was attacked on Tuesday while his bride was sunbathing on the shore, according to reports.

The shark struck in the waters off Anse Lazio beach on the island of Praslin, the second largest in the Indian Ocean archipelago and a popular destination with honeymooning Britons.

A tourist in a dinghy dragged the man on board and brought him ashore and another holidaymaker then tried to save his life, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

"We heard screaming and people started running down the beach towards the water," an American tourist was quoted as saying. "Someone had seen a fin sticking out of the water, and then we saw a dinghy pulling a man from the water.

"I saw the swimmer, who was missing a huge chunk of flesh from his left leg, so much so that I could see the bone of his thigh. He was sickeningly pale, but still had his flippers on both feet.

"At this point a woman ran over and started screaming. She said: 'That's my husband! We were just married.'

"Someone grabbed her and tried to keep her away. People all over the beach were just hugging whoever was close to them or trying to keep any children from witnessing what was going on."

Authorities in the Seychelles have asked for help from shark experts in South Africa to identify the creature, and a temporary ban on swimming or entering the waters around parts of Praslin has been ordered.

The Seychelles minister for home affairs and environment, Joel Morgan, also held an emergency meeting in the capital Victoria as the government tried to limit the potential damage to the tourism industry, the country's main source of foreign exchange.

The Seychelles' profile was given a boost in the UK when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent their honeymoon on North Island in May.

Alain St Ange, the head of the Seychelles tourism board, told the Daily Telegraph: "It was a freak accident. We are closing the beaches pending the arrival of experts from South Africa."

Fatal shark attacks in the Seychelles are thought to be rare – prior to the death of the French tourist the last recorded fatal attack there was recorded in 1963, according to local media reports.

The Foreign Office said: "We can confirm the death of a British national in the Seychelles. We are providing consular assistance to the next of kin."

The French tourist who died while snorkelling on 1 August was named in the Seychelles media as Nicolas François Virolle, 36. Other tourists on the beach were said to have hauled his body from the sea but he died from a massive loss of blood.

via The Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/16/seychelles-shark-attack-honeymoon

Ohio woman dies after falling into her recycling bin

A woman who died after falling face-first into a recycling bin and wasn't noticed until her husband came home had become stuck in a position in which she couldn't breathe, a Toledo, Ohio, coroner said.

Sheila Decoster, 62, was inside the bin for several hours before she was found on Friday, said Lucas County deputy coroner Diane Barnett. Her husband saw her legs sticking out of the container that sits alongside their porch.

"Honestly, I thought it was a dummy," Richard Decoster said. "I shook her leg and called her name, and I knew she was gone."

The couple, who were married for 43 years, kept their recycling and rubbish bins next to their porch, which does not have a railing. Investigators said it looked like Sheila Decoster was standing on her porch when she leaned over, lifted the lid on the bin and fell inside.

Her husband said she had some medical issues, including dizzy spells and an aneurism on her brain, which could explain why she fell. She also had back problems and a recent knee-replacement surgery.

There were many complaints about the large recycling bins when they were distributed two years ago. Residents said they were too big and difficult to move, especially for older and disabled people.

"It's tragic, but I think it's definitely an extreme example," said city spokeswoman Jen Sorgenfrei.

Via: Associated Press via The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/09/ohio-woman-dies-recycling-bin

Thief tries breaking into apartment. Slips, falls, dies.

A thief trying to make a quick escape fell to his death Monday morning after a resident bravely confronted him as he was breaking into her upper East Side apartment, cop sources said.

The would-be burglar was trying to slip into the fifth-floor apartment on E. 91st St. through a window screen when the woman called out - startling him, the sources said.

He fled from the fire escape onto the roof of the five-story building and then tried to make his way onto the roof of the neighboring building, the sources said.

But as he was crossing over he fell down an air shaft about 10:20 a.m., the sources said.

He died at the scene. Police officials did not immediately release his name. Witnesses who saw his body after the fall said he appeared to be young, possibly in his 20s.

"I heard this bang," said James Charles, 55, a maintenance worker in the building. He said he at first assumed an air conditioner had fallen from a window.

"I looked out the window and there was this guy," he said.

The air shaft is covered with chicken wire, and the burglar may have tried to walk across it instead of jumping over it, one police source said.

Cops were investigating the scene Monday afternoon as the burglar's lifeless body remained at the bottom of the air shaft.

Via: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/08/08/2011-08-08_thief_tries_to_break_into_fifthfloor_upper_east_side_apartment_through_window_sl.html#ixzz1UTR57tuq

Driver Found Dead Inside Bus Idling At Port Authority For 5 Hours

NJ Transit bus driver Thomas Truex, who had 26 years on the job, was found dead in his idling bus at the Port Authority bus terminal yesterday—five hours after he was supposed to have headed back to the Meadowlands to return the vehicle to the garage. Investigators say the death isn't being treated as suspicious, but the incident has the Port Authority and NJ Transit scrambling to do damage control.

Truex dropped off his last passengers at 10:30 a.m., but his body wasn't found until almost five hours later, and NJ Transit didn't notice the bus was missing until 3 p.m. Around the same time, the Port Authority called NJ Transit to alert them that one of their buses was "not in a good location," and had been parked for some time in a spot where drivers usually park for a quick bathroom or coffee break. When a NJ Transit supervisor went to check it out, he found Truex dead in a passenger seat. The cause of death is so far unknown.

Port Authority Spokesman Steve Coleman tells the North Jersey Record, "We probably need to take a look at coordination we have with operation staff in terms of making sure if anything looks out of place or a driver didn’t report back that there are employees who can notify us ASAP so we can check it out." And New Jersey Transit said they'll look at their procedures moving forward. In the meantime, if you're looking to take a bus for a joyride, you've got at least a five hour window before anybody starts wondering where the hell it went.

via:http://gothamist.com/2011/08/01/driver_found_dead_inside_bus_that_i.php

Man Fishing, Finds Brick of Powder, Snorts it, Dies.

A Merritt Island man died after a bizarre trip out on the water with his brother Wednesday.

Thomas Swindal, 53, was offshore on Marathon when he and his brother Kenneth discovered a brick of an unknown substance, possibly cocaine, floating in the water.

They ended up tossing the package into a bait well until a short time later, when Kenneth said he turned around and saw his brother snorting some of the substance.

Kenneth told investigators that about 90 minutes later, Thomas began running around the boat, throwing things into the water, including a cell phone and a VHF radio. Thomas also picked up knives, pliers and a gaff and removed the cowling from the engine, which fell overboard and sank, leaving the brothers stranded.

To avoid further dangers, Kenneth said he tossed all remaining sharp objects into the water, as well as the package of the mysterious substance.

Kenneth then climbed to the top of the boat to signal for help. A passing vessel picked the men up, and arrangements were made for paramedics to meet them at shore.

Thomas Swindal was rushed to Fishermen's Hospital, then transferred to South Miami Hospital, where he died on Thursday.

An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death and perhaps the type of drug Swindal ingested.

-- (Information for this report came from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office news blog)

Read more: http://www.wpbf.com/news/28716505/detail.html#ixzz1TnH7IRDI

Death by Xbox

LONDON — The family of a budding computer programmer have on Saturday launched a campaign to raise awareness about the health risks of playing online computer games after their son died following a marathon session on his Xbox.

A post-mortem revealed that 20-year-old Chris Staniforth -- who was offered a place to study Game Design at Leicester University -- was killed by a pulmonary embolism, which can occur if someone sits in the same position for several hours.

Deep vein thrombosis normally affects passengers on long-haul flights, but medical experts fear youngsters who spend hours glued to their consoles might also be at risk and have urged them to take regular breaks.

Professor Brian Colvin -- an expert on blood-related conditions -- said it was "unhealthy" for youngsters to spend long periods in front of their consoles.

"There's anxiety about obesity and children not doing anything other than looking at computer screens," he told The Sun.

David Staniforth has now launched a campaign to warn other parents of the dangers.

"Games are fun and once you've started playing it's hard to stop.

"Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods - they don't realise it could kill them," he told The Sun.

A coroner's court in Sheffield was told how the youngster -- who had no underlying medical conditions -- was complaining of a low heart rate before collapsing outside a Jobcentre.

Staniforth's distraught father said his son would spend up to 12 hours playing on his Xbox.

"He got sucked in playing Halo online against people from all over the world."

Online computer games are extremely popular as thousands interact in shared science fiction worlds.

Reports of gamers collapsing after spending 15 hours in front of video games are fairly common throughout Asia.

In 2005, a South Korean gamer died after playing online games for three days without taking a break.

Microsoft -- which manufactures the Xbox -- said it "recommend gamers take breaks to exercise as well as make time for other pursuits."

Via http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5itdcZAJhnhurpOzUq8nDwHT1D8pw?docId=CNG.d76d1890df3edca8dd08181cb6808c7f.01