Compared to their American cousins, the United Kingdom can seem like a sleepy place.
But that doesn’t mean some UK citizens haven’t done ridiculous things - with deadly consequences.
It’s dumb ways to die - UK edition.
No one here has been eaten by Nessie - that we know of.
Is there any less threatening activity than relaxing with a nice cool drink on a hot summer
day?
Well, for one woman in Dorset, it turned out to be fatal.
Retired jockey Elena Struthers-Gardener was carrying a mason jar drinking glass with a
screwed-on top, and she had a metal straw attached.
When the sixty-year-old woman, who had a history of falls and injuries, suddenly collapsed,
the angle of the hard metal straw impaled her through the eye and caused a fatal brain
injury.
The authorities ruled out any intoxication, and issued a warning that metal straws can
come with a side of death instead of refreshment.
This next unfortunate Brit found out that danger lurks everywhere - even the countryside.
Mike Edwards was a minor celebrity, an acclaimed cellist, music teacher, and former member
of the Electric Light Orchestra.
At sixty-two, he didn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon - but nature had other
plans.
While he was driving down the road near his home in Devon, something began rolling down
a nearby hill.
It was a massive hay bale, weighing at least thirteen hundred pounds.
It crashed into the van and killed him instantly.
The people responsible for the hay bale went on trial and were found not guilty, but many
of Edwards’ fans were less forgiving.
At least this next guy went out on a high?
It was the 1970s, and the TV show “The Goodies” had everyone in stitches.
But one man enjoyed it a little too much.
Alex Mitchell of Norfolk burst out in hysterical laughter while watching - and then proceeded
to keel over dead from a massive heart attack.
While no cause of death was determined, his wife was philosophical - thanking the TV program
for giving her husband so much joy in his last minutes.
But a key to his death came decades later when his granddaughter died of a similar heart
attack, pointing to an undiagnosed heart condition as the cause - meaning Mitchell’s heart
may have been a ticking time bomb.
This next man probably should have listened to his mom.
“Chew your food!
Eat slowly!”
We’ve all heard that from mom, but fifty-one-year-old Darrren Hickey didn’t listen.
When the wedding planner sampled a fishcake, he gulped it down quickly - only for the scalding-hot
fried morsel to burn his throat.
He was in massive pain and went to the hospital, and they sent him home with painkillers.
While relaxing at home, his throat began to swell up and he couldn’t breathe.
His partner rushed him to the hospital, but he died soon after from lack of oxygen.
And fishcake was probably not on that menu.
But he wasn’t the only person killed by an unassuming piece of food.
It was the late 1800s, and Sir William Payne Gallwey was a powerful man.
A retired member of Parliament and a Baronet, he was looking forward to enjoying his retirement.
He particularly liked to hunt, and was able to snipe animals from afar without being endangered
by them.
But his undoing would come from something much more harmless - a turnip.
While out hunting one day, he tripped and the pointed turnip at his feet hit him in
the wrong location.
He died a short time later from severe internal injuries at the age of 74 - a bizarre end
to a successful life.
This next man probably should have just gotten a new phone.
It was 2018, and Ateef Rafiq just wanted to see a movie.
But while he was watching, his phone slipped out of his hand and became wedged under the
electric footrest of his chair.
That’s why the dancing popcorn tells you to silence your phones, people! Rafiq probably
could have sought help from a theater worker.
Instead, he tried to stick his head under the footrest - and the electronic seat trapped
his head.
The authorities had to break the seat to get Rafiq free, and by then the unfortunate cinephile
had died of cardiac arrest.
This next man was an innovator - but it didn’t work out too well for him.
Robert Cocking made his name as a watercolor artist, but he was also an amateur scientist
and tinkerer.
And in 1837, he was working on an improved version of the parachute.
He intended to demonstrate his new design, using a cone-shaped chute, at a large festival
in Vauxhall Gardens.
A large crowd watched as Cocking jumped from five thousand feet from a hot air balloon.
But Cocking had miscalculated the weight of the parachute, and he fell far too fast.
The parachute turned inside out, and Cocking crashed and was killed instantly.
Well, every experiment has its trial and error - but some can only go wrong once.
This next man died in the most mundane way possible - or did he?
George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, was a prominent aristocrat with an adventurous
spirit.
He liked to fund expeditions to Egypt, most famously the search for the tomb of King Tut.
It was there in Cairo where he met his end.
He received a nasty mosquito bite on March 19th, 1923 - and then made the mistake of
cutting it open while shaving.
It became infected, and he died soon afterwards of blood poisoning.
An unfortunate end - but this and many other deaths surrounding the King Tut expedition
have led people to wonder if those who entered the ancient tomb were cursed.
Strange deaths didn’t just start in the Victorian era, either.
Corpus Christi College in Cambridge was a well-regarded school, and in 1667 it was under
the strict eye of Master John Spencer.
He kept a tight leash on his students - including his daughter Elizabeth.
But Elizabeth was rebellious, and had gotten into the habit of sneaking her paramour John
Betts into her room.
When John Spencer suddenly entered his daughter’s room, she shoved John into a cupboard - and
was then hurried away by her father.
By the time she had returned, the unfortunate John Betts had asphyxiated in the wardrobe
- leading to rumors that he and Elizabeth haunt the college to this day.
In the 13th century, one unfortunate king discovered that the bigger they are, the harder
they fall.
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Iorwerth was the heir to the Welsh throne, but this time was full
of upheaval.
He had been taken as a hostage by King John of England, until he was released by the signing
of the Magna Carta.
Upon his return, he had been replaced in the line of succession by his younger half brother.
He was imprisoned in the Tower of London - and in 1244 he decided to escape.
He attempted to use a rope made of sheets and other garments to descend the tower.
But he was a heavy man, not helped by years of imprisonment, and the rope soon snapped
- getting him down from the tower in record speed, with a very abrupt stop at the end.
At least this next guy died in the right place?
It was 1872, and Henry Taylor was serving as a pallbearer at a funeral.
The Church service was finished, and it was time to bring the coffin to the grave.
But the day was rather wet and humid, and the pallbearers had to navigate down a narrow
and rocky path to the gravesite.
At some point, Taylor tripped on a stone, losing control of the coffin.
The other pallbearers were forced to let it go as it twisted out of their hands, and it
landed with full force on Taylor’s chest and face.
He died of his injuries, and the incident led to an investigation with recommendations
for how to improve funeral safety.
This man’s quiet hobby led to a fiery end.
John Lewis lived a quiet life in Gloucestershire with his wife Patricia, and was an avid gardener.
But one day - he mysteriously disappeared.
A worried Patricia called the authorities after finding a burned lawnmower, but it was
two weeks before John’s body would be found.
Forensic evidence pieced together the unfortunate story.
John had been trying to light a bonfire, and decided to hurry it up by pouring some gas.
It worked - a little too well.
The raging fire spread to his clothes, and John tried to put it out by jumping in the
river.
Injured, he was likely swept away to his death.
Sometimes a good thing can be a bad thing - if you take it too far.
Basil Brown was a popular English health food buff in the 1970s, but he took things to the
extreme.
He was a strong advocate of Vitamin A and Beta Carotene as health supplements, and was
known to drink extreme amounts of carrot juice.
When his skin started turning yellow, it should have been a warning sign - but he didn’t
heed it, and was dead at the end of ten days from liver failure.
This led to many people worrying if carrot juice could be dangerous, but evidence shows
that the culprit was the Vitamin A supplements he took - ten thousand times the recommended
dose.
This hunter was in search of prey - but he met an unfortunate end.
Stephen Winfrey was a veteran rabbit hunter, using dogs and ferrets to drag the little
critters out of their holes.
But he was also a stubborn man, and hated to see a good catch get away.
He went off for a New Year’s Day hunt near Doncaster - and didn’t return.
When a search party was summoned, they found Winfrey in an awkward position - with his
head stuck in a rabbit hole, dead.
Likely trying to get a tricky rabbit out of his hole, Winfrey got into a tight squeeze
- and those holes aren’t meant for a human head.
Fashion and cleanliness is good - but not when taken to extremes.
Jonathan Capewell was a lad obsessed with hygiene, and was rarely seen without a deodorant
spray.
He was determined to eliminate any trace of body odor, using the sprays countless times
a day.
He was a teenager in good health - which was why it was a complete shock when he suddenly
dropped dead of a heart attack.
There was no obvious cause of death, until the bloodwork came in.
It turned out his blood had a massive buildup of butane and propane in it from the sprays
- enough to stop his heart cold.
A businessman should stand behind his own product - but that led to an unexpected end
for one English millionaire.
Jimi Heselden became a household name in the early 2000s when he purchased the Segway company.
He was a huge fan of those famous scooters, and used his fortune from developing flood
control and military barriers to grow the company.
But he wouldn’t have much time to develop it.
Only nine months after buying the company, he was out riding a Segway when he tried to
get out of the way of a man walking his dog.
He had trouble stopping, and his Segway zoomed directly off a cliff - a tragedy, and terrible
publicity for the company he owned.
Some deaths are just bizarre tragedies - but this guy was really testing fate.
Nicholas Comper was a pioneer of English aviation, and the founder of one of the biggest early
aircraft companies in the years after World War I.
But he was also a man with a temper and a sharp wit, and that came back to haunt him.
A prankster, Comper was lighting fireworks in a pub in 1939.
A passer-by asked him why he was doing that, and Comper jokingly announced he was an IRA
bomber.
With the conflict with the Irish no laughing matter for the English, the bystander acted
swiftly - punching Comper thinking he was taking out a threat.
Comper hit his head, and died soon after of a hemorrhage.
But how could someone die from...sleeping?
Mark Gleeson of Hampshire had a happy life and a great relationship with his girlfriend
Tracey, but there was just one problem - his horrible snoring was ruining both of their
nights.
The couple was at a loss for how to stop it - and one night they hatched a not-so-great
idea.
Mark took some wine and sleeping pills, and the groggy snorer came up with the idea to
use some of Tracey’s tampons to plug his nose.
Unfortunately, the combination of the sleeping pills and the obstructed sinuses led to Gleeson
asphyxiating in his sleep - a tragic and permanent end to his snoring.
How do the Brits stack up against their American counterparts?
Check out “Dumb Ways to Die - USA Edition”, or watch this video instead.