#7 - Irwin Rockwell
On August the 24th of 2021, a fiery crash on a roadway near Miami, Florida, resulted in the death
of an innocent driver. The victim collided directly into a vehicle that was traveling
the wrong way down an express lane. The reckless driver responsible for the crash was 38-year-old
Irwin Rockwell of Collier County. At roughly 5 am in the morning, witnesses watched as Rockwell
made a U-turn near the Miami Gardens exit off I-95 and began driving south on the highway’s
northbound lanes. As Rockwell approached the Golden Glades interchange, he slammed into the
front end of a Subaru SUV while traveling at an extremely high speed. The impact
launched the Subaru over the edge of the highway overpass, causing it to plummet nearly 85 feet to
the ground below. The vehicle landed on its roof and subsequently burst into flames. A Road Ranger
named Larry Cherry was coincidentally in the area when the accident occurred. He ran to the car
hoping that he might be able to rescue its passengers. He managed to pull 41-year-old
Ed Gonzalez from the backseat of the burning car, but he was unable to extricate the driver,
who was killed in the blaze. Gonzalez was taken to Aventura Hospital in critical condition.
He continued to receive treatment in the months following the brutal accident. A GoFundMe
campaign was started by Gonzalez’s family to help alleviate the financial burden brought on by their
medical bills. Rockwell received treatment for his injuries as well, but he was later arrested at the
hospital and charged with vehicular manslaughter. Florida police reportedly discovered an empty beer
bottle in his vehicle and officers also noted the distinct smell of marijuana emanating from inside.
#6 - Tommy Lyon Tommy Lyon and Emily Collie were
on a dream getaway in Phuket Thailand in February of 2017 when tragedy struck. The Australian couple
was visiting Kata Beach that day and decided to rent a pair of jet skis. After the couple
had been driving their jet skis for not even a few minutes, they collided with each other
at a high speed. 20-year-old Emily was thrown off and was pulled unconscious from the water
by first responders, while 22-year-old Tommy came away relatively unscathed. Lifeguards performed
CPR on Collie until paramedics arrived and she was then loaded into an ambulance. Tommy joined her in
the ambulance as he broke down in tears. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but pronounced dead
upon arrival. The neck and shoulder injuries she had incurred turned out to be too severe.
Tommy later explained to police that the bright reflection of the sun on the water had made it
impossible for him to spot his girlfriend. Tommy took full responsibility for the accident and was
quick to apologize to Emily's family. Her family went on to encourage local authorities to consider
the matter an unfortunate accident, but Tommy was charged with reckless driving causing death never
the less. Tommy was facing a sentence of up to 10 years, but was back in Australia the next month,
so it's believed that the authorities gave in to Collie's family's outspoken desire for Tommy not
to be punished for the incident. #5 - Cynthia Covert
58-year-old Cynthia Covert of Johns Island, South Carolina, was killed by an alligator
behind her friend’s house on Kiawah Island, in May of 2020. Covert had travelled for an at-home
nail appointment for one of her clients when the fatal attack occurred. According to the homeowner,
the manicurist began acting strangely after she had finished doing her nails. She noticed
an alligator located in the pond behind the house and suddenly became fascinated with it.
She started taking photographs of the dangerous predator, inching closer and closer to it until
she was waist deep in pond water. Covert’s friend began pleading with her to get out of the water,
recounting how she had just seen the alligator grab a deer from the exact spot where she stood.
Covert ignored the warnings and continued to move closer to the gator, trying to touch it with her
hands. Suddenly, the animal seized Covert’s left leg in its jaws, pulling the woman below
the surface. Her friend’s husband and a neighbor who’d heard the commotion managed to pull Covert
out of the water for a brief moment by tossing a rope down to her. The gator clamped on the
beautician and pulled her back in. It then began to death roll her by violently twisting
and turning its body. Police officers and firefighters eventually arrived at the house,
but not in time to save the woman. They waited roughly 10 minutes for her body to resurface,
at which point they shot the animal in the head to free Covert from its grasp.
She was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy determined that the ill-fated woman had drowned.
#4 – Parvat Gala Baria A 60-year-old Indian farmer
named Parvat Gala Baria retaliated against a snake that had bitten him by killing it with his teeth.
In July of 2019, Baria was out in the fields with a group of villagers from the Mahisagar
district when the workers spotted a snake emerging from behind a truck that was being used to load
maize. The other farmers fled in fear of the dangerous animal but Baria stood his ground,
boldly claiming to have handled snakes before. He picked the serpent up with his bare hands in
a reckless attempt to move it away from the work area. The venomous snake lunged at the farmer,
biting him in the hands and face. An enraged Baria then plunged his own teeth into the slithering
attacker, fatally injuring it. The man was rushed to a hospital in Lunawada, but doctors’ attempts
to save his life proved futile. The venom from the snake’s fangs had already wrought havoc on Baria’s
body, and he passed away within hours. #3 - Andrew James Rodriguez
A 58-year-old man travelling on a moped in Las Vegas, Nevada, was fatally struck by a drunk
driver that was more than three times over the legal speed limit. Walter Richard Anderson was
riding his 225-pound TaoTao scooter along Russell Road, in Southwest Vegas, just before midnight
on June the 5th of 2021. The driver that struck him was Andrew James Rodriguez, aged 33, who’d
gotten behind the wheel of a 2017 Lamborghini Huracan while intoxicated. He and a female
passenger were making their way to a party across town. The stretch of road where the accident took
place had a posted speed limit of 45 miles per hour. Rodriguez pushed his vehicle to 141
miles per hour in the moments before he collided into the back of Anderson’s moped. The initial
impact was so powerful that the scooter actually became lodged under the Lamborghini. The sheer
blunt force trauma generated by the crash killed Anderson instantly. Police officers who arrived
at the scene recounted that Rodriguez’s eyes were noticeably bloodshot and noted a pervasive smell
of alcohol on him. He was arrested on charges of reckless driving and driving under the influence.
#2 - The NYC Subway Surfer A 32-year-old man attempting to ride
on the top of a New York City subway train car plummeted to his death on October the 2nd of 2021.
In the early morning hours, the thrill seeker, who was not immediately identified by police,
climbed on top of the J-train traveling southbound and began subway surfing
as it circulated on its daily route. As the subway approached the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects
Manhattan and Brooklyn, the rider lost his footing and fell from the top of the car to the northbound
tracks below. He was subsequently struck by an oncoming train as he lay injured on the railway.
The New York Police Department was notified of the incident via a 9-1-1 call
placed at around 4:30 am. Officers found the man unconscious and unresponsive on the tracks.
Emergency medical personnel pronounced him dead at the scene. The authorities determined there’d been
no foul play involved in the unfortunate incident. #1 - Stephanie Mayorga and Paige Escalera
A couple from Wilmington, North Carolina, mysteriously went missing for three weeks
after embarking on an excursion to celebrate their engagement. 27-year-old Stephanie Mayorga
and Paige Escalera, aged 25, were last spotted by a surveillance camera climbing into the latter’s
dark gray Dodge Dart, at about 9 pm, on April the 15th of 2020. Later that same night,
a 9-1-1 call was placed by someone who claimed to have witnessed a vehicle blow through a stop
sign at staggering speed and subsequently crash into the woods near an intersection.
A team of emergency responders that included police officers, firefighters, and a medical
crew were dispatched to the location around midnight. Upon arriving at the intersection,
however, the authorities found no signs that a collision had occurred as the 9-1-1 caller had
reported. Officers responded to what was deemed a more urgent call after spending fewer than 8
minutes at the scene. The couple’s roommate hadn’t reported the women missing until April the 19th,
as she was under the impression that one needed to wait a period of
72 hours before filing a missing persons report. A nationwide search for Mayorga and Escalera
was then set in motion. It wasn’t until May the 4th, 20 days after their sudden disappearance,
that any significant headway was made in the investigation. Officers returned to the same
intersection that had been previously visited by the first responders on April the 15th. This time,
however, investigators used machetes to hack through the thick vegetation that was growing
off the side of the road. They went into a marshy area that was the entrance to a marina on the Cape
Fear River. They soon discovered the couple’s wrecked vehicle nestled deep within the dense
woods. The women’s decomposing corpses were still inside the car. The police used data collected by
the car’s computer to establish that Mayorga, who was behind the wheel at the time of the crash,
had been traveling at roughly 103 miles per hour in the moments before the deadly accident.
Investigators confidently determined that, aside from speed, alcohol was a likely contributing
factor in the wreck, as several open beer bottles were found inside the vehicle. The
Wilmington Police Department came under heavy fire in the incident’s aftermath. Members of the
public strongly criticized the department’s failure to conduct a thorough search of the
area surrounding the intersection on the night they’d been first called to the scene.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather be trapped in a hungry lion’s den for 10 minutes
or tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon? Let us know in the comments section below!