Accidental Deaths

Nathan Meade, one of Australia's premier divers, was killed when he apparently misjudged a dive during practice and smashed into the concrete diving platform Thursday at Brisbane, Australia. Meade, 21, was pronounced dead at Princess Alexandra Hospital. Doctors said he suffered massive brain damage. The Australian high-dive champion was a top contender for a spot on his nation's 1988 Olympic team.

A British Olympic gold medalist in sailing was killed Thursday when a catamaran training for the upcoming America's Cup capsized in San Francisco Bay. Andrew "Bart" Simpson was part of an 11-man crew aboard Artemis Racing's AC72 vessel when the boat flipped northwest of Treasure Island about 1 p.m., officials said. Simpson, 36, served as the Swedish team's strategist. An America's Cup chase boat pulled the sailors from the water, but Simpson was trapped under the 72-foot catamaran for up to 15 minutes before he was reached, San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.

Actor Brandon Lee, the 28-year-old son of the late kung fu star Bruce Lee, was killed Wednesday after a small explosive charge used to simulate gunfire went off inside a grocery bag during filming on a movie set in Wilmington, N.C. Lee, who many believed was on the threshold of stardom similar to that attained by his father two decades earlier, had been working on the $14-million movie "The Crow," produced by Edward Pressman and Jeff Most.

In America's debate over gun policy, one of the sharpest divides separates those who believe a gun at home makes them safer from those who believe that gun ownership would put them at risk. Increasingly, gun owners cite protection, rather than hunting or other recreational activities, as the main reason they own a gun, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Nearly half of gun owners cited “protection” as their main reason for owning a gun, according to the survey.

Recreation providers in California may be held liable for gross negligence regardless of the wording on liability waivers signed by participants or their parents, the California Supreme Court ruled 6-1 Monday. The state high court decision permits the parents of a developmentally disabled girl who drowned at a summer camp run by the city of Santa Barbara to sue even though her mother had signed an agreement assuming "full responsibility for risk of bodily injury, death or property damage."

Reporting from Orinda, Calif., and East Palo Alto, Calif. -- Residents of a densely packed neighborhood in East Palo Alto, Calif., awoke to explosions and fire Wednesday when a small plane carrying employees of an electric car company crashed in dense fog, killing all three aboard and spewing debris over several homes. The twin-engine Cessna 310 hit 60-foot-high transmission lines, and its fuselage was found tangled in wires. The victims, who were not immediately identified, were employees of Tesla Motors Inc., a San Carlos, Calif.

Three people were killed and two injured Sunday when a driver suspected of being under the influence of alcohol drove a 1993 Ford Explorer off a freeway offramp and into a tree in San Juan Capistrano, authorities said. California Highway Patrol investigators said three passengers, two men and one woman, died instantly, and the driver and a fourth passenger were taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo in critical condition.

For the first time in more than half a century, the Odell residence is quiet. There are no squeaks and pops from the electric motor that powered an "iron lung" pumping air in and out of Dianne Odell's body. A thunderstorm knocked out the power to her home Wednesday, shutting off the massive metal machine that had helped her breathe for nearly 60 years. It was about 3 a.m. when the electricity went out at Odell's home in Jackson, a small Tennessee town about 90 miles northeast of Memphis.

The family of a man who was killed in 2003 when a wheel assembly fell off a locomotive on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and caused it to crash settled a lawsuit Friday against the Walt Disney Co. for an undisclosed sum. While the settlement's terms are confidential, Marcelo Torres' parents said they were giving $500,000 of it to Brooks College in Long Beach to provide scholarships to aspiring animators. Their 22-year-old son was a graphic artist.

Three workers were killed and three others were badly hurt Thursday afternoon in an explosion on the edge of Kern County's Mojave airport during the test of a propellant system for a pioneering private spaceship. The blast occurred at a private test site run by Scaled Composites, a company founded by high-profile aviation entrepreneur Burt Rutan. In June 2004, the firm became the first business to launch a reusable manned rocket into space, a craft known as SpaceShip One.

At least eight people were killed Sunday night and more than 30 injured when a tour bus crashed on a narrow mountain road near Yucaipa, authorities said. The collision, which involved the bus, a truck and a sedan, took place about 6:30 p.m. on California 38 on a route leading from the Big Bear area, authorities said. Some people were ejected from the bus; others were trapped inside. Because of the severity of the carnage, it was difficult for rescue workers to immediately identify exactly how many people were killed.

In an appeal for the public's help in stemming the epidemic of prescription drug deaths, the Medical Board of California is asking people whose relatives died of overdoses to contact the board if they believe excessive prescribing or other physician misconduct contributed to the deaths. Linda K. Whitney, the board's executive director, urged those with information about improper treatment to contact the board without delay. By law, the agency has seven years from the time of the alleged misconduct to take disciplinary action against a physician.

The chairman of a state Senate committee that oversees the Medical Board of California said Monday that he would introduce a bill requiring coroners to report all prescription drug deaths to the agency - a move aimed at helping authorities identify doctors whose prescribing practices may be harming patients. Sen. Curren D. Price Jr. (D-Los Angeles), responding to a Times' report that authorities have failed to recognize how often people overdose on medications prescribed by their doctors, said the medical board needed coroners' reports to improve its oversight.

Divers scoured the water for survivors and passengers told of Titanic-style pandemonium and being abandoned by crew members Saturday after a luxury cruise liner was ripped open by rocks off the Italian coast. At least three people died and 40 were injured in the accident near Tuscany, which forced more than 4,200 passengers and crew members to abandon the ship Costa Concordia on Friday evening. Dramatic photos taken Saturday showed the jumbo liner tipped over in the water, a long gash in its hull, near the small island of Giglio.

The water at Yosemite National Park may be beautiful as it tumbles and roars out of the mountains, crystal snowmelt in a granite bed. But Jake Bibee remembers what he told his friend: "You have to respect the water. " Bibee, a 28-year-old carpenter who grew up in Angels Camp, northwest of the park, had brought Amanda Lee, a visitor from Missouri, to the top of Vernal Fall on Tuesday -- her first visit to Yosemite, but the latest of many for him. They were standing behind a metal barricade, peering at the cascade.

We've all heard about — and many of us have experienced — unexpected charges showing up on phone bills. But what about fees siphoned from your bank account? What about those fees being taken by an affiliate of your bank? And what can you do when your bank won't help because it claims you gave "phone authorization" for something like accidental death insurance, even though you never signed any paperwork? That's the situation Sumati Rao, 62, of Rancho Palos Verdes found herself in after discovering she'd been charged $20 a month for about two years for accidental death coverage provided by a company called Level AD Insurance.

Two El Segundo toddlers found dead in their beds last spring were poisoned by oleander leaves from a neighbor's yard that they picked and ate, coroner's officials said Tuesday. The case of Alexei and Peter Wiltsey, ages 2 and 3, represents the first confirmed accidental deaths by oleander poisoning in county history, said coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier.

Wanda Sapp often visited movie sets to watch her daughter perform stunts. She never dreamed she'd watch her daughter die. Sapp and two of her other children were present in November, when Sonja Davis fell to her death while working as a stunt double on the upcoming Eddie Murphy film "Vampire in Brooklyn." The family is suing Paramount Studios and Eddie Murphy Productions for $10 million, alleging that the film crew failed to provide proper safety equipment.

Flames swept through a three-floor apartment building in Illinois early Sunday, killing six, injuring 12 and forcing some residents to leap from their windows to escape, authorities said. One person escaped by climbing hand over hand along a cable before dropping to the ground. Firefighters rescued at least five people from the building in Aurora, about 40 miles west of Chicago, authorities said. A 2-year-old girl was in critical condition at Loyola University Medical Center's burn unit.

Freestyle motocross racer Jeff 'Ox' Kargola of San Clemente died Friday from injuries sustained during a punishing, 1,300-mile adventure ride through Mexico's Baja Peninsula, according to event sponsors. Kargola was 27. Kargola crashed during the second day of the Desert Assassins' 2011 Rip to the Tip desert motocross event -- an eight-day contest among 30 dirt-bike racers who cross mountains, beaches and desert between the border city of Mexicali and Cabo San Lucas. "Jeff was attended to by medical personnel on site and was transported via helicopter to the San Felipe hospital where he passed away due to his injuries," read an event statement.