Accidental Deaths

It was just another work day for Rafael Jimenez, a veteran tree trimmer in his 24th year on the job. But as he stuffed branches from a Chinese elm tree into a wood chipper that sunny day in April 2008, his right hand became entangled in the branches and Jimenez found himself being jerked toward the steel knives. The machine, which devours a 20-inch branch in a second, consumed nearly his entire body.

The explosive Wedge surf break in Newport Beach has left generations of daredevils with broken bones and concussions. On Friday, with waves topping 20 feet, it killed a man -- a rare death at a place that would seem to invite it. The Orange County coroner's office has identified the man as 50-year-old Monte Kevin Valantin of Lawndale. He was thrown against the rock jetty that produces the Wedge's outsized waves about 12:30 p.m.

As rescue crews on Friday discovered the bodies of three people in the wreckage of an Orange County-based tour airplane that crashed in the rain on a remote Catalina Island hilltop, questions emerged about the pilot's qualifications to handle charter flights. A search-and-rescue team found the burned bodies after a helicopter spotted the downed plane on a hilltop area near Mt. Orizaba, southwest of Catalina's Airport in the Sky, said Sgt.

The death of a USC student and the critical injury of another in a violent hit-and-run accident left the urban campus reeling Monday as authorities and relatives called on the public for help in locating the driver and the badly damaged car. "We need to find the vehicle," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. "We need to find it quickly." The accident, which occurred at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street at 3 a.m.

That damned car wreck. Every time I walk toward the front gates at Angel Stadium, past the somber memorial circled with Angels baseball caps, I get angry, and that's what I think. Why did it have to happen? Why did three young friends, so full of life, have to face such a terrible end? We know a lot now about Nick Adenhart, the talented Angel who died on April 9, hit by an allegedly drunk fool of a driver hours after pitching a great game.

A federal consumer safety agency launched an investigation Thursday into this week's accidental death of an Orange County child caught in a washing machine. Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said investigators will examine the front-loading washer to determine if the design poses a safety risk.

Four young men in San Luis Obispo surrendered Thursday to face charges alleging that a fraternity hazing ritual caused the alcohol death of a university freshman from Texas, police said. Carson Starkey, 18, of Austin was found dead in December with a blood-alcohol level between 0.39% and 0.44%. Police said he had to drink a bag full of alcoholic beverages as part of the fraternity pledging process.

He went looking for his daughter and found bodies stacked in garbage bags. A man told him she was in bag No. 123. She wasn't. She has never been found, and that is the hardest thing, to wonder where the sea took her. In the predawn hours of Feb. 3, 2006, the ferry carrying Tareq Sharaf's family caught fire and capsized in high winds on the Red Sea between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His wife and four of his children, along with 1,029 other passengers, drowned or died in the blaze.

Five people were killed Tuesday morning when a sport utility vehicle skidded off Interstate 5, rolled down an embankment and burst into flames, authorities said. Witnesses to the Mission Viejo crash said they ran down the embankment to try to help, but the blaze forced them back. The Orange County coroner's office said the victims were a 37-year-old man, a 33-year-old woman and three other females whose ages were not released. The accident happened about 10:25 a.m.

The head of California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health said Monday he will personally oversee a "rigorous and effective" criminal investigation into the Dec. 29 chemistry lab fire that killed a UCLA staff research assistant. Cal/OSHA Chief Len Welsh's pledge came after a civil probe last month resulted in one regulatory and three "serious" violations, and fines totaling $31,875. The family of the research assistant, Sheri Sangji, had criticized the review as inadequate.