Stingray kills 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin

[alcina]

merged another one

 

[PhotoTJ]

I met Steve a couple of times, he was the genuine artical. The world seems a bit less bright.

 

[SohoDozo]

I have a different angle. All of these years he was doing what he did, he was never once bitten by a crocadilian, and he was never once envenomated by a venomous snake or dangerous insect or arachnid. I saw him get bitten on the hand by a wobegong once, but the animals that got him were generally not dangerous ones.

My guess is that he had let his guard down around an animal that has a reputation for being quite docile and not particularly dangerous. I certainly think he did things were of a nature that one should never do unless they know exactly what they are doing. However, I think Steve knew exactly what he was doing and had a handle on the situation at pretty much all times. He just was less cautious around animals that aren't known to seriously hurt people. This time, one got him.

R.I.P., Steve. I know I'll miss you!

He was bittend by crocodiles before. He even says so in the Larry King Live video interview.

 

[MoonWrasse]

Reports are that he was alive long enough to pull the barb from his chest. He was snorkeling when this happened.

Well, ok, it's not a diving accident .

I'd be interested in finding out if he was free diving or just snorkeling at the surface.
Just snorkeling at the surface makes it even more difficult to imagine being killed by a stingray the way he was.

 

[erparamedic]

Such a tragedy. My condolences to his family.

 

[Sea Dragon]

Reports this morning say there is video tape being held by the police that show Steve pulling the barb from his own chest then collapsing and dieing. Just a very sad reminder that in a mishap, any thing protruding from your body as a result of an accident should only be removed by a professional in a clinical setting. In Steve's case it may or may not have saved his life, but he might have had a much better chance.

 

[DavidHickey]

One of the few people I've never met that I feel like I knew well enough to shed tears for when reading the news. He was a one of a kind guy and god broke the mold when he made Steve. BUT the man has seen more and done more in his short life than 99.9% of the world could ever hope for. Its better to live a year as a lion than 20 as a lamb. RIP and my prayers to his family
David

 

[cleung]

CNN must hve made some quick changes as they aired Steve's last interview on Larry King last night. Steve's producer as well as Jack Hanna will be on Larry King tonight to talk about the tragedy.

 

[miketsp]

Reports this morning say there is video tape being held by the police that show Steve pulling the barb from his own chest then collapsing and dieing. Just a very sad reminder that in a mishap, any thing protruding from your body as a result of an accident should only be removed by a professional in a clinical setting. In Steve's case it may or may not have saved his life, but he might have had a much better chance.

That's debatable in this case due to the venom.

However on the general subject of this thread, I'm also surprised by many of the adjectives. "unseemly death", "untimely death"!! Hard to believe, the guy runs constant risks and then gets burned. I don't see anything unexpected, unseemly or untimely.

Maybe the newspaper headline I saw this morning doesn't help me form a better image of this guy.
There's a picture of this imbecile with a 1 month old baby in his arm while feeding a large crocodile pieces of meat. For me this verges on total irresponsibility and he should be locked up and they should throw away the key.
The article then goes on to say that he was trying to ride the ray.
Maybe true or not but it's consistent with the wound location.

I've got hundreds of photos of large rays and I've never seen one get aggressive just because you swam over it.

 

[leadweight]

I feel bad for his family.

However, I believe there were 2 reasons this accident happened.

The first is that the victim was so used to dealing with dangerous animals that he had probably developed a feeling of invulnerability. People who feel they are invulnerable may fail to take all precautions needed.

The second is that he was filming when it happened. Folks with a camera in their hands have a way of forgetting everything except getting the shot.