Accidental? BS. How did such an "accident" happen, I wonder?
Happens all the time to regular people who are daily drinkers and are then given a narcotic. They vastly underestimate the warnings and carry on with their "normal" activities. Respiratory arrest can sneak up on them. So can choking on their own vomit.
buccaneer81 is right that accidents like this can happen. In coroner-speak, “accident” just means that the person didn’t intend to kill himself (and wasn’t intentionally killed by someone else). It’s not a comment on his level of moral responsibility for his death.
In Boogaard’s case, he was given the drug by his brother, who was charged with a crime. I don’t remember the exact charge or status of it, but I’m not sure that that death is still classified as an accident.
Derek Boogaard was a drug addict. It was reported that he died while celebrating getting out of drug rehab. I don’t suppose he meant to kill himself but I don’t call that an accident either.