Witnesses tell of freak death of Steve Irwin

News.com.AU via Drudge ^ | September 4, 2006 | By staff writers and wires

[Kaslin]

CROAKY!

You are a jerk

[KyHammer]

Dittoes, I saw a leopard ray explode out of the sand where a snorkler was retrieving a shell or a rock. Several people were snorkling and no one had a clue there was a giant ray under the sand watching what was going on around it.

[driftdiver]

"I'm thinking that Irwin probably settled on the bottom in a prone position. Unfortunately he seems to have settled on top of the stingray."

Thats kinda what I was thinking. Probably didn't even hit the bottom though. The times I've seen stingrays its hard to get very close to them.

[Guenevere]

bttt

[dagoofyfoot]

Sadness for the whole family.


Sounds like a freak and rare occurence.


Prayers Up.

[4yearlurker]

This sounds like one of those split second accidents that you wish you could take back. I remember seeing an episode of Crocodile Hunter where Steve was stuck, dangling from a cliff on a rope. He took a lot of risks,but looked like he loved it. RIP Steve.

[Vaquero]

I place Irwin one step ahead of the "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell. Tredwell was the tree...er...bear hugger how got hisself et by an Alaskan Brown bear a year or so ago.

Mr Irwin pushed the outside of the envelope way to far...
.....He didnt deserve killing, but he did temp fate...someone called him a winner of the Darwin award...well he obviously passed on his genes before he passed on so the Darwin award is not quite correct, but he did court disaster.

[em2vn]

I once worked in the busines. I know what I am speaking of.
I hope to God you aren't still in a position where you can rely on television as a teaching crutch and continue to use it to poison students minds' in the process.
You mimic the same senseless crap I heard when I was an education major in the very early 70s.
I was impressed with your ability to glean so much about my character from a post on FR. Part of your education training no doubt.
Did you take an education degree or did you have an actual major?

[higgmeister]

Just went to the head of the line for Darwin Award candidates

That's just sick and wrong. He already has two children.

[cripplecreek]

A guy near where I live has a large pond on his property that he planted muskey in. He was out in an innertube when one of those big muskey bit him on the thigh.

The guy nearly bled to death before they got him to a hospital then he needed surgery and struggled with infection for nearly 6 months.

[moviegirl]

Amen, J.W. He will be missed. Prayers for Terri and his children. We've lost an entertaining soul.

[BibChr]

Oh, no; that's so sad. Guy always lived on the edge, for his audience and his causes.

I haven't read but the first couple of comments -- please tell me FReepers aren't shaming us all by association, making jokes and snide comments.

[BradyLS]

All I know is they told me in the Army not to mess with Jake the Snake or Broc the Croc. Or Ray the...ray.

[FreedomNeocon]

God Bless Steve and his family.

He was something so special. Filled with just an amazing about of energy and enthusiasm for life and nature.

Just watching how happy and excited he was running around and teaching things about animals was so fun to watch that I never for a second thought for one second about all the education he's given to millions who just throughout they were watching a fascinating and fun show.

His fresh, never ending, almost 'kid on Christmas morning' attitude and love he had really came through on TV. Its a rare thing to inspire emotions like that not through the story or some special effect visual, but rather just through the actions and demeanor of the star.

He is in my prayers, and will be missed. At least we have volumes of great memories that we can remember him by.

[TrebleRebel]

I think it was a totally freak accident. http://www.boardwalk-realty.com/news/info/do_stingray_really_sting.htm


To get that dagger above to penetrate the chest wall and heart means it just happened to be at the right angle to slip between the ribs. The odds must be thousands to one against. Steve certainly wasn't pushing the envelope here.

[jalisco555]

I mentioned this on another thread, but we have been swimming with stingrays many times. My son, when he was as young as 5 would be completely surrounded by stingrays as we fed them at Stingray City (we used to live on Grand Cayman.)

I've done this dive myself. I was bitten (I guess the better word is gummed) by a ray when I did it but otherwise there was no real risk. Thousands of people have done this either diving or snorkeling. One of my favorite things to do when diving is hovering over sand and watching rays swim. This is just so freaky and sad.

[khnyny]

Your comment is really insensitive and out of line. I can't believe the level of immaturity in some of the comments on this thread, this isn't DU.