Results tagged “death”

"Festive atmosphere so far, but I suspect emotions are coming.," reports the photog whpo shot the image from today's Don Fischer memorial.

After a long battle with cancer, Gap founder and third-generation San Franciscan Don Fisher died on Sunday. He was 81.

According to the following Twitter message it did, Just this afternoon.

At about 4:50 p.m. yesterday in Redwood City, a southbound train collided with a Honda near Whipple Avenue and El Camino Real. KTVU reports, "the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the San Mateo County coroner's office." The train was traveling "approximately 60 mph," so it couldn't stop. The name of the driver has yet to be revealed. No word as to whether or not it was a suicide hit.

This morning, a 58-year-old man died "after being found between a curb and San Francisco Municipal Railway light-rail tracks" at Church Street at 22nd Street a little after 9 a.m. This resulted in police activity slowing down service. But, according to SF Appeal, none one yet knows how, exactly, he died. While the cause of death has yet to be determined, and police are still trying to figure that out, Appeal received an unconfirmed tip, saying, "'I just got a call from REDACTED saying that the J church incident involved a dude dying because they got hit by the J line...possibly between the inbound and outbound cars...'" Heavy. We'll update you as soon as we know more. Oh, and service has since been restored to normal operation.

Seeing as how he had such a boisterous voice and leap-off-the-screen-like presence, this should come as little surprise. Famed TV pitchman Billy Mays, whose overly-enthusiastic adoration for OxiClean and Orange Glo helped Mays achieve cult-like status before and after his death in June, was discovered to be a fan of the disco dust. Lots of it, it seems. According to CBS, his "sudden death was partly due to his cocaine use, according to an autopsy report revealed Friday." Which, yeah, that'll do it. Compounded with Mays' heart disease, blowing rails probably wasn't the best move for the wildly successful pitchman. Vicodin, Oxycodone, Xanax, Valium, benzoylecgonine, and temazepam were also found in his system.

Creator of Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink, and The Breakfast Club, director/writer John Hughes, died today. According to TMZ, "Hughes suffered [a] heart attack while taking a morning walk during a trip to NYC to visit family." He was only 59.

Kristian Valmadrid, a 29-year-old Roseville man, according to CBS 5, walked into the path of a big-rig on eastbound Interstate Highway 80 Wednesday morning, just south of the Carquinez Bridge," resulting in his immediate death. The incident happened a little after midnight this morning. CHP officers, who pulled over to check out a "green Toyota 4Runner parked on the right shoulder of eastbound Highway 80 near Pomona Street," spotted the man who quickly and fatally darted off into traffic. No word yet as to whether it was a suicide or bizarre accident.

While swimming in the water at Montara State Beach on Monday afternoon, a mother and daughter were yanked in by a riptide. Several people, in fact, got caught up in the rip current. Acccording to CBS 5, "four adults were treated at the scene and two childen were taken bby helicopter to Stanford Hospital." An unidentified mother and daughter team, however, were later pronounced dead. Yikes. Also, here's a riptide reminder: Rip currents can be recogzined by “unusually calm waters, caused by the channel of water flowing out." The water color might also appear different from the surrounding water next to it. You should ALWAYS check for any possible rip currents before dashing off into the warter. If you find yourself caught in a rip current, you should fight it by swimming sideways, parallel to the beach, until you have reached safer, calmer waters . Read more about riptides at Wikipedia. UPDATE: The mother and daughter have been identified as Romila Higgins, 41, and Indali Higgins, 5, of Walnut Creek.

Billy Mays, 50, famously loud and bearded informmercial spokesman, died this morning. (Egads! First Ed, Farrah, Jackson, now this. Too much to bear, folks.) According to reports, Mays finished wrapping up an Oxiclean commercial in Philadelphia the other day, and returned home to Florida. He was found dead early this morning in his Tampa, Florida home by his wife. No word yet on his exact cause of death. But Deborah, Mays' wife, released the following statement, "Although Billy lived a public life, we don't anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times."

According to Twitter reports, "Mourn MJ SF-style tonight: Michael Jackson trike ride and flash dance. Starts @ 7 at Dolores Park. Winds down @ Ferry Plaza at 8:30."

According to TMZ, "Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back."

The father who left his infant in the car at the El Cerrito Bart station last week will not be charged with a crime. Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett said Monday, "It was readily apparent from the beginning: It was a tragic accident, and the only real issue was that the father made a terrible mistake -- one he will undoubtedly carry with him for the rest of his life. There was no benefit we can see to issuing a prosecution."

A four-month-old baby boy, Everett Carey, who was found unresponsive after being left alone for hours in his father's vehicle at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station for hours, died at the Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo. While reports on exactly what happened are sketchy, it seems Everett's father, who normally dropped Everett off at a babysitter in the morning before driving to the station, forgot. Or something. And left him inside the car. Later than afternoon, the mother went to the station to look for the baby, finding his limp body in the car. According to reports, "an autopsy is scheduled for today by the Contra Costa County coroner, and findings such as the cause of death and the results of toxicology tests will be taken into account."

Joseph Loudon, 16, was found unconscious at an Orinda house party over the holiday weekend, ultimately dying from alcohol poisoning. In addition to being cute, white, God-fearing and popular at his high school, Loudon also played on the track/field and football teams. So, naturally, this was one of top stories on the morning news today -- but still, all things considered, a tragic story. Anyway, his 18-year-old buddy, Patrick Gabrielli, was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors. That is to say, Gabrielli, who has since posted bail, bought Loudon the fatal liquor.

The California Department of Public Health announced today that 13 California hospitals were slammed with "administrative penalties of $25,000 per violation" due to said hospitals failed to comply with licensing requirements that caused serious injury or death to patients. According to a CDPH report, the University of California, San Francisco Medical Centerwas fined after "[t]he hospital failed to ensure the safety of a patient by not establishing a safe and effective system for the administration of high-risk medications. This is the facility’s second administrative penalty." Other hospitals penalized were John Muir Medical Center in Concord (who "failed to follow its own policies and procedures for restraining a patient for radiological exams") and the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance (where a patient had to "undergo a second surgery to remove a retained foreign object," resulting in their death).

Caltrain has claimed the life of another pedestrian in two weeks. This morning, a man was struck at the San Mateo station. According to reports, "he collision happened at 6:43 a.m. when southbound train No. 206 struck the man who Caltrain characterized as a trespasser on the tracks near 25th Avenue." It is not yet know whether or not this most recent fatality was an accident or suicide. Northbound and southbound trains are operating at normal speed, but you can "expect delays of 45-60 minutes" today. If you recall, a man and a woman, in separate incidents, sat down on the tracks at the San Antonio station earlier this month.

Described as a "generous woman who often gave money to the homeless," Helen Canafax, 63, was on the 600 block of Folsom Street on April 10 when an unidentified man swiped her purse and hit her to the ground. Canafax, according to reports "sustained serious injuries in the fall and died on April 26." The suspect at-large is reportedly "a black man between 35 and 40," weighing in somewhere around 180 pounds The suspect was wearing "a gray beanie-style cap, a red or black sweatshirt and dark-colored pants" on the day of the attack. If you know of any leads in this case, you are urged to call SFPD homicide inspectors Richard Martin or John Cleary at 415-553-1145, or the tip line at 415-575-4444.

CBS 5's Mike Sugarman reports on a thrilling way to support your favorite baseball team while turning into worm food. Christy Vault, appropriately located in Colma, is now offering this final bit of sports memorabilia, a San Francisco Giants casket. Perfect for almost any dearly departed's rotting corpse, Christy Vault also offers urns emblazoned with the Giants logo, for those of you who prefer to hit the ovens when your final inning is up.

Late last night the body of deceased Shell refinery employee William Maddock, who had been with the company for 22 years, was found inside a water holding tank on plant property in Martinez. The discovery followed an extensive search of the grounds after Maddock failed to check in at the end of his graveyard shift Wednesday morning. He was last seen at around 2:30 Wednesday morning, and was finally found at 11PM. The cause of death is still unknown. Sounds like natural causes, but the paranoid should feel free to piece together a conspiracy theory involving terrorism and petroleum resources.

Shortly before 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a charter bus carrying French tourists overturned on a Highway 101 overpass in Soledad, about 100 miles southeast of San Francisco, killing at least 5 and injuring over a dozen passengers. According to California Highway Patrol spokesman Brian Wiest, the accident ejected four passengers from the vehicle, "sending one over the side of the road and onto railroad tracks 60 to 70 feet below. "It's a tragedy," Wiest said. "It's certainly one of worst I've seen in a long time." KTVU reports that a total of "36 people had been on board, including 34 French tourists, one Canadian tour guide and an American driver." The group was driving down to Southern California, heading to LAX to fly back to France. Three patients were whisked away to Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, who are still in critical condition. One, a 52-year-old man, later died, according to hospital spokeswoman Adrienne Laurent. No word yet on what exactly caused the accident.

Sixteen-year-old John Tagobo of South San Francisco died following a skateboarding accident in South San Francisco, according to reports. The accident occurred a little before 3 p.m. on Sunday while Tagobo was riding on Joseph and Ida in a residential neighborhood. It seems he "lost control of his skateboard, collided with a curb and was thrown about 15 feet into shrubbery." After managing to call his family, he was rushed to the hospital. He died of internal injuries the next day. Tagobo wasn't wearing any safety gear or helmet at the time of the crash, which is par for the course for skateboarders.

It's gross. And it comes on a day full of news about child rape and Twitter suicide. Anyway, CBS5 has the story, and the details are few, but it's likely the animals were already dead and washed up on the beach when they were beheaded. If anyone has any leads or knows any future serial killers who live in Monterey, a group called Defenders of Wildlife is offering a $2,000 reward.

Following on the heels of gay porn star Jack Wrangler's death, (in)famous porn star Marilyn Chambers died Sunday. She was 56. According to reports, her 17-year-old daughter found her body at her northern Los Angeles County home. Chambers, who once modeled for Ivory, "was among the first porn superstars when the stag films of the 1940s through 1960s gave way to the more polished sex films of the 1970s." Some of her well-known titles include Behind the Green Door (1972), Insatiable (1980), and The Marilyn Diaries (1990). She also starred in David Cronenberg's low-budget Rabid, but was unable to make a successful transition to mainstream films.

A pedestrian was killed early this morning at around 4:30 a.m. after being struck while walking on a connector ramp between two highways. According to reports, the fatal incident happened on a connector ramp between northbound Interstate Highway 280 and southbound state Highway 1. The unidentified victim died at the scene.

Although some reports have claimed otherwise, gays in Iraq are being "executed in batches," convicted for the crime of homosexuality. According to Reuters, "Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum...and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown on a perceived spread of homosexuality." These killings reportedly happened last Thursday. Before the executions -- wherein hundreds of Iraqi gays are currently eligible, if you will, for execution -- sermons "condemning homosexuality were read at the last two Friday prayer gatherings in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum of some 2 million people." A Sadr City Shi'ite cleric official noted, "this (homosexuality) has spread because of the absence of the Mehdi Army, the spread of sexual films and satellite television and a lack of government surveillance."

If activists, like Michael Petrelis and other Castro frequenters, really wanted to focus attention on a part of the world where gays are suffering, maybe they could take a look at Iraq. Because this is, for lack of a better word, depressing. It's unreal but all too real. Iraqi gays will be "executed in batches" this week, convicted of the crime of being queer. UK Gay News has the details.

A 45-year-old Gilroy man was struck and killed by a 29-year-old Woodside man's BMW early this morning on I-280. According to reports, the unidentified man might have been "a passenger on a tour bus that had stopped nearby" who walked directly into on coming traffic. After being stuck by the initial vehicle, the victim was pummeled by a few other cars as well. But this is all speculative, we should point out, as the CHP has yet to figure it all out yet. If you have information about this morning's gruesome accident, contact Officer Mike Sarabia at 650-=369-6261, ext. 332.

Less vacation time and longer work weeks for the same pay might be in store for SF Chronicle employees after the paper and the California Media Workers Guild reached a tentative deal yesterday. But wait, there's more! In an effort to keep Chron and SFGate running after this month's somewhat shocking news, "employees who are laid off or accept buyouts will receive two weeks of pay per year of service totaling a maximum of one year's salary and health benefits for the length of the severance package," according to reports. While this entire deal could very well have Terry Schiavo written all over it, today must be a relief to the 150-plus employees who were "bracing for about 150 job cuts." Congratulations, guys.

The body of a 44-year-old man was discovered inside a bathroom at the San Francisco Bloomingdale's complex on Friday. Patrick Callahan, who was homeless, "was found in the morning when employees opened the store," according to AP. While the exact cause of death has yet to be revealed, "investigators are also trying to determine if Callahan broke into the store and hid out in the bathroom, or if he was there before the store closed and fell unconscious." A Bloomingdale's spokeswoman described Callahan's death as "very sad."