Famous people who have died in car crashes...

Celebrity Automobile Accidents:
Famous people who have died in car crashes


http://www.celebratetoday.com/autoceleb.html



"April 10, 1992: Loud-mouth comedian Sam Kinison (38) was killed in a head-on car crash in Needles, California. His newlywed wife Malika Souiri was also critically injured. The driver of the other car was a 17-year-old drunk."

" September 30, 1955: Actor and cultural icon James Dean died of a broken neck when his Porsche Spyder hit a Ford car trying to make a left turn on a California highway. The driver of the Ford had only minor injuries and Dean's passenger, mechanic Rolf Wutherich, was thrown clear of the car."

"November 24, 1982: In 1982, Barack Obama, Sr. (46), father of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, Jr., died in an alcohol-related accident after driving his car off the road and crashing. A few months earlier, Obama lost both legs in an automobile accident, and subsequently lost his job."


Other Serious Traffic Incidents....

"January 3, 1996: After being alerted by his wife Pam Dawber, actor Mark Harmon saved two teenagers who were trapped inside a burning Jeep Cherokee in Los Angeles, California. The Cherokee had crashed into a tree, flipped over, and burst into flames outside the couple's home. A neighbor was calling the Fire Department when Harmon ran out with a sledghammer and broke the windows."

"May 2, 1999: Actress Lois Hamilton (57), who appeared on Three's Company and The Ropers, was involved in a head-on collision while driving under the influence (cocaine, diet pills, Prozac, Xanax, and other drugs). Lois broke her jaw, several vertebrae, and her hip. Four others were injured in the crash. Later, on December 23rd, she flew to Rio de Janeiro, locked herself in a room at the Sheraton Hotel, swallowed a handful of pills, slipped a plastic bag over her head, and committed suicide."

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Originally Posted by 4Gas$

[B]C
Pam Dawber,

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Is from Michigan

From Wikipedia...

While in Biloxi, Mississippi, for an engagement at the Gus Stevens Supper Club, Mansfield stayed at the Cabana Courtyard Apartments, which were near the supper club. After a June 28, 1967 evening engagement, Mansfield, Brody, and their driver, Ronnie Harrison, along with the actress' children Miklós, Zoltán, and Mariska, set out in Stevens' 1966 Buick Electra 225 for New Orleans, where Mansfield was to appear in an early morning television interview. Prior to leaving Biloxi, the party made a stop at the home of Rupert and Edna O'Neal, a family that lived nearby. After a late dinner with the O'Neals, during which the last photographs of Ms. Mansfield were taken, the party set out for New Orleans. On June 29 at approximately 2:25 a.m., on U.S. Highway 90, the car crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer that had slowed because of a truck spraying mosquito fogger. The automobile struck the rear of the semi tractor and went under it. Riding in the front seat, the adults were killed instantly. The children in the rear survived with minor injuries.

Rumors that Mansfield was decapitated are untrue, though she did suffer severe head trauma. This urban legend was spawned by the appearance in police photographs of a crashed automobile with its top virtually sheared off, and what resembles a blonde-haired head tangled in the car's smashed windshield. It is believed that this was either a wig that Mansfield was wearing or was her actual hair and scalp. The death certificate stated that the immediate cause of Mansfield's death was a "crushed skull with avulsion of cranium and brain." Following her death, the NHTSA began requiring an underride guard, a strong bar made of steel tubing, to be installed on all tractor-trailers. This bar is also known as a Mansfield bar, and on occasions as a DOT bar.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...fieldBuick.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ar-crash-1.jpg

From Wikipedia...

On September 30, 1955, Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wütherich set off from Competition Motors, where they had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder that morning for a sports car race at Salinas, California. Dean originally intended to trailer the Porsche to the meeting point at Salinas, behind his new Ford Country Squire station wagon, crewed by Hickman and photographer Sanford Roth, who was planning a photo story of Dean at the races. At the last minute, Dean drove the Spyder, having decided he needed more time to familiarize himself with the car. At 3:30 p.m., Dean was ticketed in Mettler Station, Kern County, for driving 65 mph (105 km/h) in a 55 mph (89 km/h) zone. The driver of the Ford was ticketed for driving 20 mph (32 km/h) over the limit, as the speed limit for all vehicles towing a trailer was 45 mph (72 km/h). Later, having left the Ford far behind, they stopped at Blackwells Corner in Lost Hills for fuel and met up with fellow racer Lance Reventlow.

Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) near Cholame, California when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed, moved to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane. The two cars hit almost head on. According to a story in the October 1, 2005 edition of the Los Angeles Times, California Highway Patrol officer Ron Nelson and his partner had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles when they were called to the scene of the accident, where they saw an unconscious but heavily breathing Dean being placed into an ambulance. Wütherich had been thrown from the car, but survived with a broken jaw and other injuries. Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59 p.m. by the attending emergency room physician. His last known words, uttered right before impact, were said to have been: "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us."

Junction of highways 46 and 41 as it looks todayAccording to the postmortem report, it is believed that Dean's head struck the front grill of the other car. This impact and the accompanying crash resulted in Dean suffering a broken neck, plus multiple fractures of the jaw, arms and legs, as well as massive internal injuries. He is believed to have died around ten minutes after the crash upon examination in the ambulance. For years, there were rumors a photographer friend, traveling to the race in another car, took photos of Dean trapped in the car dead or dying. Such photos never surfaced in public.

Contrary to reports of Dean's speeding, which persisted decades after his death, Nelson said "the wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed was more like 55 mph (88 km/h)." Turnupseed received a gashed forehead and bruised nose and was not cited by police for the accident. He was interviewed by the Tulare Advance-Register newspaper immediately following the crash, saying that he had not seen Dean's car approaching, but after that, refused to ever again speak publicly about the accident. He went on to own and operate an electrical contracting business and died of lung cancer in 1995. Wütherich died in a road accident in Germany in 1981 after surviving several suicide attempts.

While completing Giant, and to promote Rebel Without a Cause, Dean filmed a short interview with actor Gig Young for an episode of Warner Bros. Presents in which Dean, instead of saying the popular phrase "The life you save may be your own" instead ad-libbed "The life you might save might be mine."

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...Dean_crash.jpg

How quickly we forget these dear ones, blotted so tragically from life's page.

The thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to - a car careening off the side of a mountain, a car selfishly parking itself on atop a bomb, ad nauseam.

Check out http://www.dpsinfo.com/dps/ - I find it a recurrent source of encouragement.

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Originally Posted by Swifster

From Wikipedia...

On September 30, 1955, Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wütherich set off from Competition Motors, where they had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder that morning for a sports car race at Salinas, California. Dean originally intended to trailer the Porsche to the meeting point at Salinas, behind his new Ford Country Squire station wagon, crewed by Hickman and photographer Sanford Roth, who was planning a photo story of Dean at the races. At the last minute, Dean drove the Spyder, having decided he needed more time to familiarize himself with the car. At 3:30 p.m., Dean was ticketed in Mettler Station, Kern County, for driving 65 mph (105 km/h) in a 55 mph (89 km/h) zone. The driver of the Ford was ticketed for driving 20 mph (32 km/h) over the limit, as the speed limit for all vehicles towing a trailer was 45 mph (72 km/h). Later, having left the Ford far behind, they stopped at Blackwells Corner in Lost Hills for fuel and met up with fellow racer Lance Reventlow.

Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) near Cholame, California when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed, moved to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane. The two cars hit almost head on. According to a story in the October 1, 2005 edition of the Los Angeles Times, California Highway Patrol officer Ron Nelson and his partner had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles when they were called to the scene of the accident, where they saw an unconscious but heavily breathing Dean being placed into an ambulance. Wütherich had been thrown from the car, but survived with a broken jaw and other injuries. Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59 p.m. by the attending emergency room physician. His last known words, uttered right before impact, were said to have been: "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us."

Junction of highways 46 and 41 as it looks todayAccording to the postmortem report, it is believed that Dean's head struck the front grill of the other car. This impact and the accompanying crash resulted in Dean suffering a broken neck, plus multiple fractures of the jaw, arms and legs, as well as massive internal injuries. He is believed to have died around ten minutes after the crash upon examination in the ambulance. For years, there were rumors a photographer friend, traveling to the race in another car, took photos of Dean trapped in the car dead or dying. Such photos never surfaced in public.

Contrary to reports of Dean's speeding, which persisted decades after his death, Nelson said "the wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed was more like 55 mph (88 km/h)." Turnupseed received a gashed forehead and bruised nose and was not cited by police for the accident. He was interviewed by the Tulare Advance-Register newspaper immediately following the crash, saying that he had not seen Dean's car approaching, but after that, refused to ever again speak publicly about the accident. He went on to own and operate an electrical contracting business and died of lung cancer in 1995. Wütherich died in a road accident in Germany in 1981 after surviving several suicide attempts.

While completing Giant, and to promote Rebel Without a Cause, Dean filmed a short interview with actor Gig Young for an episode of Warner Bros. Presents in which Dean, instead of saying the popular phrase "The life you save may be your own" instead ad-libbed "The life you might save might be mine."

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...Dean_crash.jpg

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I don't know if it is true, but I read that the wrecked car was put on
display at schools (to scare / warn students) and then ended up
being stolen and to this day the cars whereabouts is still unknown.

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Originally Posted by 4Gas$

I don't know if it is true, but I read that the wrecked car was put on
display at schools (to scare / warn students) and then ended up
being stolen and to this day the cars whereabouts is still unknown.

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As far as I know, I believe that to be true. The Mansfield car has changed hands a few times and has been on display at various times. Kinison should have walked away from his accident. All he had to do was click the belt (not to absolve the drunk kid who hit him).

From Wikipedia...

Comedian Ernie Kovacs was killed in an automobile accident in Los Angeles in the early morning hours of January 13, 1962. After meeting his wife, Edie Adams at a baby shower given by the Billy Wilders for Milton Berle and his wife, who had recently adopted a 3 year old boy, the couple left in separate cars. Kovacs had been working for much of the evening before the party. Minutes later, during an unusual southern California rainstorm, the comedian lost control of his Chevrolet Corvair station wagon while turning fast. Crashing into a power pole at the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Boulevards, he was thrown halfway out the passenger side, dying almost instantly from chest and head injuries.

Kovacs may have lost control of the car while trying to light a cigar. A photographer managed to arrive moments later, and morbid images of Kovacs in death appeared in newspapers across the United States. An unlit cigar lay on the pavement, inches from his outstretched arm. Years later, in a documentary about Kovacs, Edie Adams described telephoning the police impatiently when she learned of the crash. An official cupped his hand over the receiver, saying to a colleague, "It's Mrs. Kovacs, he's on his way to the coroner - what should I tell her?" With that, Edie Adams's fears were confirmed, and she became inconsolable. Jack Lemmon, who also attended the Berle party, identified Kovacs' body at the morgue when Adams was too distraught to do it.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...er/kovacs1.jpg

On November 10, 1985, Pelle Lindbergh drove his customized Porsche 930 Turbo into a wall in front of a Somerdale, New Jersey, elementary school, fatally injuring himself and also injuring two others. Lindbergh died the next day, November 11. The medical staff at the hospital kept him on life support until his father arrived from Sweden to say his final goodbye, signing the papers to end life support. At the time, he was returning from the Coliseum, the former practice center for the Flyers located in Voorhees Township. Law enforcement disclosed that he was intoxicated at the time of the accident, with a blood alcohol content level of .24%, well above .10%, which was New Jersey's legal limit at the time. Lindbergh topped the fan voting for the 1986 NHL All-Star Game. It would mark the first time that a player was chosen posthumously for an all-star team in a major North American team sport. Sean Taylor's selection to the 2008 Pro Bowl was the only other time this has happened. Although his number 31 was never officially retired by the Flyers, no Flyer has worn the number 31 since Lindbergh's death.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...1267480503.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...rghPorsche.jpg

Some really good reads here.

R.I.P. Falco.... died when he backed out of his driveway after a party and was hit by a bus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U990QFyvN3M

Very interesting thread.

Nick

NBA Deaths

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Eddie Griffin died as a result of a car crash on August 17, 2007 at about 1:30 a.m.[6] Houston police said in a report that Griffin ignored a railroad warning and went through a barrier before striking a moving train. The resulting fire burned Griffin's SUV and the side of a railcar carrying plastic granules.[6] Griffin's body was badly burned and there was no initial identification. Dental records later revealed the man was Griffin. He had more than three times the legal alcohol limit in his system when he crashed, according to an autopsy report. The Harris County Medical Examiner's office said the 25-year-old Griffin died of "multiple blunt force injuries." The medical examiner's office performed tests on Griffin's bile and blood from his heart and liver and determined his blood-alcohol level was 0.26. The legal limit in Texas is 0.08. Tests found no traces of cocaine, barbiturates or any other narcotics.[7] Former Timberwolves coach Dwane Casey said he had not talked to Griffin in five or six months, but he knew that Griffin was spending the summer trying to get back in shape to play in Europe the next season.[8] He was buried in Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia.[9] He is survived by a 3-year-old daughter named Amaree.[10

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Malik Sealy

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Sealy was killed in St. Louis Park, Minnesota on May 20, 2000.[2] He was driving home from a birthday celebration for teammate and best friend Kevin Garnett in downtown Minneapolis when his sport utility vehicle was struck by a pickup truck traveling the wrong way down the highway.[2] The truck was driven by 43-year-old Souksangouane Phengsene who survived the accident with head and chest injuries. Neither driver was wearing a seatbelt. Phengsene's airbag deployed, but Sealy's SUV did not have one.[2]

Blood tests indicated that at the time of the accident, Phengsene had been driving drunk; his blood alcohol content was 0.19%. The legal limit in Minnesota at the time was 0.1%. He pled guilty to a charge of vehicular manslaughter, was given a four-year prison term, and was released from prison in 2003.[3]

Although his plea bargain in Sealy's death had not included a conviction specifically on the charge of driving while intoxicated, Phengsene had been convicted of drunken driving in a separate incident three years prior to his fatal collision with Sealy. After his release from prison, Phengsene was convicted of drunken driving in a new incident in 2006. After serving a year in a workhouse on that conviction, he was freed and then was arrested and convicted of drunken driving yet again in 2008. This latest conviction garnered him an eight-year prison sentence.[4]

In Sealy's honor, the Minnesota Timberwolves retired his #2 jersey. [1] Kevin Garnett also paid a tribute to him, having written "2MALIK" in the inside of the tongue on the Adidas Garnett 3 shoes. Sealy was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, the same cemetery as the slain civil rights leader for whom he was named.

Sealy is mentioned by rapper AZ in the song The Flyest from the Nas album Stillmatic with the lyrics "Feel me, I'm loved like the great late Malik Sealy."

Sealy is also mentioned by rap duo Gang Starr in their song "Eulogy" from the album "The Ownerz" with the lyrics "Korey Stringer, Malik Sealy, Boostin Kev, Edward Star, Nina Simone, Ann Jones "Rest in peace".

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Bobby Phills

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On January 12, 2000, while a member of the Charlotte Hornets, Phills was killed in an automobile accident in Charlotte, North Carolina. Phills was traveling behind teammate David Wesley at over 75 mph (121 km/h) when his Porsche spun and crossed into oncoming traffic. It hit another car, which in turn was struck in the rear by a minivan.[1] The drivers of the other two vehicles recovered, while Phills was pronounced dead at the scene.[1] A police report said Phills and Wesley were driving "in an erratic, reckless, careless, in a negligent or aggressive manner."[2] Wesley later was convicted of reckless driving after being cleared of a racing charge.[1] Phills is survived by his parents, his wife Kendall, and three children.

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Drazen Petrovic! wow

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In the summer of 1993, after his best NBA season and the Nets' first-round elimination by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Petrović traveled to Poland, where the Croatian national team was playing a qualification tournament for the 1993 Eurobasket. He was contemplating departure from the Nets, disappointed with tension between himself and, to his belief, envious teammates, as well as the fact that the Nets had not yet extended his contract. He told American reporters that the lack of recognition in the league had him also considering leaving the NBA completely and playing club basketball in Greece; there were at least two Greek clubs ready to offer Petrović three-year contracts worth US$ 7.5 million.[14] It was rumored that Petrović verbally agreed on terms with Panathinaikos BC; these rumors gave rise to the story of PAO's owner, Pavlos Giannakopoulos, allegedly offering the Nets' star a signed contract with blank salary terms, which became a part of Petrović's legend. For personal reasons, Petrović decided to return to Croatia in a private vehicle.

Petrović died as a passenger in a car involved in a traffic accident on the rain-drenched Autobahn 9 at Denkendorf, near Ingolstadt, in the German state of Bavaria, at approximately 17:20 on June 7, 1993, four and a half months before his 29th birthday.

According to the report of the Ingolstadt police, that afternoon a truck broke through the Autobahn median; the driver was trying to avoid a collision with a private vehicle in his own lane and lost control of the truck, which crashed through the highway barrier and finally came to a stop, only to block all three lanes of traffic in the Munich direction. It was seconds later that the VW Golf carrying a sleeping Petrović in the passenger seat crashed into the truck, killing only him, and leaving the driver - Klara Szalantzy, a German model and female basketball player with whom Petrović was romantically involved - and Hilal Edebal, a female Turkish basketball player, with grave injuries.[14][20] It was established that visibility on the road was very poor and that Petrović was not wearing a seatbelt.[1]

Petrović's tomb at Mirogoj had instantly become a sanctuary for his compatriots. The Cibona stadium was renamed the Dražen Petrović Basketball Hall on October 4, 1993, and the city of Zagreb dedicated a square in his name. The Nets retired his number 3 jersey on November 11, 1993. Since 1994, the MVP award at the McDonald's Championship has borne the name Drazen Petrovic Trophy. On April 29, 1995, a statue commemorating Petrović's significance to the world of sports was erected in front of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, thus making him only the second athlete to receive this honor. On July 9, 2001, having defeated Patrick Rafter to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon, Croatian tennis player Goran Ivanišević dedicated the win to his late friend Petrović;[21] Ivanišević wore Petrović's Nets jersey amidst the 100,000 strong crowd celebrating his victory in Split.[1] Petrović was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2006, the 13th anniversary of Petrović's death was marked with the opening of the Dražen Petrović Memorial Center in Zagreb, a grand temple dedicated to Petrović's person and achievements, with ten themed galleries of multimedia content outlining his entire career. In 2007, he was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame.[22]

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Wwf jyd.

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ritter died on june 2, 1998, in a single-car accident on interstate 20 near forest, mississippi, as he was returning home from his daughter latoya's high school graduation in wadesboro, north carolina. The apparent cause was falling asleep at the wheel. Ritter's body was laid in an unmarked grave in wadesboro, north carolina.[2]

ritter had stayed active in professional wrestling until the time of his death, appearing at extreme championship wrestling's 1998 wrestlepalooza event, just one month prior. He was the founder of the dog pound stable in independent mid-south promotion, based in southern louisiana. Among ritter's last contributions to professional wrestling was the training of former wwf wrestlers rodney mack and jazz.

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I dont understand some of them...like Ennis Cosby, shot while changing a tire. That wasnt an auto accident, that was a shooting. It had nothing to do with him being behind the wheel of his car.

sorry, here is the list :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...road_accidents

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Originally Posted by Tin

I dont understand some of them...like Ennis Cosby, shot while changing a tire. That wasnt an auto accident, that was a shooting. It had nothing to do with him being behind the wheel of his car.

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If a car was part of the crime scene it's listed on this site.

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Originally Posted by mdhmi

If a car was part of the crime scene it's listed on this site.

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Indeed, but its titled as Celebrity Automobile Accidents, not Celebrity Roadside Shootings. I dont believe getting shot changing a tire qualifies as an automobile accident. :dunno: