A Return To The Blog: Soccer Referee Is A Dangerous Job

It has been a crazy summer and fall this year, that’s for sure. There’s been a lot for me to catch up on. SeaWorld and the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau continues to make news after the park appealed an OSHA decision limiting trainer interaction with orca whales. The tragic death of Cirque du Soleil acrobat Sarah Guillot-Guyard in a Las Vegas show drew attention to safety issues with harnesses. Wing walker Jane Wicker and her pilot Charlie Schwenker died while preforming at an airshow June 22 in Ohio. There have been several racing related accidents that resulted in drivers’ deaths, and certainly more stories that I’ve missed on my brief attempt at scanning the headlines.

The one story that grabbed my attention the most, however, was the news in July of a soccer game in Brazil, where referee Otavio da Silva and player Josenir dos Santos Abreu got into an altercation during a match. Referee Da Silva apparently decided that the best way to end the argument was to stab Abreu, even though his family, fans and teammates were watching the scene play out. Abreu eventually died of his wound. Fans decided to punish da Silva and in a textbook case of mob mentality brutally killed the referee. 

A Deadspin article states, “They reportedly tied up the referee, beat him, stoned him, lynched him, and then quartered him. When they finished, they cut off his head and placed it on a stake in the center of the field.” There was an attempt at finding and arresting the ones who killed da Silva, but as of the last reports I have heard only one arrest was made. The article also provides a link to a video of what appears to be hospital staff trying to reassemble da Silva’s body like a jigsaw puzzle. I have been known to link to brutal videos from this blog before, but I’m going to leave it out in this case. I have the stomach for it, but I’m not sure too many other people do. It is truly stomach-churning, so be careful, dear reader, if you decided to look for it.

That story makes the other major soccer ref death seem tame by comparison. A Utah teenage soccer player punched referee Ricardo Portillo during a game in Salt Lake City on April 27. Portillo fell into a coma and died May 4. The teen has been charged with manslaughter, and due to the fact that he was 17 at the time, could be charged as an adult.

Morosini, Muamba, And More From The World Of Football

It's been a strange couple of weeks for football fans and players around the world (or soccer fans, if you are from the U.S. like me). The pinnacle being the death on-field of Italian Piermario Morosini who died yesterday of an apparent heart-related condition at age 25. This after the near death of 23-year-old Zaire-born Fabrice Muamba on March 17 of what seems at this time to be a similar condition. Muamba seems to be improving although he is not out of the hospital. Reports are that he may receive a defibrillator to keep something like this from happening again.

Meanwhile, a match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur made headlines today for the wrong reasons. Before the two competed at Wembley, the crowd was to have a minute of silence in respect for both Morosini and in remembrance of the 96 fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster on April, 15, 1989. However, a small group of Chelsea fans decided to interrupt the silence and be disrespectful.

The Hillsborough disaster was an incident in the audience section in which more people were trying to enter into Hillsborough Stadium on the side assigned to Liverpool fans than the section could hold. As people outside heard the cheering from inside the stadium to signify the start of the match, the ones trying to get in formed a crush that caused many people inside to crush against each other and the fence. Police mismanagement of the crisis played a part as well. The whole disaster is much more complicated than this brief synopsis. Perhaps, soon, when I have more time, I'll look into writing up the whole ordeal.

Extra Reading: Legends Revealed Blogs

I'm easily distracted, in case my absence from this blog hasn't made that clear. So I'm out in the internet looking for inspiration to write another blog entry, and I come across a series of blogs by Brian Cronin about urban legends and myths. His most extensive is Comic Book Legends Revealed, but he works on other subjects like sports and entertainment. These entries are like popcorn: Once one has popped up, the information just keeps popping and popping, and I have almost spent the entire winter reading through his blogs.

That's how I found his entries on soccer player Goran Tunjic, who was penalized for dropping dead on the field during a play. I also found Cronin's debunking of part of the myth surrounding the death of audience member Meredith Hunter at a Rolling Stones concert. Hunter's death at the hands of Hell's Angels security guards is tragic and real, but like most stories, it gets more dramatic upon each retelling, which causes some misinformation.

Needless to say, these are the types of stories I like to work on for my own blog, so I decided to share them here. Check out these and Cronin's other blogs. It will give you something to do while I motivate myself into another blog entry.

West Virginia Air Show Crash, Sept. 17, 2011

After Reno's air crash, another heartbreaking accident happened Saturday at an airshow in Martinsburg, WV. The pilot was the only fatality in this accident. Again, video of the accident is already showing up on YouTube.

Video From Reno Air Race Crash: Sept. 16, 2011

As of this writing, there are reports that the pilot and at least 8 spectators have died in the Reno, Nevada air race crash that is all over the news. Video of the crash, from several different angles, is showing up all over YouTube. Here are just a couple of them:

Close up video of the impact:

HD video of the crash

Video Of The Station Nightclub Fire

Need to see just how quickly a nightclub can go from a party to a death trap? This video was taken by WPRI-TV cameraman Brian Butler. It's visual documentation of the Feb. 20, 2003 Station fire that claimed the lives of 100 people, including White Lion guitarist Ty Longley. Warning: Disturbing images lie within.

How To Survive A Nightclub Fire

In doing some research into deaths at nightclubs, I’ve stumbled upon some disturbing trends concerning fires that too often kill both performers and audience members. People who enjoy their nightclubs may want to keep these things in mind, since many pop up in more than one disaster

1. Don’t lock the fire exits. Many nightclub owners and managers seem to hate their emergency exits and either lock or chain them to keep people from getting in the club without paying. The majority of deadly nightclub fires have this element. In the case of the Rhythm Club, windows hand been boarded up to keep anyone from being able to hear the music outside, and in the case of the Ozone Disco Club, a new building had magically sprung up to block the fire exits.

2. Don’t use pyrotechnics if the building can’t handle it.. The Lame Horse fire in Russia, Republica Cromanon fire in Argentina, the Wuwang fire in China, and The Station fire that took the life of Great White lead guitarist Ty Longley were all started by pyrotechnics.

3. Don’t rush the front door. Unless, of course, it truly is the closet door to you. It seems to be human nature to try to go out the same door you came in. What seems to happen in a nightclub fire is that people rush the door, cause a stampede or otherwise block the door, causing many deaths from trampling and trapping others inside to be killed by the smoke and flames. Provided the fire exits actually work, try heading out one of them.