Jalopnik: Death

UK Businessman Decapitates Self With Aston Martin DB7

Ray Wert — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:00:00 EDT

An inquest into the death of Welsh gym owner Gerald Mellin has found the businessman decapitated himself in his Aston Martin DB7 after an argument with his estranged wife. According to the court, Mellin tied one end of a rope to a tree, climbed into his DB7 and wrapped the other end around his neck. Mellin then jammed the pedal down on the $173,000 car, driving into a busy main road, forcing other drivers to watch his horrific death. Police found his headless body still in the driving seat and his head on the back seat. But what caused Millen to kill himself with such heinous vehicular methodology?

Well, according to Mrs Mellin:

"We had split up and been to court. He wanted me to walk away from the farmhouse and the business and leave me with nothing...so we met in a pub after a court hearing and he started having a tantrum. As we made our way back to our cars he opened the boot and said: "There's my rope, that's what I'm going to kill myself with." I told him to grow up and give me the rope. But he just laughed."

Apparently, the court also ruled the day before his death that Mrs Mellin would be awarded an extra £100 ($192.00) a week in maintenance from her husband. Umm, talk about a low bar to set for suicide, right? [Daily Mail, Daily Star]

Toyota Camry Hybrid Engineer Worked To Death

Mark Arnold — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:15:00 EDT

The death of a Japanese Toyota engineer in January 2006 has now been attributed to working too many hours according to an official ruling this past month. The 45-year-old man, lead engineer on the Toyota Camry Hybrid, was reportedly working an average of 80 hours overtime per month during the several months before his death from ischemic heart disease. The official ruling allows his family to collect benefits from his work insurance, and Toyota is saying they will work to improve monitoring of the health of their workers. Let's hope they mean it, because this occurence, known as "karoshi," has steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

It's especially tough to see someone work themselves to death in a white-collar job as opposed to going out doing what they love. We're not saying engineers don't enjoy what they do, but it's a shame to see a life wasted creating a boring mid-size sedan that gets slightly better fuel economy. We imagine that somewhere, Eric Stromer is laying a single rose on his Camry Hybrid. [Yahoo News](image)

Mercury Brand To Die In Blaze Of Ignominious Neglect By 2012

Ray Wert — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:40:00 EDT

The dirty little secret at Ford is that Mercury's already dead, it's just that nobody can actually say it. Ford's in a tough enough fight on the eastern front without having to deal with a rear-attack in the west from legions of Lincoln-Mercury dealers pissed off they'll be losing half their sales channel. We understand that of course, but it doesn't mean we haven't done our damnedest to try to suss out the reality from every executive we've been able to get in front of. Whether it was at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show with Ford CEO Alan Mulally's "Mercury blands" slip-of-the-tongue or Mark Fields being unable to explain to us what Mercury was beyond "a Ford...that's a little different." Even at the Detroit Auto Show this year, we asked where the Mercury product was. We've been asking Ford for over two years about the status of the automaker's close-to-the-sun brand. We even asked you whether Mercury should survive after the Detroit News reported we should hear a gameplan for Mercury by the fourth quarter of this year.

Now it appears even Jill Wagner can't even save the brand, as the folks at Edmunds Inside Line have decided it's time to call time-of-death earlier than Ford. They've gone ahead and declared Mercury to be dead as a doorknob by 2012 — because product still hasn't appeared. Sure, they've got a newly-redesigned Mercury Milan expected for either the 2009 or 2010 model year, but beyond that? Not so much. It'll be sad to see another American brand wither away and die from the AIDS-like disease of poor product planning choices, platform prostitution and a horrifyingly bad economy, but frankly, hardly anyone will notice these days. And if we're really going to be frank, we're thinking there may still be another brand or two moving in the direction of death's doorway to join them. [via Edmunds Inside Line]

Details, Driver Name Emerge In Tragic Altamont LeMons Crash

Ray Wert — Sun, 11 May 2008 13:52:52 EDT

While Murilee and the rest of Team V8olvo musters on with thoughts still on yesterday's tragedy at the 24 Hours of Lemons race at Altamont, we here at the Jalopnik Detroit bureau are lending a helping hand with coverage. We've just received news from the Gulf 39 team on the identity of their teammate behind the wheel of the Volvo 242 Turbo along with a little more detail on the preliminary on-scene investigation by the California Highway Patrol. We'd indicated to the team we only wanted to know the name after they'd had the opportunity to notify family, so although we're assuming that's been done already, we still wanted to make sure to include the name after the fold of this post to make certain it's been taken care of already. With that in mind — the short, but full, e-mail after the jump.

The CHP reported that the car was in working order. No mechanical failure seems to have appeared...the impact was estimated at 50 to 60 MPH...Cort Summerfield was 46 years old (02/01/1961)

Again, our deepest sympathies go out to Mr. Summerfield's family, friends and teammates and we fervently hope the accident doesn't harm what until this point was one of the great examples of grassroots motorsports in action.

Tragic Death Reported At Altamont 24 Hours of LeMons Race

Ray Wert — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:03:39 EDT

We all saw the report from Murilee just under an hour ago, and now we're hearing from numerous sources that the 24 Hours of LeMons race has taken a tragic turn. Our sources tell us the driver of the Volvo 242 Turbo in Gulf Oil colors (pictured above before the race, and below from the Thunderhill LeMons race last year) has died. We're waiting on more as we hear it from team V8olvo as well as others at the Altamont 24 Hours of LeMons. If this news ends up being true, our prayers, thoughts and well-wishes go out to the family, friends and teammates. All we do know for sure is that racing has been halted for the day and will supposedly resume again tomorrow. Although if it is true, that may just be wishful thinking. Updated below the jump — and with new photos below thanks to Mark Pitts.

MOST RECENT UPDATE: 01:27 PM EST - 05/11/2008

UPDATE: If you remember, the 242 Turbo was actually the inspiration for the choice of the V8olvo.

UPDATE #2: The V8olvo happened to be right behind the 242 Turbo when it crashed. We're told it went into the wall at speed which made our team think perhaps something happened before the crash to the driver.

UPDATE #3: We have confirmation from a source with close ties to the team that there was indeed a fatality. We are withholding the name and other identifying characteristics until we're given the OK from the family and team.

UPDATE #4: The folks over at Bryan's Message Board have been chronicling the adventures of "Team Porcubimmer" — as such, a few of the forum fan-boys (and girls) were in the stands at Altamont. Here's one of their recaps of what happened:

he shot forward and sped up right before the turn, and went head on into the wall. didn't break, didn't turn...i didn't see anyone bump him. best guess is that he passed out and his foot just acted like a lead weight... but that's just based on the fact that he blasted forward so suddenly and made a beeline for the wall...took them forever to get a fucking tarp up. i was up in the stands with my dad, and he was really upset that it took them so long to do that.

Yes, of course it's speculation — but the rest of the account helps provide more verification for what we've been told was seen out at the track.

UPDATE #5: We've just received the following e-mail from a team member of the victim of the crash with his name, age and a little bit more detail on what may have happened:

The CHP reported that the car was in working order. No mechanical failure seems to have appeared...the impact was estimated at 50 to 60 MPH...Cort Summerfield was 46 years old (02/01/1961)

Ayrton Senna's Last Lap

Mark Arnold — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:00:00 EDT

It was 14 years ago to the day that this world lost Ayrton Senna.

Certainly one of the most talented drivers ever, he won the F1 World Championship in '88, '90, and '91. More importantly, he was a great man respected by everyone who ever met him, and millions of fans who never had the chance. This was the last lap of his life before his fatal accident.

Claus Luthe, BMW Designer, Dead At 75

Travis Hudson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:45:00 EDT

The man responsible for a lot of the design trends BMW produced in the 70s and 80s, Claus Luthe, is dead at the age of 75. Luthe is known for the refining the design of the 3, 5 and 7 series BMW as well as designing the 1967 NSU Ro8o. The New York Times did a decent job burying the other reason Luthe was so well known—you know, how he was convicted of murdering his own son in 1990—until the very end of the obituary.

The NSU Ro8o helped influence modern vehicle design and is the direct ancestor of the Volkswagen K70 which later evolved into the Passat. So what's the protocol in a situation like this? The man was a pioneer of auto design, but then again, he's a convicted murderer. We'll just stay neutral about what that all means. Not that we want to stay neutral, we're just more interested in hearing what you have to say. [NY Times via NY Press] (Image)

Dodge Nitro Kills Dog, Makes Us Cry A Little

Ray Wert — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:30:00 EDT

We think we know where Dodge is going with this little ~~commercial~~ viral video we're assuming was made for the Euro market showing the Dodge Nitro electrocuting a dog that gets too close to those chrome rims. We think they're trying to separate themselves as the Chrysler Group's "boy brand." But our only issue is — should a brand all about the message of "Grab Life," be taking it away? Just askin'...and plus, isn't the dog getting it in the end kinda anticlimactic? We still cried a little, but you know, still?

Uberraschung! Du Bist Tot! Hypermagnified Roadkill

Davey G. Johnson — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:00:00 EST

Chris Paukert, often simply referred to as "The Exclaimer," hipped us to this bit of oddball morbidity over at Deutschland's der Spiegel. It's a collection of highly-magnified photographs of insects who met their end courtesy of a motor vehicle. Good fodder for the next anti-car PETA campaign too, we suppose. – Davey G. Johnson

Fotoserie "Scheibenkleister": T dliche Verkehrsunf lle [Spiegel Online]

Related:
Claus Ettenberger, Teutonic Butterfly Sadist [Internal]