Another Stingray Claims Victim
In a bizarre freak accident, Judy Kay Zagorski of Michigan was killed when a spotted eagle ray leapt into the boat she was on, striking her in the face and knocking her down. Ms Zagorski struck her head when she fell, which appears to have caused the fatal injury since the ray’s stingers did not penetrate her. Or perhaps death was caused from the damage of the ray itself striking her; it weighed 75lb (34kg) — an autopsy report has not yet been completed.
Zagorski and family members were vacationing in Florida, and the accident occurred while they were boating in the Florida Keys, near the town of Marathon. This is the second sting-ray death, and third incident involving sting rays, reported in the past few years. The well-known Australian naturalist and TV personality Steve Irwin was killed while diving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef when a sting-ray barb pierced his heart in September 2006. In October of that same year an 81-year-old Florida man narrowly escaped death when a ray jumped into the boat he was in, and stung him in the chest.