Posted on 08/20/2013 3:39:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles County Coroner Tuesday classified journalist Michael Hastings’ death as accidental.
Hastings, 33, died in the early morning hours of June 20 when his Mercedes crashed into a tree at a high rate of speed in Hancock Park.
The coroner listed traumatic injuries sustained in the accident as his cause of death.
Toxicology tests also discovered that a “small amount of Methamphetamine and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was detected. Levels indicate prior, but not recent usage,” the report stated.
Hastings, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, won a George Polk Award for magazine reporting for his cover article “The Runaway General” in 2010.
At the time of his death, the award-winning writer believed he was being investigated by the FBI.
I still am confused about why the engine exploded. I keep reading the MB cars never do this....
Thanks for the pings; post; thread. Very interesting. Coroner? Another gatekeeper for TPTB?
This is all Bull Crap.
One would think that Mercedes would be vociferously defending the safety of their cars.
Seriously: Would YOU contemplate purchasing such a death trap that engulfed the victim in flames in a low-speed front-end impact that didn’t even damage the tree?
http://adriaen22.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/michael-hastings-death-by-mercedes/
“One would think that Mercedes would be vociferously defending the safety of their cars.
Seriously: Would YOU contemplate purchasing such a death trap that engulfed the victim in flames in a low-speed front-end impact that didn’t even damage the tree?”
To amend my own comments, some memorial pics posted online of ‘tree in question’ are from the opposite side. The damage to car & tree suggest an impact >60mph. Prior to this thread I had only watched the video from the car-cam that supposedly showed Hastings’ car traveling down the same road seconds before impact after running a red light; he was NOT going >60mph at that time but, having now seen the Pizzaria cctv footage, I estimate he was going 75mph upon passing the Pizzaria Mozza at Melrose, not being chased and drove straight into the tree with no braking.
Without respect to all the conspiracy theories, I would still think Mercedes would want to dispel any safety concerns about their cars; I’ve never seen a newer car become so violently engulfed in flames save for failure of key safety equipment, namely the inertial fuel cutoff safety switch, which would have cut the flow of fuel and should have prevented the fast/immediate inferno.
Hastings ‘should’ have survived the impact, save for the fire and assuming he was strapped in (without respect to injuries leading to post-crash mortality).
I’m on it just as soon as I finish my dissertation on whether mortar holds bricks together or apart.
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