Man crushed to death as cow falls through roof and lands on him

A man died after being crushed by a cow as he slept. Joao Maria de Souza was killed by the animal as he was lying in his bed, though his wife, lying beside him, miraculously survived.

The 45-year-old died after the one-tonne cow plunged through the roof of a house in Brazil. The animal had been grazing on a hillside behind their home in Caratinga, southeastern Brazil, when it stepped onto the asbestos roof, causing it to give way completely.

Joao was sound asleep beside his wife when, without warning, the farm animal came crashing through their roof, landing directly on top of their bed. The cow had apparently escaped from a nearby farm before wandering onto the roof, which sits on a steep incline.

It then plummeted eight feet, through their house and onto the side of the bed where the man lay sleeping. The 45-year-old was rushed to the hospital with a fractured leg, whilst his wife escaped injury.

However, despite appearing to be in stable condition and alert enough to talk to his family, he passed away in hospital the next day. His cause of death was subsequently attributed to internal bleeding caused by the crushing impact.

The Civil Police of Vale do Rio Doce launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his unusual death. Following the tragic incident in 2013, his mother, Maria de Souza, told Brazil’s Super Canal TV channel: “I didn’t bring my son up to be killed by a falling cow.

“He nearly died when he was two and got meningitis, but I worked hard to buy medicines for him, and he survived. And now he’s lying in his bed and gets crushed to death by a cow. There’s no justice in the world.”

This marked the third such incident in the locality within a three-year period – though no previous fatalities had resulted from the wandering livestock. Whilst Mr De Souza initially appeared uninjured, his family believe the extended wait for medical assessment contributed to his unexpected death.

His brother-in-law, Carlos Correa, told Brazil’s Hoje em Dia newspaper: “Being crushed by a cow in your bed is the last way you expect to leave this earth. But in my view it wasn’t the cow that killed our João, it was the unacceptable time he spent waiting to be examined,” euronews reports.

The cow itself emerged from the incident without injury. Earlier incidents in Caratinga saw varying outcomes – the first caused no harm as the property was empty when it occurred.

During the second event at a separate residence, an infant and young child narrowly avoided serious injury. The youngsters had been sleeping adjacent to where the cow crashed through the ceiling, in what witnesses later called a ‘miraculous escape’.

The district where these accidents took place features steep terrain and has long been associated with cattle rearing and dairy production.