Unnatural deaths

In the small town of Laurel, Montana, population 5,523 in 1987, the death rate stayed about the same as the national average, 9.28 per 1,000, but none of the 52 deaths that year were natural deaths. Mrs. B, the mayor’s secretary, listed the causes as car accidents, motorcycle and four-wheeler accidents, being hit while crossing the road, slipping while getting out the tub, freezing, falling off roofs, being hit by falling tree limbs, accidental suffocation (“an infant”), murder, drug overdoses, smoke inhalation, mushroom poisoning, drownings (“We had three drownings”), being kicked by horses, one death during childbirth, skiing accidents, slipping on ice, falling off cliffs, falling down stairs, hunting accidents, and suicides. Mrs. B said, “We’ve just been unlucky, except there were no deaths from natural causes. That was lucky.”