Student Loses Grip on Barbell, Dies

Authorities say a 22-year-old man has died after a barbell slipped from his grasp and crushed his neck at a gym in central Iowa, the AP reports. The accident occurred Monday morning at Elite Edge Transformation Center in Ankeny, about 10 miles north of Des Moines. A spokesperson for the center, Mark Yontz, said Thursday that Kyle Thomson was bench-pressing 315 pounds when the barbell slipped. Ankeny Fire chief James Clack says the barbell fell on Thomson's neck. Clack says an ambulance took Thomson to a Des Moines hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Yontz says there were spotters watching Thomson on the bench. Iowa State University spokesperson Annette Hacker says Thomson was a student there. (More accidental death stories.)