
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 26, 1995                   TAG: 9510260061
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

MAN'S DEATH IN HIS CAR GOES UNNNOTICED FOR HOURS

A man died in his car with its door open and his feet resting on the curb and remained there for more than four hours, apparently unnoticed on the city street during the afternoon rush.

Richard W. Niner, 65, suffered a heart attack Oct. 10 in his 1968 Ford station wagon shortly after 4 p.m. in a bustling district of office towers and high-rise apartments less than a block from police headquarters.

He was not found until 8:22 p.m.

``We were kind of surprised at the way he just sat there,'' said Niner's son, Timothy. ``He was out there for four hours before someone walked a half-block to the police station to report it.''

When Timothy Niner and other family members asked a detective later where the car was parked, the detective stepped out the station's side door and pointed to the spot, Niner said Wednesday.

No one knows exactly how long Niner lay half in and half out of the back seat of the car, his legs sprawled onto the curb and his torso twisted facing the front seat.

Niner may have been asleep or unconscious for some time before he died. Paramedics reported that the body still had a trace of warmth, Arlington Police spokesman Tom Bell said.

Police note that while thousands of cars pass nearby on a typical afternoon, the street where Niner died carries only local traffic, and officers going to and from police headquarters use a different route.

Anyone who noticed Niner probably thought he was asleep, Bell said.

Niner, a retired truck driver, had parallel parked his car outside his lawyer's office and made a 3 p.m. appointment there. The lawyer told Niner's family that Niner left at 4 p.m. that day. He apparently never made it to his next stop, a nearby bank. He was clutching deposit slips when he died, his son said.

by CNB