Coroner: Kennedy Died Instantly

The fatal injuries Michael L. Kennedy suffered when he hit a tree while skiing New Year’s Eve were “instantaneous and incapacitating,” according to an autopsy report. Time magazine also reports that the night before Kennedy was killed while playing football on skis, a senior official at the company that runs the resort had asked his mother, Ethel, to try to stop the family from playing the dangerous game. The 39-year-old son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy fractured his skull and cervical vertebrae and severed his spinal cord, according to the report. Two sets of drug tests found no trace of alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, marijuana, cocaine or opium in Kennedy’s system, the report said.