New York driver chains neck to pole, hits gas pedal, gets decapitated

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 51-year-old man decapitated himself in New York's Bronx borough by chaining his neck to a pole, getting into his car and stomping on the gas, police said on Tuesday. The gory scene in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx, where the man's head and body lay on the street after the incident on Monday, was under investigation as an apparent suicide. Police said Tomas Rivera, of Port Jervis, New York, about 70 miles northwest of New York City, went to Longfellow Avenue in the Bronx at about 9:20 a.m. and wrapped a chain around a pole. He then entered his white Honda Pilot and put the other end of the chain around his neck, according to police. Once inside the car, he hit the gas pedal, causing the chain to yank off his head, which flew back onto the street. The car continued down the street until it hit a parked car, and the impact ejected Rivera's body onto the street. Police said it was unclear whether he had left a suicide note. (Reporting by Michael Y. Park; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Mohammad Zargham)