Two local situations today just made me comment...
I don't know if there is paranormal involvment (ie astrology), or just some random events that just happen to all coincide (my bet) to make Murphy's law a reality.

Man Dies After Head-On Collision With Granddaughter
1 Dead In Crash; Officials Worry Bridge May Collapse
Boom truck hits (and weakens) bridge.
Bridge has 6 inch gas line which ruptures.
Debris causes car to swerve into oncoming traffic.
Head on collision with Semi carrying propane which ruptures.
230 homes evacuated.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

When I was a kid, I could flip and catch a coin so that it would turn up whichever side I'd place it on my thumb. Not quite every time, but well beyond what chance should predict. It took months of practice (and I've since lost the ability), but I'd learned to rig the canonically random event.

Above the quantum level of physics, everything is deterministic. It may defy (however thoroughly) our ability to predict it, but even the random coin toss is reliably deterministic if you can somehow control (or monitor) enough variables.

Luck is nothing more than coincidence taken personally. Let's look at the first of your articles:

The US Bureau of Transportation Statistics claims that passenger car fatalities have trended downward since 1975, from 25,000 deaths to a bit over 17,000.

Okay. How often do we hear about Granddads taking out their own granddaughters in separate cars. It's pretty rare, right? (I remember seeing another story like that, but it was more than a few years back.) If it were common, newspapers wouldn't be reporting it.

So what else is exceptionally rare? Winning the lottery. And yet, someone wins the lottery nearly every week. Why? Lots and lots of trials. Given enough trials, a low-probability event will happen.

Well, this week, among the many thousands of unremarkable road fatalities, this time family members took each other out in separate cars, and it was sufficiently "human interest" for the media to pick up on it.

Your second story is pretty much the same thing. Lots of accidents happen. Most of the time, they're limited to one or two vehicles with relatively benign damage to their surroundings. And then given enough trials, you get something a bit more dramatic/serious. A bus going off a cliff. A 50-car pileup. A senile old man blundering onto a major freeway and (somehow) coming out without a scratch. An accident involving pressurized gas transportation that damages infrastructure.

What makes this a phenomenon is that it's a variant of confirmation bias. In experimental terms, it manifests in recording the hits and ignoring the misses. A (frequently deliberate) error you see constantly in parapsychology "research" and the "alternatives to science/reality" markets.

In society, it's a hard-to-avoid consequence of a commercial implementation of journalism. We'd much rather buy a paper that tells us about interesting things than one that reports all facts, no matter how dry, obvious, or repetitive. The sensational publications are the ones that survive.

These articles are an interesting set of coincidences (you're definitely betting right about that), but they're ultimately nothing more than coincidences.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

I definately agree with your post... the astrology part was more tongue in cheek, because I'm sure many people will take that route.

After all... It's a full Mars isn't it? Wouldn't that mean more rare coincidences than a full moon?

Anyway...yes the relatives colliding have been in the news (I remotely remember husband/wife, bro/sis, twins)
But; these usually include some common situation that they are already reacting to that causes them to be on a common path to begin with. I'm not sure if this one is that way.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Besides the headline that sounds like a cliche....
Woman Drowns In Rain Barrel
The reporter doesn't say the reason that the whole unfortunate chain of events started. Why did they feel the need to thaw the barrel?

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Didn't want the freezing water to crack the barrel? Or perhapse they use the water? I don't know.

After I read that story this morning, I spent like 10 minutes on google images trying to find a good picture of a 55 gallon barrel with a person standing next to it so I could get a good idea of size. I can't figure out how she managed to fall in, or how she wasn't able to get out.

A) She would have had to fall in with her hands at her sides, which doesn't make sense if she was reaching in to retrieve the kitten.
B) Why was a 2/3rds-full 55 gallon bucket "tied to the door so that it wouldn't tip over"? It's not like they're light.

I don't know, I just really can't picture it.

ETA: Do you happen to know her age? I don't think the story I read stated it.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

did you find one?
...nor unstable, especially if it's frozen and not sloshing around.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Just sounds very fishey to me. And yes, I found a picture. It didn't even come up to the mans waist. Granted, he looked like he was tall, and barrels come in different shapes, but regardless, more than half one's body should be out, giving you weight you can use to lift yourself back out.

The article didn't make it sound like there's any suspicion, so I wonder if it had to do with her size/physical shape/whatever. I just can't imagine it.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

Similar to juggling knives and other dangerous to catch objects. With enough practice, a consistent enough throw is developed to ensure not getting stuck.

Actually, it is the same as throwing knives or a hatchet at a target. The thrower just develops a consistent motion, so that the rotations are always the same, and knows the business end will be good for hurting someone at 10', 16', 22' and every 6 feet thereafter (as an example).

I remember as a young-en thinking those people were really amazing in their ability to stick the hatchet every time no matter the distance. Turns out they can stick it almost every time at certain specific distances.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

As an aside, I can do that. I have to look away when I place the coin on my thumb, or I'll know how it'll come out.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

This one sounds like a liability lawsuit in the making.
I-4 Brush Fire Blamed For 50-Car Pileup, 3 Dead
I'd like to know more about this controlled burn. Why was it being done at night? What were the expected conditions?
I'm sure we'll get more details as the story unfolds, they are concentrating on the traffic mess right now.

But; the pictures are kind of strange. It looks like smoke above a snow covered ground. But the "snow" is fog.
I wonder why some of the smoke pictures acutally looks like a contrail instead of a "plume".

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

The article says "Solano said Hill apparently was standing on something to reach down for the kitten when she slid in. Detectives said the kitten is alive, and most likely climbed out over Hill."

OK, she's dead, and the kitten is out. My question: how did they know the kitten was in the barrel? The kitten was wet? There are paw marks up her back? The husband said so? Were they afraid the kitten would tip over the barrel, and that's why they tied it up? How much insurance are we talking?