A 37-year-old woman is dead after her car rolled up an embankment...

au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/8013666 … hits-roof/
A 37-year-old woman [color=red]is dead after her car rolled up an embankment and became airborne before crashing on to the roof of a house.

Is this sentence fine as it is? Is “A 37-year-old woman [color=darkblue]died” correct?

If you think about it, whether the sentence is correct or not is obvious. Did she come back to life after that or is she still dead?

The driver came back to life!?

Yes, they always do.

[color=red]is is a simple present tense form and [color=blue]rolled is a past tense form, so I think that [color=green]is dead should have been [color=darkblue]died. Am I wrong?

You’re wrong. I mean, you are right about the tenses, but your conclusion is wrong. The car rolled yesterday; she is dead today.

Thank you, MM.
The accident occurred yesterday and the article was written on the same day. However, if the article had been written today, would the sentence have been “A 37-year-old woman [color=green]died…”?

Could be, or could be ‘is dead’. They have the same meaning.

I see that Mister Micawber resolved this… but as I seem to have caused you confusion:
I asked the question regarding whether the woman came back to life, not made a statement.
If she did, she is alive.
If she didn’t (which is obviously the case), she is dead (as the words in bold in my question indicate).

If someone dies then that person is dead. It doesn’t matter whether they died seconds ago or years ago.

They are both fine… she died and she is dead.

The difference is that one is more normal language “she died” and one is more often used in newspaper journalism speak - “she is dead”.

It sounds more dramatic, more ‘newsworthy’ to say it that way. That’s the only difference.

Not true to my ear, Thredder. Where did you get that idea?

Hi Thredder,

I don’t think that’s correct either. There is no such difference.

Ok, well you guys are the experts,
…just that Mr M, in #8 agrees that there is essentially no difference in meaning, and it comes from a news report that seems to use ‘journospeak’ so the choice between ‘she died’ and ‘she is dead’ would seem to be deliberate. To me ‘is dead’ is more dramatic and striking than ‘died’ …

Never mind. I hope Tofu has her answer.