There are no documented cases of people dying specifically from pine cones. While pine cones themselves are not harmful, they can pose a risk of injury if they fall from trees or cause slips and falls. However, such incidents are extremely rare and do not typically result in fatalities. Overall, the risk associated with pine cones is minimal.
Typically trees will have more seeds or pine cones when the tree is stressed. Stress can come from many sorces such as drought etc. This is natures way of re-seeding should the tree die.
What you are seeing in upper part of the tree is the female cone. It is a large hardened, dark brown cone that is mostly referred to as a pine cone. The smaller, inconspicuous male cone (or pollen cone) grows either singly or in clusters, depending on the species. They are usually found on the lower branches. The male cones wither and die shortly after releasing their pollen in the spring.
Benjamin Pine died in 1873.
Pine Taiapa died in 1972.
Pine Leaf died in 1854.
Seymour Pine died in 2010.
David Andrew Pine died in 1970.
Robert Edge Pine died in 1790.
Samuel H. Pine died in 1904.
L. G. Pine died in 1987.
Ruth Pine Furniss died in 1957.
Ummmm.......11?