Chances are, old age or a chronic condition is what will get you, so don’t worry so much about these unlikely, but potential, killers lurking all around.
Icicles
Ever hear that old riddle about how the “perfect” murder weapon is an icicle because it melts, thus destroying all evidence of its existence? Those sharp shards of ice really can kill. And they kill about 15 people in the U.S. each and every year.
Champagne corks
Cheers? Champagne is a drink of celebration, but this is nothing to celebrate. A cork holding the liquid inside the bottle propels out a high velocity, so get out of the way. Flying corks end the lives of 20 people annually.
Lint
Lots of things can cause fires in homes, from untended candles to poor wiring to the highly flammable fibrous build-up in a clothes dryer’s lint trap. Fires related to improperly emptied ones claim the lives of five people each year.
Death comes in many forms—sometimes peaceful, sometimes tragic, sometimes dramatic . . . and at other times just plain weird. In History’s Weirdest Deaths, you’ll read the true stories of more than a hundred people who met their end in a bizarre fashion.
Electric blankets
Blankets can smother, and electricity can deliver too much heat. That makes an electric blanket a death trap. Sure, they can keep you toasty on a cold winter’s night, but if they get too hot, they can lead to heat stroke. Two Americans die each year on average from fatally high body temperatures caused by electric blankets.
Coconuts
They’re essentially rocks covered in fuzz, so it’s remarkable that anybody ever figured out that a coconut is filled with delicious fruit, milk, and water. But like we said, they’re rocks, and a falling one can do some damage. Coconuts plummeting from trees kill 150 people each year.
Ants
About one person a week dies because of ants — most of them are sustaining bites from aggressive, venomous fire ants.
Vending machines
The snacks inside of vending machines aren’t terribly healthy, but they’re not as immediately dangerous as the vending machines themselves. On average, a little over two Americans die each year when they try to retrieve an item that got stuck in a vending machine…only for the whole thing to fall on top of them and crush something important.
Sharks
Thanks to movies like Jaws, Jaws 2: The Revenge, and Sharknado, we generally believe that sharks are bloodthirsty killing machines. Actually, they leave humans alone. Only around 100 shark attacks are reported worldwide every year, and on average, a relatively few 15 percent are fatal.
Find more weird stories about the weirdest ways people died in History’s Weirdest Deaths, available now from Portable Press.