Hacker News Reader

Comment by xrd | Hacker News Reader

A "fun fact" my son loves: more people are killed by vending machines than sharks each year [1]. Perhaps it murdered someone and went into hiding?

1. https://medium.com/purple-theory/vending-machines-vs-sharks-...

View on HN

Another bit of trivia I always found interesting... approximately zero people per year die in elevator crashes. That basically isn't a real thing that happens.

Of the very small number of people who are killed by elevators, they are almost all elevator technicians / maintenance people who are in the shaft doing repairs and have some kind of accident.

I don't think that is true:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elevator_accidents

https://www.elcosh.org/document/1232/d000397/Deaths+and+Inju...

here is a tragic death of a child in the US, 2021: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/07/14/elevator-...

here is a tragic death of a child in the US, 2021

That's a very different type of injury to what the parent comment was referring to: "elevator crashes", where the car falls to the bottom of the shaft.

The list of elevator accidents is mostly composed of ones involving construction, freight, and mine-shaft elevators.

"elevator crashes", where the car falls to the bottom of the shaft.

Yes, that was the kind of incident I was mainly commenting on.

The list of elevator accidents is mostly composed of ones involving construction, freight, and mine-shaft elevators.

I probably should have made a point to qualify what I said above as "passenger elevators in office type buildings" or something. Definitely did not mean to include mine-shafts / construction site elevators, etc.

That said, I don't have the original reference handy, but I recall that where I read that original statistic was a credible source.

In any event, even including the mine shafts, elevators are an order of magnitude less dangerous than stairs. And way less dangerous than cars.

This elevator crashed down the shaft crushing this poor guy in the door. So sad...

https://nypost.com/2019/08/22/video-shows-moment-man-crushed...

Sure…it’s fun. But also feels disingenuous in a way. People are rocking the machines in an attempt to get a free soda are killed. This is compared against unprovoked shark attacks. Probably a fairer comparison if you only count unprovoked vending machine deaths too then.

Sigh, ruining fun facts. ;(

That implies that there are a lot of provoked shark attacks

I bet the sum of provoked and unprovoked shark attacks is still less than the unprovoked and provoked soda machine deaths ;)

Overworked and underpaid shark attacks

Perfect solution: soda machines can pay the sharks to increase attacks thus reducing the prominence of their own murderous agenda

It's so simple it's brilliant. Who has all the money and is being robbed? Vending machines. They want to fight back but keep getting attacked in the liberal AND conservative media. Who has all the teeth but no money? Sharks.

I don't think there's such a thing as "unprovoked shark attacks". First, it's called an encounter now, not an attack, and that change is relevant to the question at hand. When sharks hurt people, I think it is typically the people that have invaded the home of the shark (and thus provoked it) and not the other way around (and thus unprovoked). There are no shark attacks when humans are minding their own business on land.

That's the same as saying a shark will attack, any place it can get to you at!

Next you'll be saying all bear attacks are due to me not standing in the ocean.

You know, animals have personalities too. Some are just asshats. I knew a dog that was an asshat. Smug bastard. Could see it in his eyes. Doesn't mean all dogs are!

I've been advocating for years that they need a vending machine leash law. It's all fun and games until one goes in for a hug.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com