Death by vending machine

Common card · No. 379840

Rocking or tilting vending machines has been known to cause serious injury or death if the heavy machines fall over. Users may rock machines in order to obtain free products, release stuck products, or obtain change. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found in a 1995 study that at least 37 deaths and 113 injuries had occurred due to falling vending machines from 1978 to 1995. This resulted in a voluntary campaign from vending machine manufacturers to warn that rocking or tilting the machines could cause serious injury or death, including placing warning labels on all machines. The U.S. military started putting warning labels on machines in the late 1980s after a number of incidents on military installations. The vast majority of injuries and deaths have happened to men. The argument that death by a vending machine is more likely to occur than something like winning the Powerball lottery has drawn more attention to these unusual deaths. One 2012 report states that the odds of winning...

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