[UA] The Wrath of Coin-ops...

[Chris Cooper]

hey all.

A player in my UA game sent this to me.

It sounds like the Godwalker of the Tactical
Mechanist/Mechanical Tactician has been busy.

Chris.

Are Vending Machines Deadlier than Sharks?

Vending machines kill, sharks don't, according to a
July 4 Reuters headline.
The article quotes an L.A. lifeguard who asserts that
in spite of the ubiquitous fear of shark attacks in
this country, 'more people are killed in the United
States each year by vending machines,' which smacks of
an urban legend but probably isn't.

I say 'probably' only because statistics relating to
vending machine deaths aren't tallied quite as
assiduously as shark attack fatalities, so it's hard
to assess the data. But if we look at 1995, for
example - the most recent year for which I was able to
find an accounting of deaths due to vending machine
tipovers - two people died as a result of being
crushed by falling soda machines in the U.S., as
compared to zero shark-related deaths in the
same twelve-month period.

Moreover, according to the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission there were 37 known vending machine
fatalities between 1978 and 1995, for an average of
2.18 deaths per year. Over the past decade there were
a total of six recorded shark attack fatalities in the
U.S., for an average of .6 deaths per year. Ergo,
barring a drastic reduction in the frequency of
vending machine accidents since 1995, vending machines
are indeed more deadly than sharks by a factor of
almost four. 


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