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While we try not to think about it too much, our mortality is often just around the corner. Humans underestimate the dangers to themselves all the time, often putting themselves at unnecessary risk. 

So one internet user wanted to know about the simple and generally avoidable risks people have subjected themselves to, often with lethal results. Netizens gave some insightful and often frightening tales of deaths that could be avoided. So read through and make sure to take some notes, it just might save your life. Remember to upvote your favorites and comment your own stories and suggestions. 

#1

Basing test dummies on the proportions of the average man. Many women and children have died in car crashes because the seatbelt is up too high across their body or the airbag hits at the wrong angle because it was designed to expand to accommodate a taller person. Just wish SOMEONE figured out not everyone is the same size BEFORE people died

Beetlejuice1800 Report

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Jeremy James
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm 5'4" (162cm). I have to drive with the seat so close to the wheel that, if the airbag deploys, I'm at least getting a broken nose.

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#2

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives There's a super famous example which got made into a film eventually I think called open water

But the original story was a yacht was found sailing adrift with a baby aboard and no crew anywhere to be seen. No signs of panic were found. The baby was dehydrated but otherwise fine.

Eventually it was assumed that whilst at sea they went for a swim. The sides of yacht stick out of water quite high in place but on most boats the stern is lowered so you can climb into and out of the yacht from a tender (small dingy). This yacht was different and had a ladder lowered from the back.

This was either up or missing. But they couldnt get back on the boat and eventually drowned or were attacked by predators.

Now I never jump in without thinking about this. Because you can't ever garuntee the person behind won't do the same.

Imagine trying everything to get back to your screaming baby mere feet away and just being out of reach. It'd get dark. The wind might pick up and carry the boat away.

Those final moment would be agony from such a simple mistake

Danither , Artem Verbo Report

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#3

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Not using a f*****g turn signal.

UncleBathTime , Krzysztof Hepner Report

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Olivia Lisbon
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also fun - using a turn signal but not following through with the indicated action.

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While often we think of life-threatening situations as somewhat dramatic, involving at least a car, if not a natural disaster, the sad truth is that in most cases, it’s our body malfunctioning that gets us. In the developed world, heart disease, often manifesting as a heart attack, is one of the most common killers. In general, a healthy lifestyle is the most important, preventative measure, but this often comes too late, so it’s vital that people know and recognize the symptoms of an attack. 

The first thing most people will jump to is chest pains. These are indicators of a heart attack, so please don’t ignore any random spasms of discomfort in this area. Pain in the arms and shoulder are symptoms as well, so be vigilant. If you are relatively healthy and have no other indicators, it could be nothing, but a heart attack isn’t one of those things to leave up to chance.

#4

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Go to hospital after almost drowning!!!! Water can still be in your lungs and kill u later!!

EdgyBrokeArtist , Blake Cheek Report

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Xenon
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it's called secondary drowning. It not something a lot of people are aware of.

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#5

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Baby in the backseat.

I’m in childcare and I’ll do some insane things to remember there’s a baby back there. Take my shoes off, put my phone back there, dirty diaper as a reminder.

People forget. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Mom, nanny, father, nurse, firefighter. It happens.

And yet there’s always someone who says “I’d never forget my baby”. And every year babies die because of it.

lighthousek , Erik Mclean Report

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StrangeOne
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It definitely does happen when you have a lot on your mind and you're trying to remember everything, or just get lost in thought and feel like you're running a routine errand you don't normally have your baby with you. I think the daycare worker is being smart. Doesn't hurt anyone to make yourself not forget. That makes you self-aware and caring about the little ones that are in your care. Why would anyone shame anyone for taking preventative actions?!

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#6

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Mao's idea to get rid of sparrows.

In short, Chinas great leader Mao had calculated that sparrows eat grain and if china got rid of them, they would have more food. So they did indeed decimate the sparrow population.

They did not consider that sparrows eat lots of insects aswell, which started to thrive. Including locusts. The locusts ate the grain, famine, between 16 and 30 million people died.

When he recognized his mistake, he asked the soviet union for help and they secretly shipped sparrows to china.

This is a bit a stretch though, lots of factors led to the famine, lots of mistakes were made. But of all of them, this was probably the most obviously stupid one.

ir_blues , P A Report

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Love the Whippets
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mao did a few things that caused famine. Just look up "the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to improve production (I think of steel or iron?) C'mon, let's all build a smelter on our back yard! When leaders do stupid things lots of people die.

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But chances are most of you already know about heart attacks. However, did you know that the symptoms for men and women can be quite different? This is the unfortunate result of medical samples that aren't balanced by gender. Unexplained tiredness and nausea are more common signs for women but often go overlooked until it's too late. So understanding the symptoms and risk factors of a leading cause of death seems like a no-brainer, yet many people just don’t.

#7

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives The most common cause of quadriplegia is diving into water without checking the depth of the water. Always check the water depth before you jump.

WoodsAreHome , Simone Mascellari 🇮🇹 Report

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StrangeOne
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you dive high enough, the water alone can cause serious injury upon impact. For a good split second it's like hitting a solid surface. I'm pretty adventurist and love thrills. One thing that's not on my bucket list is cliff diving. Does anyone check the depth and incline of the cliff before jumping off?

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#8

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Not wearing a seatbelt

Ok_Distance9511 , RDNE Stock project Report

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Henry Myers
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don’t get why people don’t do this. It’s so easy and comes at no cost to you.

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#9

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Not looking both ways when crossing a street

Irovior , Gigi Report

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Xenon
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And eyes glued to a screen, probably with ear buds in.

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While less likely, people often underestimate the weight and risk factors of dying from a large, falling object. While modern fridges are quite stable, vending machines often aren’t due to the number of items inside that will vary over time. Of course, vending machines, notoriously, will end up with items stuck. So people will vent their frustration, unbalancing the machine that then falls and crushes the unlucky person.  

#10

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Leaving the stranded vehicle on the road in winter and trying to walk to get help. It happens in rural parts of our province once or twice a year and they find the body a few days later. They get disoriented and freeze.

Regina_Runner , Oleksandr Pidvalnyi Report

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Tucker Cahooter
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Similarly, getting stranded in the Outback and leaving your car to find help and dying from thirst in the oppressive heat

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#11

A man in Toronto wanted to show off to his colleagues about the new “shatter-proof” glass that was installed in their high-rise office, so he ran at the window full speed and threw all of his weight into it.

He fell to his death, because the entire window pane popped out.

numbersev Report

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Xenon
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If I remember correctly, he was a lawyer who had done this demonstration multiple times, thus weakening the frame.

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#12

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Long, long ago I was on the crew of a submarine older than me. We went into the shipyard; one of the planned jobs was to install some new equipment that required a hull penetration. One Friday afternoon a shipyard worker drilled a 1/8 inch pilot hole through the hull, intending to come back on Monday to finish the job. The job got cancelled, he got reassigned, and the hole remained. It was covered with duct tape to keep dirt out.

The painters went ahead and sprayed over the tape.

How deep can a piece of duct tape + paint hold on a dive? About 218 feet. Before you ask, yes, we survived.

BobT21 , Darren Halstead Report

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Olivia Lisbon
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’m not sure why, but this seems like an odd thing to do last thing on a Friday. “Five already? Time flies when you’re drilling one critical, potentially lethal hole. I’ll definitely come back to this Monday, even though apparently projects routinely get randomly cancelled”

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While it seems straight out of a comedy or the Final Destination movies, vending machines cause less than a hundred deaths a year. Interestingly, the vast majority of these cases are caused by men, who seem to believe that violence against the machine will help them get their soda or candy bar. Still, the odds of dying to a vending machine are quite low, unless you take it upon yourself to fight one. Just remember, you will probably lose. 

#13

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives I worked at a tire place for a summer and the first thing they told me was “See that torque wrench ? One mistake with this and you can kill a whole family in a matter of seconds”. I thought well, better take this thing seriously

FrenchMicrowave , Jimmy Nilsson Masth Report

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Em
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just had a similar conversation about amusement rides tonight. Guy approached me in Wal-Mart to comment on my theme park hoodie. He works at the park; I worked there years ago. He goes "man, running rides is so easy, a monkey could do it." Sure, until you lean into that mentality, get careless and kill a kid. I had exactly one close call (not even out of carelessness, but it would have been Very Bad if I wasn't paying attention) and have been militant about ride safety ever since.

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#14

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives People outdoors getting amazed when their hair stands up during a thunderstorm.

PS: it means you're about to die.

wrath28 , Michaela Pereckas Report

#15

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Not cleaning the lint catcher on the dryer

Baylisstico , shiwork Report

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Elita One
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Need to make more dryers like the one I have, it won't start unless you clean the lint out everytime.

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A much more common, and unfortunately avoidable death is when a pedestrian inattentively crosses the road and gets hit by a car. In some cases, the driver is to blame, but in most collisions between a car and a person, you can guess who comes out worse. Mobile phones create enough distractions that let a person somehow not notice a multi-ton vehicle moving towards them. As a result, some counties, such as Lithuania, have passed laws against using a phone when on the street at any time. 

#16

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Pulling the knife out of someone

rcadephantom , Markus Spiske Report

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Pride Bean️‍
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If someone has been stabbed with a knife or has another stabbing wound that has the item in PLEASE DONT PULL IT OUT!!!

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#17

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Mixing cleaning ingredients.

Jonnysource , Kelly Sikkema Report

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Michael Vickery
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I once had a coworker who told me she mixed bleach and ammonia. I told her that made a deadly gas and it shouldn't be done. She said they opened windows when they used it. She acted like I was crazy for thinking that was stupid.

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#18

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Near me there was a serious traffic collision. Several cars and 2 trucks. 3 people died when one truck ploughed into stationary traffic at around 50mph. The crash and resulting fire was so horrific 2 people were only identified by their dead dog on the carriageway (it was microchipped).

It was on the BBC news and have been documentaries about it.

The truck driver was on his phone. He was charged and is now in prison.

velazquezisabella , Seb Creativo Report

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Smogul
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He wasn’t just on his phone, he was flicking through a dating app. Didn’t notice the stopped traffic, it was horrendous..

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#19

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives That all heart attacks have the exact same symptoms. They don't.

Trust yourself and seek help ASAP if you are afraid that you're having a heart attack.

EntertainmentOne8416 , Puwadon Sang-ngern Report

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Nikki Sevven
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Female heart attack survivor here... The chest pain I experienced was fairly mild and felt more like heartburn. I also felt lightheaded and really tired, and felt an overwhelming sense of impending doom. (Mine was a 90% blockage in the right coronary artery. Oddly, all my other arteries were absolutely clear.)

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#20

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Oily paint/staining rags will combust.

Per the internets:

"Spontaneous combustion of oily rags occurs when rag or cloth is slowly heated to its ignition point through oxidation. A substance will begin to release heat as it oxidizes. If this heat has no way to escape, like in a pile, the temperature will rise to a level high enough to ignite the oil and ignite the rag or cloth."

My Dad worked in construction and this had happened on job sites a time or two.

bailey1149 , Craig Morey Report

#21

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Not leaving where you are during a hurricane.

Journeyj012 , NASA Report

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Steve Robert
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Saw a weather reporter standing outside in a hurricane in Florida get hit in the head by a flying Stop sign. Pretty stupid way to get ratings!

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#22

The “I had the right of way” argument while driving.

Even if you did, are you willing to literally… die on that hill?

titankyle08 Report

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Moosy Girl
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As a cyclist I always stop when I notice a truck about to make a right turn even if I have the right of way, I’d rather be late than flat. I also stop if cars do the slowly rolling forward thing instead of stopping at a crossing: either stop or go on, don’t friggin’ roll at me!

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#23

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Drinking while taking medications

algaebomb , Joey Nicotra Report

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Ace
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Another ill-informed assumption. Very few medications actually react badly with alcohol, vanishingly few of them will do serious harm. Yes, there are some where the effects of alcohol can be increased, but the main reason that most meds (and particularly most antibiotics) carry an 'avoid alcohol' warning is that a person drinking too much might vomit or forget to take it. Source:pharmacologist.

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#24

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Not checking and planning for the weather

PM_ME_UR_DATAVIZ , Ross Sneddon Report

#25

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Cutting towards yourself, rather than away.

Being on statins for high cholesterol plus amiodarone for cardiac issues and having a glass of grapefruit juice before going to bed.

Smoking in bed.

former paramedic

Cross_Contamination , Klaus Nielsen Report

#26

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Getting fired up from road rage.

Claudius96 , gpointstudio Report

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Powerful Katrinka
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There was a news story last year about a guy who thought it would be a good idea to brandish a handgun during his (frequent) attacks of road rage. He thought it was funny to make the occupants of the other think that were about to die. One day he followed a driver that had pissed him off somehow, and pulled his gun out as he was getting out of his car. The other driver had a gun too. Mr. road rage was shot and killed. Guess what country this happened in?

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#27

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Not having a carbon monoxide detector

I-like-oranges75 , Abi Begum Report

#28

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Not being honest with doctors about viagra.
It has many dangerous drug interactions and can cause a lot of problems from what I’ve heard. Trust me the doctor ain’t gonna judge you guys, they have seen much more embarrassing things. And it would suck to die because you wanted to hide something just for it to be later stated in your death certificate.

The_upsetti_spagetti , Tim Reckmann Report

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Brittania Kelli
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Seriously, don't be embarrassed to get things checked out. Health care professionals have a whole other level of what is weird or gross. Don't believe me? Google weird things doctors have had to pull out of people's bums. Whole other level.

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#29

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives As a healthcare worker, giving the wrong amount of insulin.

UzumakiHorror , Mykenzie Johnson Report

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Olivia Lisbon
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It’s so easy for something to go wrong. I had several incidents while in hospital for 3 months. Twice someone came to give me a shot of morphine, and I was luckily awake enough to point out I’d just had one. Or when they kept giving me laxatives every morning, even on the mornings we’d just established I had terrible diarrhea. Not all of the nurses, but a lot of them just did whatever the computer said after scanning my bracelet without thinking it through at all. And the communication was terrible.

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#30

Nigerian Airlines flight 2120 (operated by Nationair) departed Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, after a maintenance worker reinflated a tyre with air instead of Nitrogen. The tyre heated up, burst, and caught fire during the take off roll. The landing gear was retracted into the aircraft and burned the airfract from the inside out. The fire caused a mid air structural failure shortly before the pilots could return to Jeddah. My father's first wife was a flight attended on that flight. Her and 260 others died. It remains the most deadly aviation accident involving a Canadian airline.

fin_ss Report

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Agfox
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Wikipedia entry claims there were 2 underinflated tyres when the aircraft departed. There's no mention of air being used in lieu of nitrogen: "Prior to departure, the lead mechanic had noticed that the "No. 2 and No. 4 tyre pressures were below the minimum for flight dispatch",[7] and attempted to inflate them, but no nitrogen gas was readily available. The project manager, unwilling to accept a delay, disregarded the problem and readied the aircraft for dispatch.[5] As the aircraft was taxiing, the transfer of the load from the underinflated No. 2 tire to the No. 1 tire on the same portside axle resulted "in overdeflection, overheating, and structural weakening of the No. 1 tire".[7] "The No. 1 tire failed very early on the take-off roll," followed almost immediately by the No. 2.[7] The latter stopped rotating "for reasons not established", and the subsequent friction of the wheel assembly with the runway generated sufficient heat to start a self-sustaining fire"

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#31

I once listened to a guy telling the story of how, when he fell down the stairs, he desperately clutched onto the glas of wine he was carrying, in order not to break it, instead of grabbing the railing to stop his fall. He survived with a broken hip, but I imagine lots of people probably have the same weird instinct and some may not be able to tell the tale.

onesmilematters Report

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Nonna_SoF
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My grandfather once broke an arm slipping on ice, but he saved the pizza.

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#32

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives There have been too many instances of rock climbers rappelling off of the ends of their ropes, which could have been easily avoided by tying stopper knots at the ends of their ropes.

LZRDLZRD , Katya Wolf Report

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Jeremy James
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Did anyone else have nightmares after watching that documentary, "Free Solo," about the climber Alex Honnold who does it without ropes?

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#33

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives Shaking a vending machine

oneofyrfencegrls , Kenny Eliason Report

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MontanaMariner
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

More Americans, in America, were killed by vending machines during the Iraq/Afghanistan War than by terrorists.

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#34

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives A friend’s husband locked himself out of their home. He tried to get in through a window that had security bars. While squeezing through his foot slipped and he essentially hung himself on the window sill.

Cokej01 , MontyLov Report

#35

35 Silly And Careless Mistakes That Have Cost People Their Lives I read an article a long time ago about a aircraft maintenance worker not removing a piece of tape that was put in place to protect a sensor during cleaning. The pilot failed to notice during the preflight inspection. 70 people died in the plane crash.

JM_Flynn , Andrew Palmer Report