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“This One Is Going To Be Hard To Believe”: 43 Things That Are A Lot More Dangerous Than They Seem
We’re often told that the world is dangerous, and in many ways, that’s true. But not every threat is obvious. Sometimes, the things that can cause real harm are part of everyday life, the kind we barely think about until something goes wrong.
That does not mean we need to fear everything around us. It simply helps to be more aware, because a little knowledge and caution can go a long way. Redditors recently shared some important reminders that are well worth keeping in mind, so scroll down to read them.
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#1
Black ice looks like a harmless wet road until you’re suddenly a passenger in your own car. Learned that the hard way.
Skywitness 3 hours ago
I was driving on a German road in the 1980s and managed to do a complete 180 degree in my BMW 320. The temperature wasn't below freezing but the road was, black ice! My car came to rest on the should between two reflector poles. The next vehicle following me was a Isuzu Trooper, the first and only 4 wheel drive vehicle I ever recall seeing outside a US military base. The gentleman driving the Trooper was kind enough to get me back on the road. Fortunately the car had only minor damage.
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#3
Anything under tension. Piano strings, lifting straps, fly lines in a theater. Transferred force is still force, and if something goes wrong it can go really wrong.
Skywitness 3 hours ago
A neighbor was a professional driver who taught people to drive their muscle cars fast. He got snapped in the face by a bungee cord while he was helping unpack a display for his company. It cost him an eye and eventually his job.
#4
Driving while tired.
People treat it like it’s no big deal, but it’s basically like driving with slowed reactions and bad focus...
Janelle Collard 2 hours ago
My dad fell asleep driving. Hit an underpass with passenger side of the car. My grandma was in that seat and she had a messed up right leg for the res of her life (50-ish years.)
#5
Mixing bleach with common household cleaning products.
TheReader19 2 hours ago
I've stupidly done this twice, (Yes I know). Almost gassed myself on both occasions. Darwin award almost went to me. 🤣
#6
As someone who immigrated to Canada, nothing prepared me for when I saw a moose for the first time.
Chich the witch 3 hours ago (edited)
On a trip to Africa a local was telling all about lions. He then asked what large predators we had so I told him about Grizzly bears and that if the two got in a fight the bear would likely win. "I don't want to visit your country"
#7
I spent four summers as a lifeguard, and the truly terrifying thing wasn't the big crashes or the kids doing flips. It was how utterly silent and quick drowning actually is. You expect flailing and screaming, but it's usually just a person, often a child, quietly slipping under the water right next to you. No splash, no cry for help. Just gone in seconds if you're not paying absolute attention.
TheReader19 2 hours ago
How parents stop supervising their children on holiday. Like they're not going to act crazy around the swimming pool. 😩
#8
This one is going to be hard to believe, but digging holes at the beach. Beach sand is incredibly heavy, and it will seemingly stay put for a long time… until it buckles. If the wall is taller than your head, you will likely suffocate before someone can get to you if you get buried. There are multiple examples of this.
#10
Asking ChatGPT for emotional support— forming a false relationship with a chatbot like that can drastically disrupt the way you interact with real people, even leading to delusions, psychosis, etc.
#11
Electricity. Can't see it, can't hear it or can't smell it. But it could blow you up. This is coming from a licensed electrician.
#12
A wet bathroom floor. All it takes is one slip and you can hit your head on your toilet, your sink, or your bathtub.
#15
Motorcycle riding.
I used to be friends with an ER/trauma surgeon who worked at a level 1 trauma center in a major west coast city. He told me he spent every weekend doing amputations from motorcycle accidents, all day and night, week in and week out.
He actually rode a motorcycle himself, but said he was *extremely* cautious due to everything he had witnessed on the job.
I was in a motorcycle accident myself as a passenger, and the fear will stay with me forever. I’m very lucky to be alive. (I got flipped off the bike while the driver was doing a wheelie, and I landed on my head. Wear helmets friends.).
Chich the witch 3 hours ago
Took a riding course when I got my bike. Learned many things I may not have discovered on my own.Also installed a pulsating headlamp which make other drivers 'see' me.,
#16
Water Intoxication in infants.
Intoxication is where you drink enough water to upset the balance of water in your brain. It's usually a percent of your body weight, and can be fatal.
Because babies weigh next to nothing, that fatality threshold is VERY quick.
#17
Apparently going under general anesthesia.
#18
Dogs. I hang out with a lot of large dogs. It's weird what can pop them off but when they do it can get pretty bad. They can be surprisingly strong in weird ways you're just not ready for.
#19
Doing small stunts. Hopping fences, climbing trees, sliding on ice. It’s shockingly easy to catch on something or fall and break or tear something.
#20
Leaving your drink unattended at a party with strangers.
#21
Garage door springs. When I was a teenager a cable attached to one in our family garage let loose and sent the spring through the garage wall into the yard. They have tons of tension on them and are extremely dangerous.
#22
I'm a Florida native, so I learned about them early in life, but riptides.
If you're caught in one it can pull you away from the shore so fast people on the beach won't even notice. Children especially can be caught in one and dragged. A lot of folks' first reaction is to fight and swim against the current or to the side, but you just can't overcome the current. It's moving at 8 to 10 feet per second. Exhaustion sets in and you slip beneath the waves.
They always say to look out for signs of a riptide...a split sandbar or a section of the breakwater that's flat when the rest is wavy, and stay away from it. If one catches you, don't fight, just tread water and ride it. After 100 yards or so the current will let up and you can swim diagonally back to shore.
A gentleman vacationing here from Maine drowned this weekend nearby in a riptide while trying to rescue his child.
Stay vigilant at the beach.
#23
Hiking into the Grand Canyon, 12-17 [fatalities] every year.
Skywitness 3 hours ago
The guides on the South Rim tell you that the highest number of fatalities are among fit young men hiking into the canyon with insufficient water. Fit or unfit, nature doesn't care if you are being stupid.
#24
Tiredness. People brag about running on 4 hours of sleep like it's a flex. It's just slow brain damage with extra steps. .
Norfolk and good 4 hours ago
A few nights of poor sleep will make you feel like c**p mentally and physicslly. Just ask any new parent.
#25
Cat claw scratches need to be washed out immediately with disinfectant, and if they’re an actual puncture that you can’t see the bottom of, go to urgent care.
#26
Live Theater/Events. Load ins and load outs have a lot of moving parts, you're working 100+ feet under riggers who are hauling chains and motors to be attached to the grid/beams, not to mention the hazards the riggers face working at that height. Set carts can weigh thousands of pounds and have to be unloaded from trucks and brought onstage. If there's automation incorporated into the scene changes things can go wrong with that (See Spiderman).
Counterweight systems have to be properly loaded to fly drops and set pieces in and out, and if they're not you can have a runaway which might lead to thousands of pounds falling out of the air uncontrolled.
If it's done right - like most things - then it's mostly safe, but if my mom knew how dangerous theater can be she'd probably have a coronary.
#27
Shoving people's faces onto cakes. Some cakes have sharp sticks inside them to maintain structure.
#28
Diabetes. It runs in my family, and everyone who's had it has managed it well, but oh my god if you let it run rampant it's devastating.
#30
Cat scratches and bites. They can give you very serious infections, sometimes resulting in sepsis.
#31
Forcing cyclists to ride in the street with cars and not having dedicated protected bike lanes.
Spencers slave no more 1 hour ago (edited)
Cyclists who ride in traffic instead of using dedicated bike lanes. Cyclists who ride 2 or 3 abr3ast blocking traffic. Cyclists who don't have lights on their bikes and ride in the dark, on the road, wearing black lycra.
#33
Superheated steam. If you’re around high pressure equipment and you see the white smoke, that’s condensation. The steam is mostly invisible and can mess you up bad.
#34
Confined spaces (basically places you can get into that don’t have good airflow, like many caves, abandoned tunnels, etc.).
You’ll occasionally hear about some incident where like five people [passed away] because someone went into a confined space that didn’t have oxygen (our respiratory drive actually works by detecting high CO2, not low O2, so it’s possible to not even realize you’re suffocating). The first person passes out, then someone sees the person collapsed and goes in to help them, they [pass away] too, and the cycle has been known to repeat a few times because people don’t want to leave a friend unconscious in some hole, and they don’t realize the danger.
Norfolk and good 4 hours ago (edited)
If you've never heard of it, look into the Gollum Cave incident. Four friends all drown one by one in a water filled passage while exploring a cave. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but if a cave has been nicknamed "The Cave of Death", then it's probably best not to go in there.
#35
The American diet. Have you seen our colon cancer rates for people under 45?! It’s kinda terrifying.
Microplastics are a close second.
Chich the witch 3 hours ago
On a trip to Uganda/Kenya I met an Oncologist from the Mayo clinic. He said he volunteered every few years to work in a clinic there as It helped the locals and he got to see some cancers not as common in the developed world. One cancer he did not see a lot of was colon as most people's diet were veggies and fruits and little processed foods or meat.
#36
Drinking alcohol. More than 3/4 of the life-threatening or other injury calls I've taken were because of alcohol. Don't even get me started on the disturbances or violence calls.
Norfolk and good 4 hours ago
Something that many people don't seem to be aware of is that withdrawing from alcohol can also be dangerous or even fatal if the person is alcohol dependent. It can cause hallucinations and seizures. Somebody who is alcohol dependent will need to reduce their alcohol intake gradually and will probably need to take benzodiazepines under medical supervision.
#37
The flu or colds. They can mess up your body big time, speaking of organs actually failing and developping auto immune diseases even if you're healthy, and people treat it like it's no big deal.
TheReader19 2 hours ago
This happened to me with the first round of covid; (pre-vax). I got an autoimmune illness, osteoarthritis fibromyalgia, and now I've been told I need double knee replacement. I really want to cry.
#38
ATVs. I work at a Level 1 trauma hospital and I had no clue how many atv accidents there were till I started working here. I’ve seen so many kids come through here from rollovers and being thrown from them, whether they were using it themselves or riding with an adult. I’ve seen too many with broken bones up to and including permanent brain injuries. I’ve never used an atv and I’m sure there’s a safe way to ride them but I don’t think enough people take those things seriously. No one ever wakes up one day thinking they’ll be in the hospital later that night.
#39
Seals. Cute little bouncing blobs, but people forget they are wild animals and can still bite, like that one tourist in Hawaii who tried to pet a baby monk seal and got attacked by its mother. They still have powerful jaws and sharp teeth and are basically an *aquatic bear*.
#40
Religion, from extremists to just idiots thinking it's all gods plan.
As a civilisation we no longer need religion we have the means to educate the people into a better understanding but we don't, we waste our resources on such pathetic things.
Just think what the human race could achieve if we weren't constantly squabbling over land and money.
#41
Working out while or shortly after being ill. Someone in my school [passed away] of Myocarditis (heart complications triggered by working out after an infection). We used to have a sports teacher who insisted that "working out is always healthy" and gave out bad grades to students for skipping (doctor prescribed) sports class, before a students parent who was a doctor threatened to sue the school.
#43
Working with Resin. Besides the fumes being toxic, any skin contact can be considered toxic.
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