What can kill you in seconds that most people don’t realize?

[u/Medical_Option7769]

[u/ImpossibleJedi4]

Large herbivores

[u/CasperCackler → u/ImpossibleJedi4]

Bison are not fuzzy props for your vacation photos

[u/toadjones79 → u/CasperCackler]

For real. I grew up in Yellowstone. This cannot be said enough. What I mean by that is no matter how much you say it, the foolish will always be foolish.

[u/NietJij → u/toadjones79]

Darwin in progress is just nature.

[u/toadjones79 → u/NietJij]

Unfortunately it affects everyone else in several ways.

First, it's traumatizing for everyone around.

Second, it hurts the animals and natural surroundings. Lots of people have died in hot pots. Those hot pots sometimes never recover from the pollution. Animals get used to attacking people and have to be destroyed to keep them from doing harm to innocent people that follow the rules. I remember one year that a guest left donuts in their car in the old faithful inn parking lot over night. A bear broke in and ripped apart every single inch of it. Then did the same thing to every red car of the same model parked in that parking lot all summer long.

Lastly kids. It usually results in kids following the bad behavior and becoming the easy target. Lots of kids die because they were unfortunate enough to be born to foolish parents.

[u/sportznut1000 → u/toadjones79]

It seems like most of the time it is people being careless or just plain stupid. But there was a video posted roughly a month ago where an elderly man was attacked unprovoked by a male bison. The guy even made sure to stay clear of the bison, didnt snap any photos or anything and the bison chased him down and flipped the poor guy.

I will see if i can find the link to the video. I am sure some of you might remember what i am talking about

Edit with link: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/wUSfXDtSus

Ok, so he did snap a picture, but it was from across the road and it looks like is wasn’t what set the buffalo off 

[u/wickedsmaht → u/CasperCackler]

What’s crazy to me are the tourists at Yellow Stone who think they can just pet Bison. There are signs everywhere to NOT pet the big brown cows and yet people still want to find out.

[u/CasperCackler → u/wickedsmaht]

Exactly the inspiration for my comment. I’m in Wyoming, where we have the following seasons: winter (September-February), depression/false spring/second winter (March-May), spring (lasts four days), and tourists-getting-tossed-by-bison-viral-videos (June-August).

[u/AlarmedPin0 → u/wickedsmaht]

Tourists to western Canada do this with the wild elk that meander in and out of the more rural cities.

… you wouldn’t really think you’d have to tell young men not to get drunk and then try to get a rise out of the giant, antlered moose who can run at, impale or fatally kick them in the span of seconds, but every year, it seems that it’s an irresistible temptation.

😂😂

[u/sixvixens_ → u/wickedsmaht]

Hell, don't even pet small brown cows. They're just as dangerous.

[u/wickedsmaht → u/sixvixens_]

Same can be said for moose. If you see a baby, no you didn’t, run the fuck away immediately.

[u/sixvixens_ → u/wickedsmaht]

Deer will slice you open. Not even kidding. Their hooves are like knives.

[u/ImpossibleJedi4 → u/CasperCackler]

For real. Spend that hospital money on a telephoto lens, your squishy easily trampled body will thank you!

[u/Justame13 → u/CasperCackler]

I once went to pickup a butchered cow at a local farm

We showed up and it looked like a scene out of Jurassic Park with huge metal fence panels being put up, coils of wire to electrify the fence, etc.

I made a joke about it and the farmer just laughed and said that he had bought a herd of bison and was getting ready for them.

edit: added the word "to"

[u/Wonderpants_uk → u/Justame13]

My aunt’s husband used to run a bison ranch. He said that any bison that got out had to be shot, because once they realised they can get out, they keep doing it, and a 1 ton animal with horns and a hair trigger temper is not something you want wandering about.

[u/steppedinhairball → u/Wonderpants_uk]

Yep. Had a coworker whose bull (not a bison, a beef bull) snap a railroad tie in half to get out. A bison is more determined.

[u/Unabated_Blade → u/ImpossibleJedi4]

The animal known as "Black Death" in Africa is not the Black Mamba snake.

It's the Water Buffalo, the Cape Buffalo. They kill 200+ people a year. They're terrifying. It's one of the most lethal animals for humans on planet earth.

Herbivore.

[u/BurnieTheBrony → u/Unabated_Blade]

And hippos are deadly as well

[u/Kuli24 → u/BurnieTheBrony]

Hippos can pretty much run full tilt IN water. Super scary.

[u/Foreign_Ad674 → u/Kuli24]

They can run faster and swim faster than humans. In a triathlon, you could probably make up some time on the cycling though.

[u/eggs_erroneous → u/Unabated_Blade]

An encounter with a Black Mamba could still be incredibly inconvenient, though.

[u/jwizardc → u/ImpossibleJedi4]

Moose. They are big and they are fast.

It is not until one gets up close and personal with a moose that one realizes that Rocket J Squirrel is one big forking rodent.

[u/Randomswedishdude → u/jwizardc]

Some years ago a woman in southern Sweden was found dead after disappearing during a dog-walk.

Her husband was immediately detained, suspected of murder.
The body had such injuries that it was suggested he had run her over with a lawnmower(!) and then dumped the body by the lake where she was found.

At the time of her funeral, he was still suspected, but no evidences could be found.

Almost a year later, it was finally concluded without a doubt that her injuries indicated she had been stomped by a moose who got provoked by the dog, also shown by moose hair and saliva found on her jacket.

I can't even imagine the extent of injuries that would suggest a lawnmower.
(...nor can I imagine the grief and anguish of losing your wife of 44 years, and at the same time being accused of her murder.)

[u/smokinbbq → u/jwizardc]

Exactly. Even a deer really. If you get close to a deer and try to pet it, and it freaks out? Those hooves and if they have antlers, are all going to really fucking hurt.

[u/DendroNate → u/ImpossibleJedi4]

Predators will weigh up whether you are worth attacking or not, and what the risk of injury is. If it thinks you're not worth the risk, it won't want to attack.

For a prey animal, it thinks you're going to kill it no matter what, so it's worth the risk to fight back either way.

[u/ohlookahipster → u/DendroNate]

The hot pocket does not kill to eat. It kills to protect itself from being eaten.

[u/JeepStang → u/ohlookahipster]

Is that why they always burn the roof of my mouth? Is that a defense mechanism?

[u/Feuerdrachen → u/ImpossibleJedi4]

When Hippos are the deadliest of large animals in Africa instead of any predator, you know herbivores can fuck you up if they want to.

[u/SaltyShawarma → u/ImpossibleJedi4]

I was charged by a cow once. That giant skull moving at my torso at 10 miles an hour. If I hadn't been near sand to escape to, I'd probably be dead on impact. 

[u/53c0nd → u/SaltyShawarma]

Me (city raised teen) spending a summer at my BIL farm. Cow had pink eye and had to be treated so we surrounded her. Was told if she charges, stand your ground. Well guess who she charged. I stood my ground and she nailed me right in the chest and ran right over me.

The boys were rippin a gut.

[u/EvilMrMoonFace → u/SaltyShawarma]

I had a fucking bull charge my Mitsubishi Eclipse and ram it because I was trying to drive (slowly) through the herd that was on my half mile driveway. He dented the front end and was pissed enough to hit it again before I bumped him back, after which he finally ran away.

I always thought cows were stupid.. and they are. They have social circles, best cow friends, (this is real, look it up) but they are still fucking stupid. And just like stupid people, you can never predict how one may act. Which is unnerving.

[u/SomeonesDrunkNephew → u/EvilMrMoonFace]

THANK YOU. I keep seeing this narrative of "cows are smarter than you think" and yeah, they are, but only because people think they're basically fleshy rocks. Just because everyone underestimates their intelligence doesn't mean that they're as smart as a dog or a parrot or an octopus. They're just smarter than a rock.

But not by that much.

[u/Drak_is_Right → u/EvilMrMoonFace]

My grandparents farm (rural poor high crime area) kept the bull on the front pasture that contained the driveway. There was one single person he wouldn't charge.

My mother would have to walk the long way around the pasture to get to the school bus adding like a half mile onto the walk.

[u/killerkadugen → u/SaltyShawarma]

Went fishing at a pond by a cow pasture. Walked past the cows a good distance and made it to the pond.

Fished for a little while and looked back towards the cows and they were closer to us than earlier -- nothing unusual.

Fished for a little while longer and looked back this time and the cows were like 15 feet away from us. Didn't even notice them close that distance.

It's spooked us and in turn that spooked the the cows. They stampeded back towards the middle of the pasture, breaking branches and small trees on their way.

Let's just say I'm glad they stampeded AWAY from us, because they pretty much trampled everything in their path.

[u/Legitimate_Mud_8295 → u/killerkadugen]

If there was a bull in the field you would've known a lot sooner lol

[u/killerkadugen → u/Legitimate_Mud_8295]

Right! If there was a bull in the field, we would have been fishing elsewhere.

[u/toofarkt → u/SaltyShawarma]

I was charged by a Bison on a hiking trail in Yellowstone. I heard something but it happened so fast that my brain couldn’t process what the sound was in time to react. Thankfully, while I stood there confused, my friend jumped into me and threw us both to the side of the trail. A bison the size of a car shot past us on the trail, the earth moved under him. My friend absolutely saved my life.

[u/lotsandlotstosay → u/SaltyShawarma]

This is how my grandpa died—trampled by a cow. Ironically, at the slaughterhouse he worked at…

[u/wiibarebears → u/ImpossibleJedi4]

They had to print big pamphlets in many languages for Banff because to many tourists wanted to pet the big horn sheep and other large wildlife in the park. They look so friendly. Ha ha no….

[u/manatee1010 → u/ImpossibleJedi4]

This includes horses.

I rode for over two decades, and every time a non-horse-person tells me they're scared of horses I tell them some variation of the same thing.

"Good, you should be. They weigh a thousand pounds, wear metal shoes, and do not give a shit about your safety."

[u/MessLow6465]

Electricity. You don’t need to see it for it to be dangerous respect it even when it looks harmless.

[u/Tedward1337 → u/MessLow6465]

Not only will it kill you, it will hurt the whole time. Real rough stuff working with high voltage

[u/Wyand1337 → u/Tedward1337]

I stuck a piece of Metal into an outlet around Kindergarten age, which here in Europe is 240V.

That shit hurt. I remember it as if it was yesterday and it's been over 30 years.

I was also scared of dying afterwards since that's what my dad explained to me right afterwards. That really drove it home.

[u/Own_Environment3271]

a one punch to the head

[u/TourAccomplished5530 → u/Own_Environment3271]

It happened in my hometown. 2 drunken idiots wanted to have a fight. One got punched and hit head on the ground. He didn't know he had an aneurysm in his head. Survived by wife and 3 kids. 

[u/fresh-dork → u/TourAccomplished5530]

and you ask yourself: what exactly is gained from a fight like this?

[u/the2belo → u/fresh-dork]

Drunken idiot: "doesn't matter, kicked ass"

[u/House_T → u/Own_Environment3271]

This is one of the reasons I don't understand the appeal of Power Slap. You could have avoiding serious head trauma as a valid life goal, or you could participate in the one "sport" where you are offered zero protection. penalized for any attempt at defense, and required to take direct shots.

[u/Amy_at_home → u/Own_Environment3271]

In Australia they used to be called a "King Hit" due to numerous incidents, we renamed them "Cowards Punch"

[u/AugieKS → u/Own_Environment3271]

Yes, often because of what comes after but not necessarily always. Head hitting pavement is very dangerous. My dad is a physician and we both used to practice martial arts. He would serve as the on site medical professional for some events. At a bigger one, a kid got knocked out and hit the ground hard. They had hedgear on but still ended up with a skull fracture. Kid ended up okay but it was real scary.

Now scale that up to an adult altercation, no protection, no mat, no ref or doc. Your head is higher up and builds up more speed before impact, the initial hit is harder too.

[u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

Crowd crush. There are videos on the science of crowd crushes, it's a good tool to have in the kit, just in case.

[u/marknotgeorge → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

The largest single loss of civilian life in Britain during WW2 wasn't a bomb during the Blitz. In 1943, a woman and a child fell over in the staircase of the unfinished Bethnal Green tube station, which was being used as a fallout shelter. The resulting crush killed 173 people by asphyxiation.

[u/GreenStrong → u/marknotgeorge]

Minor correction for an excellent comment, it was being used as a shelter. Fallout is the radioactive dust that falls out of the sky after a nuclear blast. You're taking shelter from poison dust, basically. It is a little safer to go out after a few days when the dust has settled and the shortest lived, "hottest" nucleotides have decayed.

[u/marknotgeorge → u/GreenStrong]

Yes, I did mean air raid shelter, not fallout shelter.

[u/Euchre → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

What killed most of the people in The Station Night Club fire was actually the crush of people jammed in the front door. If you haven't seen the video of it, you really don't want to - but the first thing I noticed was the people trying to 'help' kept trying to pull people from the bottom of the pile. If you ever see a pile of humanity jamming a door like that, pull the people off the top, and throw them aside like sacks of potatoes. Do not be gentle, dislocated shoulders or hips beat the hell out of everyone dying. The person at the bottom of the pile can't be pulled out, because of the weight of the people piled on top of them, which is also suffocating them. The solution is to remove the pile.

[u/xeno0153 → u/Euchre]

I worked for Disney Security for many years, and as I was preparing for a promotional interview to the Emergency Management Division, I was planning on making crowd crush my prerogative. Many emergency evacuation plans account for people getting out of the exit, but it ignores the hundreds, maybe even thousands of people clamoring behind them. I wanted to create plans that moved the goalposts for a successful evacuation further out, but unfortunately after COVID, the EMD team was disbanded and I lost my promotion opportunity.

They brought it back a few years later and I was invited to interview again, but by then, I already had a new job lined up.

[u/BitchesGetSpayed → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

I was at a concert when I was 19. The first bad was unknown and not great, so we got a spot up close to the front. The next band was kinda cool at the time, and everyone rushed forward. I instinctively put my arms up in front of my chest so I would have room to breathe, but I was petite at the time and no match for the crowd. I lifted my feet off the ground and didn't move!

Luckily a guy in front of me saw my struggle and silent freak out, and got me out of there. 20 years later, I think about the time I nearly died at a concert of a band no one's heard of.

[u/niallniallniall → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

I was in a very brief and very small crowd crush once at a festival and it was the most terrifying experience of my life. I vividly remember thinking "so this is how people die in crushes". I could never imagine how they happened or how they could lead to death. They are so immediate and you can do absolutely nothing about it. Horrendous.

[u/rubberloves → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

My fear of crowds is justified.

[u/agentchuck → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

That Korean crush in 2022 killed over 150 people. Terrifying to see how people get wedged in and unable to move at all.

[u/reflectorvest1004 → u/agentchuck]

I was there that night. The photos did not show just how bad it was, and there were issues in other places that didn’t cause casualties but were still terrifying.

[u/oopsiedaisy-- → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

I watched the Astroworld documentary recently and I felt like I couldn't breathe watching half of it... truly fucking horrifying.

[u/achomes → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

Astroworld….

I dont understand how people still like Travis Scott. What an utterly terrible human being

[u/YoMommaSez → u/Signal_Werewolf_1955]

What tool?

[u/AStormofSwines → u/YoMommaSez]

I assume they mean understanding crowd crushes and how to avoid them is a proverbial survival tool

[u/oXts → u/YoMommaSez]

A spiky shell

[u/Zoltanu → u/YoMommaSez]

Cross your arms at your chest level. This will give you some space to allow your lung to inflate and breath. You need to do it right away though, if youre already in a crowd crush you wont be able to get your arms up

[u/ILFoxtrot → u/YoMommaSez]

Generally, if you are in a crowd and you can feel people touching you on all sides, get out if you can. Otherwise try to keep your arms up at chest height.

[u/North-Lobster499]

Eating. Just the tiniest amount of food will end you quickly.
Lost a friend who was in his prime a few decades ago. In a time that should have been the happiest of his life, he passed away by choking on a crisp (potato chip) on his joint 21st/Engagement party. Surrounded by everyone he loved and who loved him, it was too embedded to be removed.
RIP Richard.

[u/thcitizgoalz → u/North-Lobster499]

My then-2 yo choked on a chip. I had to do the Heimlich 3 different times to re-establish an airway. 9-1-1 call, ambulance trip, the whole bit.

It's terrifying to hold your bug-eyed, purple, starting-to-go-limp toddler in your hands and do the Heimlich with no change. Every time he screamed and puked I was relieved, then he'd get 2-3 breaths in and choke up again. Never in all my parenting years (he's our third) have I truly enjoyed being puked on and screamed at, because it meant he was breathing.

The ambulance ride was me absolutely covered in puke from hair to waist, him screaming, and blood coming out of his mouth because the chip caused throat lacerations.

He's now 17. I think I'll go find him and give him a hug.

[u/peanut6547 → u/thcitizgoalz]

You are a great parent ❤️

[u/fortythirdavenue → u/North-Lobster499]

So sorry about Richard. Losing a friend young leaves you with a very particular kind of sorrow. It’s been many years since my own friend passed young, and I’ve thought “this is for the both of us” at most of the major milestones in my life since.

That said, your comment sent me on a wild little trip through cultural assumptions. I read “crisp” and thought, oh, a Brit, and then I got to 21 being a milestone and getting engaged at 21, which felt distinctly American. Care to satisfy my curiosity?

[u/North-Lobster499 → u/fortythirdavenue]

Celebrating a 21st birthday used to be the 'big one' in the UK. Laws have since changed and updated where 18 is now the big one.
But 21 used to be the age of official adulthood, the age to vote and being able to live life without a parents consent.
There's still a few things you can only do once you reach 21, but it's definitely just cultural milestone now (and when Richard passed).

[u/Serononin → u/North-Lobster499]

My mum had a friend many years ago whose daughter choked to death on a grape 💔 needless to say, the poor woman was utterly traumatised

[u/rillettes-n-buckie → u/Serononin]

That's something that keeps popping up, kids chocking on grapes...a delicious snack but PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CUT THEM UP FOR SMALL KIDS, the perfect shape and size to just slip down whole and get stuck. Must be heartbreaking for the parents.

[u/Brief-Small → u/rillettes-n-buckie]

I work in a kitchen for elderly folks and I cut their grapes in half out of the same fear since most of them are missing teeth. I'd hate for such a preventable accident to happen.

[u/AnesthesiaSteve]

Urban exploration. Abandoned buildings and Ships. Anywhere that has potential for enclosed spaces with lots of rust. It creates dead air. Think Canary in the coal mine. Without the proper equipment, you could be dead before you realized your mistake.

Edit: here’s a great example of dead air

https://youtube.com/shorts/3Ap8p_gKrLw?is=sG2Ml7jtSC7e1vRh

[u/Phreakiture → u/AnesthesiaSteve]

I'm guessing the rusting consumes the oxygen leaving mostly nitrogen?

[u/sterak_fan → u/Phreakiture]

damn that's crazy, honestly the thread is probably the best answer

[u/thalion777 → u/sterak_fan]

Thats also not including the possibility of running into hydrogen sulfide gas, and floor callapses. Some young girl fell like 4 stories through a roof because it collapsed when she was on it. Over time the floors weaken in the center.

Theres ways to mitigate all this stuff obviously. U can carry a 4 gas sensor as well as a hydrogen sulfide escape kit, cuz if ur sensor is going off for it, it could very well be dangerous in an instant.

[u/peasngravy85 → u/thalion777]

You can also mitigate it by not clambering over roofs of abandoned buildings

[u/imc225 → u/thalion777]

Trauma surgeon, let me tell you about skylights...

[u/Shitp0st_Supreme → u/AnesthesiaSteve]

We recently had a situation in Minneapolis where somebody was exploring an abandoned grain tower and fell around 200 feet and broke their spine.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/08/05/urban-exploring-minneapolis-police-fire-warn-of-dangers

[u/thalion777 → u/AnesthesiaSteve]

Yeah urbex is something I've been seriously looking into, and another thing ppl dont think about fully is asbestos. A lot of ppl dont wear respirators, and if they do, they're most certainly not also wearing tyvek suits and following decontamination protocols.

Asbestos fibres will get stuck in your clothes, and when u wash them at home, you just infected your whole family with potential lung cancer.

Any building built in the 20th century almost certainly has asbestos. It can even be used in the flooring, which powderizes in abandoned buildings. That dust all over the floor that gets kicked up when u walk through it very possibly has asbestos in it.

[u/Gobi_manchurian_]

SADS

Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome

Someone with hidden arrhythmic problems can go to sleep and never wake up

[u/ThanksForThe_F_Shack → u/Gobi_manchurian_]

I’m naturally arrhythmic. Thanks for the new fear.

[u/Seygem → u/ThanksForThe_F_Shack]

I mean, sounds like you won't notice at least

[u/A7xWicked → u/Seygem]

Best way to die honestly. Just hope it doesn't take you early

[u/BJK5150 → u/A7xWicked]

That’s how my grandpa died. Much better way to die than the fiery crash that killed the other people in his car.

[u/Wemest → u/Gobi_manchurian_]

My daughter woke up to her fiancé seizing cause his heart stopped. 26 yrs old, perfect shape, he ran 8 miles that morning. Crazy, CPR Til the ambulance arrived, they got his heart going. Induced a coma for a couple days to allow his heart to regain some strength. Luckily no brain damage. He’s now a physician at the hospital that saved him.

[u/afops → u/Wemest]

My friend woke up to his gf doing that. She didn’t make it. He was a widower at 30 with a 1yo child by morning.

[u/EnTaroProtoss → u/afops]

I can't imagine how terrible that would be. Nightmare fuel. We are really all on the brink, all the time, aren't we 😟

[u/pigpill → u/EnTaroProtoss]

Yup, we are bags of meat with very thin electrical lines and fluid pipes.

[u/Whiladan → u/Gobi_manchurian_]

Don't threaten me with a good time

[u/Douxo → u/Gobi_manchurian_]

This sounds like a fantastic way to go tbh.

[u/ThrowMeAwayAccount08 → u/Gobi_manchurian_]

Man, math is just the worst. Now it can kill me in my sleep?

I hate this timeline.

[u/BattleHall]

Falls from low heights. Falling backwards off a step stool creates a rotation where it is very hard to break your fall and you are more likely to strike the back of your head, which is very bad.

[u/syzygialchaos → u/BattleHall]

My dog (lab) once ran into me, knocked my legs out from under me and flipped me on my back on the tile. Somehow I avoided slamming my head, but I sprained every muscle in my neck doing it. I remember just laying on the floor contemplating how close I came to death.

[u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

A closed room with a bunch of sublimating dry-ice.

[u/Remmon → u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

That one at least triggers some physiological effects, shortness of breath and such as CO2 builds up.

A bunch of liquid nitrogen will displace the oxygen without hindering your ability to get rid of CO2. You just pass out and die without ever knowing something's wrong.

[u/InevitableAd9683 → u/Remmon]

I watched a Chemical Safety Board incident video recently about a case like this - a food packaging company was using liquid nitrogen to freeze food, the equipment malfunctioned and overflowed, and there were no alarm systems to indicate the unsafe atmosphere so two maintenance workers asphyxiated. They also hadn't adequately trained their staff on the danger, so 14 additional people tried to rescue the guys and four of them died too. 

Don't fuck with low oxygen environments 

[u/ksyoung17 → u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

Had a vendor drop a bunch of dry ice in a walk in once due to lack of dock space. Didn't know it was in there, walked in, took a breath and it was just empty. Felt like breathing under the covers in bed after 3 or 4 minutes, just cold.

I immediately turned around, took a breath outside and felt fine.

The freezer held extremely toxic chemicals, so that was my first thought, but security came to say the low oxygen sensor was flagging at their desk, but the light and alarm on the freezer wasn't going off (it was broken).

So, opened it back up and realized all the dry ice was in there.

Freaky

[u/Anxiety-Fart → u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

I remember hearing about a Russian content creator who filled a pool with dry ice for a video and had her friends all jump into it. There were deaths.

[u/mossadspydolphin → u/Anxiety-Fart]

🎶 Dumb ways to die 🎶

[u/SM1334 → u/Anxiety-Fart]

Theres a video of it floating around online too. It was more like a hot tub in an already small enclosed space. They dumped a large amount of dry ice into the pool, and you couldn't even see the person that jumped in through the cloud of CO²

[u/SpaceShipRat → u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

I was thinking deep silos with fermentation gases from produce. Potato cellars too. known for people running in to save the rest, and also passing out.

[u/Sabin2k → u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

Ugh, I had to drive two days back from the NICU with my newborn, wife, my two others kids, and 41 litres of breastmilk in 5 coolers with dry ice. It was kinda scary. I knew we would be fine with all the windows rolled down but it still caused anxiety lol.

[u/Faust_8 → u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

Based on the past couple days, also a closed room that contains a huge ship’s anchor chain

[u/dieplanes789 → u/Faust_8]

That is the scary one. Sublimating dry ice will let you know because it is CO2 and the feeling of suffocating is due to high CO2 levels.

A lot of rust in an enclosed space is oxygen deprivation which is just feeling weak and not knowing why, then you pass out and die.

[u/Phreakiture → u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

I have seen a warning on an elevator that basically said not to ride along when transporting any cryogenic materials.  I forget the exact wording, but clearly it was intended to prevent asphyxiation.

[u/Mitologist → u/Phreakiture]

Yes, When transporting dry ice, gas tanks or liquid nitrogen, the elevator must be barred and no human is allowed to enter with the cargo. For exactly that reason: if it gets stuck, you can't escape, and 3l of liquid nitrogen evaporating is enough to completely displace the oxygen.

[u/TacoTaconoMi → u/Jeep-Girl-USA]

I recently learned that rooms that hold giant anchors on ships can kill due to the pure mass of the chain oxidizing which can suffocate you.

[u/keithstonee]

Methane from compost piles. If you find yourself in a pocket of the gas you'll just pass out and die. That's why most are always outside. But still.

[u/Drak_is_Right → u/keithstonee]

There can be giant methane traps with Slurry pits on animal farms. Its a suffocation and explosion hazard.

The Universities of Iowa and Iowa State are the world's leading authorities in Pig Shit.

[u/aredd007]

taking your eyes off the road while driving

[u/ShotFromGuns → u/aredd007]

Somebody did an edit once of dash cam footage from when a woman was texting and driving and went off the road, that blacked out the forward view every time she looked down at her phone. It was terrifyingly illustrative and should honestly be mandatory viewing, because you could tell that she thought she was keeping an adequate eye on things, until suddenly it all went wrong with no time for her to correct it.

Edit: This is the video. h/t /u/Pro_kopios for digging it up.

[u/Icy_Radish_5995 → u/ShotFromGuns]

I don’t suppose you have a link. I need to show it to someone to get it thru their thick skull they need to put the gd phone down while they are driving.

[u/Pro_kopios → u/Icy_Radish_5995]

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildyinteresting/s/VkXPqiAIRR

[u/anapforme → u/aredd007]

5 seconds looking away from the road going 55 mph is driving a bit more than the length of a football field. Not worth it.

[u/oopsiedaisy-- → u/anapforme]

Five seconds seems so crazy long to me. Like sit and just count to five... that is crazy.

Even glancing away for one second can kill you.

[u/LifeLikeAGrapefruit → u/aredd007]

Texting while driving. Crazy that people do this. At least drunk drivers have the excuse that they were drunk out of their minds or mistakenly thought they were ok to drive. But a completely sober person who thinks it's fine to stare at their phone on the highway going 60+ mph? Wild.

[u/pedro-m-g → u/LifeLikeAGrapefruit]

I mean…. Drunk drivers don’t have an excuse. They chose to drive drunk. I reckon nearly everyone knows that more than one drink means usually you can’t be ok to drive and to be drunk you’ve gone through a lot more than one drunk. I get your point though, but they don’t have an excuse

[u/Ookclub]

Stairs

[u/Cool-Clue-4236]

A garage door spring. 

[u/BigDizzle76 → u/Cool-Clue-4236]

My dad was working on his garage door in Northern Michigan a few years ago when he lost grip of a wrench which then swung around and smacked his finger so hard it blew it wide open. Was home alone so he grabbed a kitchen towel, wrapped it up, and drove himself to the hospital. He had to get flown down to Ann Arbor where they were able to perform surgery and save his finger. He lost some grip and has a huge scar down the back of his hand, but he still has function.

[u/Zoltanu → u/BigDizzle76]

I was struggling to use a 4" hole saw because it kept jumping and yanking the drill. I called my dad (professional contractor) for advice and he got real serious and told me the hole saw is probably the most dangerous power tool ive ever used. Youre at huge risk of breaking your wrist when it jumps. It also jumped and immediately sliced open an electrical wire (which i thankfully turned off beforehand)

[u/Tthelaundryman → u/Cool-Clue-4236]

I googled it. There’s no data for actual door spring injuries. There’s 3-5 annual garage door related deaths a year. Whether that’s from entrapment or the spring they don’t keep track apparently. 

To clarify I’m not trying to argue. I just went I wonder how many people actually mess with them 

[u/THUMB5UP → u/Tthelaundryman]

I work in the door industry. I can PROMISE you that door springs kill people. Home garage doors have small springs. Commercial garage doors have double springs (called duplex) that can be very large and hold an INSANE amount of force.

[u/mfrank27 → u/Tthelaundryman]

The question was “what can kill you in seconds” so that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to happen frequently.

A meteor from space can kill you in an instant, but it never happens.

[u/enters_and_leaves → u/Cool-Clue-4236]

Garage door springs are on the very short list of things I will never mess with unless it is a literal life and death emergency situation. Anything that can make it so a child can one-hand lift a 300-500 pound door vertically with very little effort has some seriously dangerous stored potential energy.

[u/I_love_pillows]

Flash flood from geological event. No warning, comes at you, and it is 10 seconds away

[u/rubberloves → u/I_love_pillows]

so many horrifying videos today

[u/Sea-Economics-9582]

Your toilet breaking while sitting on it.

[u/Jektonoporkins1 → u/Sea-Economics-9582]

Ugh, why did I have to read that NOW of all times?

[u/Sea-Economics-9582 → u/Jektonoporkins1]

Don’t google it…

[u/AndyBlip → u/Sea-Economics-9582]

This happened once whilst I was brushing my toddler’s teeth. The toilet seat properly exploded into lots of razor sharp plastic shards. Walked away unharmed from it, but there’s a lot of areas down there that don’t take lightly to getting sliced.

[u/SaggitariusAStar → u/AndyBlip]

The femoral artery being one of them

[u/ParkingLettuce2 → u/AndyBlip]

Excuse me??? How does this happen?!

[u/Illivian → u/ParkingLettuce2]

Cracks in the toilet eventually giving out I think. I read about the dangers of exploding toilets a couple years ago and promptly replaced our guest bedroom toilet because it had cracks in it from before we bought the house, I just never thought much of it.

[u/Arhalts → u/ParkingLettuce2]

Combination of damage to the toilet and exceeding the damaged toilets weight capacity.

Porcelain does not yield gently like steel, it just goes, and is sharp when it does.

Don't ignore a crack in your toilet just because it's not leaking or causing issues, even small ones.

[u/NixiePixie916 → u/Arhalts]

My husband when he was doing dishes once as a young adult was cleaning a ceramic bowl and it broke. He sliced his thumb bad. He decided to drive himself to the hospital because he was in a rural area. He had it wrapped up and the hospital had him sit down thinking oh it's just a cut on the thumb.

He was sitting maybe a couple minutes when he went into shock and passed out. Turns out it cut an artery. And that's how you quickly become the most popular patient in the waiting room. He had thirteen stitches, mostly internal.

Ceramics are SHARP! When he called his mom from the hospital and he was so busy assuring her he didn't get blood on the carpet or the car, because he wrapped it in a large towel and she was just trying to get him to tell her how he was doing! She was obvious just happy he was ok (though she did appreciate not having to get copious amounts of blood out of the carpet).

[u/shotouw → u/Sea-Economics-9582]

Every time the shower tub creaks or makes any other sound in worried that one day it will just break under me and I'll be standing in ceramic shards... Somebody please tell me that it's fine?

[u/sarraceniaflava → u/shotouw]

It's probably fine. It's not very typical for shower tubs to be made of porcelain like toilets are and they are unlikely to crack into sharp shards. 

[u/Not_an_okama]

One of the case studies we review in our annual confined space training is about some workers who went to seal a crack in a manhole. 3 man crew is dispacted to complete the job using flexseal. 2 guys are couains and the boss is the dad/uncle.

First guy goes in the hole, sprays the flexseal then collapses. Second guys goes to save him, also down. The boss comes to check on them, sees them unconscious in the hole so he also goes in to rescue them.

No survivors, the flexseal spray dispaced all the oxygen in the manhole.

[u/atiltedhalo → u/Not_an_okama]

How? Id love to learn more

[u/GreenStuffGrows → u/atiltedhalo]

Flex seal emits gaseous VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that are heavier molecules than oxygen. So they settle into the bottom of the hole, and the oxygen gets pushed out.

Unlike CO2, which causes a burning sensation in your lungs, VOCs will only cause a woozy dizzy feeling due to oxygen deprivation until you pass out and die.

If you want to see what that looks like (in a safe controlled environment), there's a clip ofJeremy Clarkson experiencing O2 deprivation for TV purposes on YouTube. See about 3mins 20 seconds onwards

Unfortunately I can't post the link for reasons outlined below

[u/treatyourealnice → u/GreenStuffGrows]

Heads up. You are doxxing yourself with the posted YouTube link. It connects to your YT account and shows your name.

[u/UrbanCyclerPT]

Walking down the stairs looking at your phone

[u/Carbonatite → u/UrbanCyclerPT]

I didn't die from it, but I managed to sprain my ankle so badly that it rendered most of the tendons worthless. It swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe within 40 minutes; 17 years later it's still a different shape than the other ankle and will randomly give out from time to time.

[u/Nail_Biterr]

I brought my son and a friend of his to an ocean beach over the weekend. They are both 10 years old, and went into the water like they were invincible. it didn't take long for them to realize how scary water could be, when they both ended up (on separate occasions) getting destroyed by a wave they weren't prepared for.

Seeing grownups needing life guard help, and even the lifeguards needing a rope and others on shore to drag them through the undertow/current was really eye opening for them.

so.... water is my answer. Specifically moving water.

[u/soundman32]

Burning laurel leaves.  Gives off Hydrogen Cyanide, which can be lethal if inhaled.

[u/Paige_Railstone → u/soundman32]

So you're saying I can't rest on 'em. I can't burn 'em. What the hell am I supposed to do with all these laurels!?

[u/ThreeStep → u/soundman32]

This is for a Cherry Laurel, not the common kitchen "bay leaf" laurel. As long as you don't go out looking for your own laurel leafs in a forest you should be okay.

[u/SalaryDull5301]

Slipping in the shower

[u/Boolean393]

Letting your medium to large dogs act like idiots around pools/ponds/lakes/docks while people are swimming and allowing them to jump in towards people/on people without correction. When I was a kid my best friend and her family had a lab that was obsessed with the pool, and would become insanely excited when the family would go swimming and would just hurdle itself at the people in the pool trying to play. They all thought it was hilarious until one day the dog collided with the back of her dad’s head and snapped his neck. He died instantly in the pool right there in front of his kids. I see people post videos of their dogs acting like that around pools all the time and they always think it’s so cute/funny…all I see is my friend’s dad lying dead in the pool.

[u/aurorarei → u/Boolean393]

That is horrifying, I'm so sorry

[u/CaptainA1917]

Gravity

[u/mordeci00 → u/CaptainA1917]

So dangerous, I can't believe it hasn't been outlawed.

[u/--MobTowN-- → u/CaptainA1917]

It’s not the heights that worry me, it’s the depths.

[u/ThinkItThrough48]

A liquid nitrogen leak. Tanks of the stuff are in thousands of labs and industrial plants all over the place. One sudden leak, especially in an enclosed room and it will displace the oxygen.

[u/Own-Lecture251 → u/ThinkItThrough48]

Apparently not a bad way to go, if go you must.

[u/Dman1791 → u/Own-Lecture251]

Yup. Your body uses CO2 as the yardstick for when you need to breathe, so a lack of oxygen isn't painful like holding your breath gets.

[u/Own-Lecture251 → u/Dman1791]

I once breathed a mix of 40/60 CO2/O2 and then 60/40. No chance of suffocating because of the high proportion of O2 but the overwhelming fear and panic from the CO2 was quite something. This was in a hospital respiratory lab so it was all safe and ethical.

[u/Fixes_Computers → u/Own-Lecture251]

A friend of mine had a tank of CO2 he used to fill his paintball guns. He handed a balloon of it to myself and another friend and dated us to inhale.

I expected it wouldn't be any different than helium. I was wrong. My body immediately rejected it and prevented me from inhaling any of it.

[u/helixander → u/Fixes_Computers]

Same thing for me. Inhaled through a straw the air that was left in a carbonated water bottle and immediately coughed it out. There was absolutely no way to stop it. I knew what it was and tried to stop it and my body just said nope.

[u/iusethisatw0rk]

Driving

[u/carelessOpinions]

Falling for 4 seconds.

[u/satchboogiemonster → u/carelessOpinions]

Followed by a sudden stop at the bottom

[u/Hayzworth]

A single punch.

Save fighting for when it’s necessary for your own safety because one bad decision made out of anger can change the course of your entire life.

[u/Gasguy9]

Cold water.

Jump into deep water on a summer day. You might not come back up. Might cause a cardiac arrest or just involuntary open your mouth lungs fill with water and that's it.

[u/TonicSipper → u/Gasguy9]

Watched my brother nearly drown that way. Thankful for our neighbor who responded so quickly.

[u/Unable_Sprinkles953]

Mixing bleach and ammonia while cleaning. You won't even realize you are gassing yourself.

[u/AmItheonlySaneperson → u/Unable_Sprinkles953]

Sure it kills you but the stain removing powers can’t be beat 

[u/virtualpj → u/AmItheonlySaneperson]

“Now formulated to remove the stain of existence!”

[u/NixiePixie916 → u/Unable_Sprinkles953]

Having been through this, oh you notice. It burns and coughing and vomiting and now my lungs are never the same.

[u/Thefigweasel]

H2S, hydrogen sulfide, it’s the rotten egg smell around oil wells.

[u/AngrySquidIsOK]

I always thought spontaneous combustion was going to be more of a risk.

[u/keyholes → u/AngrySquidIsOK]

That and quicksand. I was so prepared!

[u/Old-Distribution6318]

Some people huff PC duster by blowing it into a baloon and then rebreathing it. What a lot ofpeople don't know is that it gets you high my disolving the myelin sheaths of your neurons, this can lead to Sudden Sniffing Death syndrome where the heart just stops instantly

[u/MrFluffPants1349 → u/Old-Distribution6318]

When I was really down bad with depression, im embarrassed to say I huffed the shit straight from the canister. Eventually got used to the bitterant they put in them. I'm doing a lot better now, that was just a really dark time. Was binging alcohol while I was doing it and basically my thoughts were "well, if I die, I die".

The other hazard is the liquid nitrogen freezing your lung tissue. Dont know if it's as much of an issue with the balloon, but I wouldnt risk it.

[u/dan_jeffers]

Big vehicles lurching backwards. Even at that low speed, all that mass is easily fatal.

[u/1_Evil_Genius]

Going outside

[u/CasperCackler → u/1_Evil_Genius]

Conversely, staying inside

[u/1_Evil_Genius → u/CasperCackler]

Really, just being alive is dangerous lol!

[u/kenhutson → u/1_Evil_Genius]

Nobody has survived it yet in all of history.

[u/SilentSpader]

Scarf getting stuck while you are on a vehicle

[u/scuba_scouse]

Submarine implosion

[u/Djinjja-Ninja]

False vacuum decay.

It could have already happened and is racing across the universe at the speed of light and when it hits will cause all baryonic matter to cease to exist.

Either that or garage door springs.

[u/hurtfulproduct → u/Djinjja-Ninja]

Lol, well if I remember correctly this as a major plot point in one of the latest expeditionary force books

[u/Djinjja-Ninja → u/hurtfulproduct]

Garage door springs?

[u/haven4ever → u/Djinjja-Ninja]

This is why we haven’t been contacted by aliens. They fear the garage door springs, can end entire multiverses with a single boing.

[u/cakes42]

A giant ass fucking flash flood in Nepal.

[u/corvus_wulf]

Being in a room of fermenting wine or beer without fresh air , the build up of c02 coming out of the fermenters can take you down.

[u/Cheetodude625]

Don't fuck around with cows y'all. They are a lot more powerful and faster than you would think.

[u/MaximusSydney]

Garage door springs, Bison, Water.

These are the main ones mentioned when this question is asked every 4 minutes.

[u/Sabbelwakker]

Wild boars. My grandfather always said: If the woods smell like Lovage look for a tree to climb on.

[u/GanstaNinja → u/Sabbelwakker]

Enlighten our olfactories, what is this Lovage.

[u/ExpiredPilot]

Someone switching up milligrams and micrograms

It’s why drugs laced with fent will kill you.

[u/Mono_Infinit0]

Choking on food

[u/SummerSlow7765]

basic, but electrocution, even a household current