Accidents & Death

Lifeboats on the Titanic

“She was the largest craft afloat, the greatest of the works of man.” A “floating city,” she carried only as many lifeboats “as would…

The Dead of the Titanic

On the afternoon of April 20, 1912, passengers on the German ship Bremen were told they were passing by the iceberg that had sunk…

Ocean Liners: Titanic to Today

On April 15th, 2012, the passengers of the Balmoral, a cruise ship on the North Atlantic, will pause shortly after midnight to commemorate the loss…

Suicide and the Titanic Survivors

The odds a person who survived the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912 would later commit suicide are 1 in 89. Eight of…

Fatal Politeness: British Mortality and the Titanic

How would you react if you found yourself on a sinking ship with a couple of thousand other people? A study recently published in…

Behind the Numbers of the Titanic Disaster

A New York Times article published on April 19, 1912 said the Titanic was “laden with 2,340 souls,” while the British Board of Inquiry…

Elevator, Escalator or Stairs: Which Is Riskiest?

1 in 120,000. Those are your odds of dying in a fall on stairs in a given year. For elevators it's about 1 in…

Exercising Yourself into the ER & Living the Tale

Can exercise land you in the hospital, or even worse, the morgue? In 2008, Max Gilpin, a 15-year-old offensive lineman for his high school football…

Do Vending Machines Kill More People Than Sharks? Not Anymore

Not anymore: sharks killed about 1 person a year in US waters in 2012-2025 (about 1 in 330-350 million); CPSC reports no vending machine deaths since 2008.

Source: Slate · Data year 2025 · per year

The odds a person will die from a shark attack in a year are 1 in 251

Accidents & Death / Death Rates Like Me Interesting 1 in 251,800,000 The odds a person will die from a shark attack in a…