Vending Machine Crush
Almost always caused by rocking/tipping the machine. If you don't shake them, your risk is near zero.
Calculate Your Risk
The misleading stat
~2 deaths per year in the US
(global average, including people never exposed)
vs
Your actual annual risk
1 in 50,001
(0.0020% chance per year)
For comparison
- Car crash (US annual): 1 in 8,000
- Shark attack (US annual, all people): 1 in 333,000,000
Methodology & sources
This calculator multiplies chained probabilities:
- Machine topples: 0.0000016 — Site estimate: CPSC counted 37 deaths and 113 injuries from 1978-1995, about 8 tip-onto-person events/year; divided by an assumed ~5 million rocking incidents/year (roughly one per machine per year)
- Times you rock it
- Weeks per year
- Fatal if toppled: 0.25 — CPSC 1978-1995: 37 deaths vs 113 injuries (25% of reported tip-onto-person events fatal). PubMed study of 64 crush cases: 15 fatalities (23%).