Rocking or tilting vending machines has been known to cause serious injury or death if the heavy machines fall over.
Users may rock machines in order to obtain free products, release stuck products, or obtain change.[2] The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found in a 1995 study that at least 37 deaths and 113 injuries had occurred due to falling vending machines from 1978 to 1995.[1][3] This resulted in a voluntary campaign from vending machine manufacturers to warn that rocking or tilting the machines could cause serious injury or death, including placing warning labels on all machines.[3][4][5] The U.S. military started putting warning labels on machines in the late 1980s after a number of incidents on military installations.[6]
The vast majority of injuries and deaths have happened to men.[7][8][9]
The argument that death by a vending machine is more likely to occur than something like winning the Powerball lottery, has drawn more attention to these unusual deaths.[10] One 2012 report states that the odds of winning Powerball are 1 in 175 million, versus 1 in 112 million of getting killed by a vending machine.[11] A similar comparison is often drawn to emphasize the rare occurrence of lethal shark attacks, or wild bear encounters.[12]
In popular culture
editIn the "University Life" expansion pack for The Sims 3 and the "Snowy Escape" pack for The Sims 4, players can cause characters to violently shake a vending machine, and leading to them being crushed to death.[13][14]
In an episode of the TV show Community, "Basic Story", an inspector checks the college's vending machines to ensure that they will not fall over on students.[15]
In the film Final Destination Bloodlines, a character is killed by a metal coil that is launched from a vending machine after being pulled by the magnetic field of an MRI scanner.[16][17]
See also
editReferences
edit- 1 2 Landers, Ann (1998-09-13). "Warning: Don't jiggle that vending machine". Chicago Tribune.
- ↑ "Sun Journal - Google News Archive Search". Sun Journal. January 1, 1992.
- 1 2 "CPSC, Soda Vending Machine Industry Labeling Campaign Warns Of Deaths And Injuries". U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
- ↑ Morford, Mark (18 July 2001). Death By Vending Machine / Warning: Large heavy appliances can be hazardous to your health, San Francisco Chronicle
- ↑ "Teen-ager crushed to death under vending machine". Orlando Sentinel. 1995-02-10.
- ↑ "Toledo Blade - Google News Archive Search". The Toledo Blade. January 2, 1996.
- ↑ Abrahams, Marc (2015-01-20). "The (mainly) men who have fallen under sway of drinks vending machines". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
- ↑ Cosio, Michael Q. (1988-11-11). "Soda Pop Vending Machine Injuries". JAMA. 260 (18): 2697–2699. doi:10.1001/jama.1988.03410180105039. ISSN 0098-7484.
- ↑ Cosio, Michael Q.; Taylor, Gregg W. (June 1992). "Soda Pop Vending Machine Injuries: An Update". Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma. 6 (2): 186–189. doi:10.1097/00005131-199206000-00009. ISSN 0890-5339. PMID 1602339. S2CID 2499640.
- ↑ Miller, Sara G. (2016-01-12). "Will You Win Powerball? A Vending Machine Death Is More Likely". livescience.com.
- ↑ Memott, Mark (28 November 2012). Winning Powerball? It's More Likely A Vending Machine Will Kill You, NPR
- ↑ Docter-Loeb, Hannah (2022-07-27). "Do Vending Machines Really Kill More Americans Than Sharks Every Year?". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
- ↑ "The Sims 3: University Walkthrough New Death." Port Forward, 12 September 2016 AD, http://www.portforward.com/games/walkthroughs/The-Sims-3-University/New-Death.htm . Accessed 8 August 2025 AD.
- ↑ Schusste, Mark (2022-11-23). "The Sims 4: How to cause Death by Vending Machine". Best Gaming Tips. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
- ↑ "Basic Story". Community. Season 5. Episode 12. 2014-04-10. NBC.
- ↑ "Could the horrifying MRI scene in 'Final Destination' really happen? Experts weigh in". TODAY.com. 2025-05-17. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ↑ Shedwick, Gaby (2025-05-16). "'Final Destination Bloodlines' Just Gave Us One of the Franchise's Wildest Death Scenes And I'll Never Feel Safe in a Hospital Again". Collider. Retrieved 2026-04-21.