During a recent ABC television report about how infrequent shark attacks really are, we were told, “Each year coconuts falling from trees kill 150 people.” That sounded absurd to me. Could it be true? If so, what is the cause of death? –Nicki F.
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For 20 years scientists have been saying you have a better chance of getting killed by a falling coconut than by whatever lethal life-form they were getting big bucks to study. In 1984, for example, this column quoted Dr. Merlin Tuttle, curator of mammals at the Milwaukee Public Museum and founder of Bat Conservation International, on the chances of being bitten by a bat versus death due to various misadventures (getting poisoned at a church picnic, murdered by your spouse, or bitten by a rabid dog or cat). Having worked up a head of steam, Dr. Tuttle thundered, “Statistically, you have a better chance in this country of dying from being hit on the head with a coconut than from a bat biting you.”
The source of this statistic was not stated. But it may have been a widely reported press release from the British travel-insurance firm Club Direct, saying that “holidaymakers hit by falling coconuts will be guaranteed full cover under their travel insurance policy. The news follows reports from Queensland, Australia, that coconut trees are being uprooted by local councils fearful of being sued for damages by people injured by coconuts . . . . ‘Coconuts kill around 150 people worldwide each year, which makes them about ten times more dangerous than sharks,’ says Brent Escott, managing director of Club Direct.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
