hey, pools, bathtubs and dogs are not particularly rare and quite dangerous


i would investigate:

- death by falling coconut. maybe around 150 cases per year.
- death by japanese pufferfish sushi (fugu) poisoning. only in japan, but japan is less populated than the USA and the numbers seem comparable.

another japanese one i find particularly interesting is death by mochi.
Because of mochi's extremely sticky texture, there is usually a small number of choking deaths around New Year in Japan, particularly amongst the elderly. The death toll is reported in newspapers in the days after New Year.
then there would be the classic one, death by lightning strike. it happens surprisingly frequently. For example:
1998 October: The entire association football team of Bena Tshadi playing against Basanga was killed by lightning during a match in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Everyone on Basanga, the home team, survived
as soon as the heart attack grill in Las Vegas turns into a franchise, then death by heart attack at the heart attack grill could become a contender.

death by winning big in gambling could also be one.


unfortunately sources for each of these are not that easy to find. But given the low numbers of death by snake, we should hit this ball right out of the park. And pools, tubs and dogs dont quite do it for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_deaths for some inspiration.

How about self-torpedoing?
  • 1942: 32 men died as a result of a chain of events that started when the British cruiser HMS Trinidad accidentally torpedoed itself.[65]
  • 1944: 74 men died when the US Submarine Tang (SS-306) accidentally torpedoed itself during a combat patrol off the coast of Taiwan.[66]