# Has anyone ever been killed by a falling piano or anvil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 12, 2013, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484 "2013-04-12T09:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/41 "2013-06-13T11:31:05Z")
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **mikealmci** , we’re glad you found us. Since there was already a thread about this column and falling pianos etc, I’ve merged your post in to the existing thread, just to keep topics more or less together. No biggie, just Moderator doing some housecleaning. When struck by a falling piano, did it make you flat? … ::::sorry:::: ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/42 "2013-06-13T14:28:02Z")
> [@mikealmci](#): > > I found this very interesting as I was struck by a falling piano when I was 7 years old. Were you killed? ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/43 "2013-06-13T22:40:29Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > When struck by a falling piano, did it make you flat? … ::::sorry:::: Naturally. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/44 "2013-06-14T02:48:32Z")
the board seems really screwed up this evening. Very hard to get on and constantly being dropped. Anyone else with the same trouble? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/45 "2013-06-14T18:32:51Z")
**crucible** , go read ATMB. Lots of discussion there. ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/46 "2013-06-17T07:26:30Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I know someone whose daughter was killed when a suicide jumper landed on her. > > Not Funny. I recall reading that, at various times, self-defenestration has been so popular in Hong Kong and Shanghai that people would take to avoiding the pavements altogether. ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/47 "2013-06-17T07:45:10Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > BTW: has anyone ever been crushed under a road roller (“steam roller”)? Are you kidding? In the age of the internet, you don’t even have to try very hard: [KILLED BY A STEAM ROLLER.; Peculiar Accident in Brooklyn Which Crushed Out the Life of an Attendant.](http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A1FF83B5416738DDDA10994DA415B8885F0D3) (_The New York Times_, 18 December 1898). There are plenty of more recent examples…with photos and/or video. I’ll let you find those for yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/48 "2013-06-26T01:29:33Z")
Yes but could they be peeled up and then stomp away angry? ---
**Author:** ![naguere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@naguere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naguere)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/49 "2013-06-27T14:11:34Z")
Just to amuse, A letter in a British Newspaper (What is the likelihood? )did ask if anyone had been killed by a hot-water bottle (rubber). There came a response that there had been and it was his grandmother in Russia. The bottle was cast away from an accommodation block, as the dear lady walked about her business ---
**Author:** ![Keatho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@Keatho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keatho)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/50 "2013-07-05T18:35:18Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I’m pretty sure he was unironically surnamed, probably generations before the incident. That will be of little comfort to the widow Keys and the little Keys. Or should that be the minor Keys? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/51 "2013-07-09T19:25:29Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Soda vending machines now carry a warning that tipping them can crush you to death. Presumably these came about in response to some actual crushings. Yup. I met a vending machine refiller guy (dunno what the correct job title is) a month or so ago and asked him about that, and he said crushing deaths still occur once in awhile, even now. For further info: [http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2005/06/29/are-vending-machines-deadlier-than-sharks-repost.htm](http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2005/06/29/are-vending-machines-deadlier-than-sharks-repost.htm) [http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/morford/article/Death-By-Vending-Machine-Warning-Large-heavy-2898202.php](http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/morford/article/Death-By-Vending-Machine-Warning-Large-heavy-2898202.php) > **[2001 Darwin Award: Coke Is It!](https://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2001-25.html)** > > Darwin Award: Coke Is It!: A man crushed beneath a vending machine while trying to shake loose a free soda? If you thought it happened only in Urban Legends, you're wrong! Kevin, a 19-year-old Quebec student, killed himself at Bishop's University ---
**Author:** ![sich\_hinaufwinden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@sich\_hinaufwinden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sich_hinaufwinden)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/52 "2013-07-13T22:09:38Z")
‘‘I didn’t bring my son up to be killed by a falling cow.’’ Another data point for victims of unlikely falling objects: > **[Man killed by a 1.5tonne cow after it crashes through his corrugated iron...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362522/Man-killed-1-5tonne-cow-crashes-corrugated-iron-roof-slept.html)** > > Joao Maria de Souza, 45, was in bed with wife when the escaped animal fell on him. He was conscious when he was taken to hospital in Caratinga, Brazil, but died from internal bleeding as he was waiting for treatment. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/53 "2013-07-13T23:10:49Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > My guess would be that this cliche’ … I feel compelled to point out that an apostrophe is in no way a substitute for an acute accent. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/54 "2013-07-14T04:40:10Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I feel compelled to point out that an apostrophe is in no way a substitute for an acute accent. It’s an old convention dating back to when English-language equipment offered no better. ---
**Author:** ![sich\_hinaufwinden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@sich\_hinaufwinden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sich_hinaufwinden)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/55 "2013-07-14T17:12:08Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I feel compelled to point out that an apostrophe is in no way a substitute for an acute accent. Touche’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484.md?page=2)