Today's triviatum.

[saxikath]

In 1999, some 120,653 people were injured enough to go to the emergency room in sofa-related accidents.

I can't begin to imagine what these people are doing with their sofas.

Comments

[zenala.livejournal.com]

Well, if the sofa's in the middle of the room, it's pretty tempting to climb over the back to get in, and also pretty simple to fall over and hurt something pretty bad... It wouldn't take that much to break a wrist. I have never gotten hurt in this way. (And I have climbed over the backs of more than a few sofas, though none recently)

[ceo]

Moving them up narrow stairwells into 3rd-floor apartments.

[exponentialdk.livejournal.com]

Especially sleeper sofas. Especially when those helping the injuree demonstrated far more confidence and willingness than ability and persistence.

No, I haven't seen anyone significantly injured this way, but I've sure seen my walls damaged.

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

Blearg! I helped move a sleeper sofa up to a second floor apartment. Never again!!!!!!

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Dropping it on your toes. Getting poked by the sharp end of a spring. Catching your fingers in the moving bits of a sleeper sofa. Jumping up and down on it, falling off, and deciding that you might possibly get some money if you sued the company that made the sofa.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Sofa-related accidents. I think that speaks for itself, really.

Though I have to admit I envision people getting themselves mangled by sleeper sofas that spontaneously fold up on them...

[cnoocy]

And there's always The Curious Sofa, a pornographic work by Ogdred Weary.

[mightymutt.livejournal.com]

I imagine violent back sprains while attempting to break the sloth induced inertia. Only possible when one remembers the potato chips are in the other room.

I'll admit the other comments seem more reasonable. :)

[davehogg.livejournal.com]

Probably had to sleep on the sofa you used to have.

[navrins]

Who keeps these statistics? And why? Do hospital staff really spend time filling out forms where they check a box next to "sofa-related?"

[saxikath]

This particular statistic came from the Statistical Abstract of the United States, specifically table 172, "Injuries Associated With Consumer Products: 1999." The line item in question is under the category of "Home furnishing," and is listed as "Sofas, couches, davenports, etc." It's an estimated total based on a sample of emergency rooms. My guess is that they look at the emergency room reports where the doctor asks, "So how did this happen?" But I don't know. The data apparently came from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. No, I didn't know they had one either.

[saxikath]

Here's more on the NEISS.

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

Whenever my old frathouse got new furniture, they retired the old stuff by throwing it off the roof ('twas a three-story house) until it fell apart.

(The best couch ever lasted five tosses!)

a new term

[exponentialdk.livejournal.com]

Would the victims be "couch mashed potatoes"?

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

Well, someone could attempt to flee from what's on the television by jumping up, attempting to jump over the back of the couch, catching his foot at the top of the couch and promptly doing a face plant onto the floor behind the couch.

Not that that's ever happened to me.

Theoretically, if it were to have happened to me, I would not actually have been injured significantly, so I wouldn't have counted towards this statistic.

[crossfire.livejournal.com]

Laughing themselves into a hernia because of how silly the word "sofa" sounds?