Recently, Redditor u/Deviant55 asked, "What’s really dangerous but everyone treats it like it’s safe?" I'm gonna be honest — some of these I saw coming, but a couple actually surprised me. Here are 16 examples they shared:
1. "Sunburns would be treated much differently if they were called by their true name, radiation burns."
2. "Wild animals. I was in Thailand when a 30-year-old got bitten by a monkey. Her complaint? No one had warned her not to pet the monkeys. Honest to God."
"The wild animal acted naturally. The true danger here was her stupidity."
3. "Water on the road. You might be able to drive through it, but more often than not you shouldn't try to."
4. "Everyday household cleaning chemicals. Especially if you mix them to make a 'better, stronger' cleaner."
5. "Hiking. I get a lot of tourists in my area trying to casually summit the local 14,000-foot mountain in sandals. Some weeks in the summer are absolutely nuts for search and rescue and the emergency room staff."
"It’s frankly disturbing how common this kind of interaction is. But a lot of people don’t have the exposure to nature to really understand that the elements can and will endanger you at the drop of a hat."
6. "Infections. Every person reacts differently to them — don't assume you are the average."
"I met a woman and her husband in 2018 at a show, nice people. A few months later she messaged our group chat and her husband had died of sepsis. He’d been sick but refused to go to the hospital because of expenses. In the end, he lost his life trying to save money. He was only in his early 30s, too."
7. "Alcohol and benzos are some of the only substances that can physically cause death from withdrawal. One needs a script, and one I can get walking 10 minutes down the street."
8. "Blunt kitchen knives. One might think, 'Oh, this is just a flat piece of steel,' but cutting turns into tearing and crushing. The extra force this takes can easily send the knife off in an unintended direction in a swift and uncontrollable manner. Then, you find out what a flat piece of steel can do to your fingers."
9. "Revealing personal information about yourself on the internet."
10. "Childbirth for both the mother and the child."
"I just found out that the US has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of another high income country."
11. "Long hair around pulleys and belts. There’s a YouTube channel where two young ladies are working around a sawmill with long hair, and I can’t count how many times people have begged them in the comments to tuck their hair up. They don’t."
"In 11th grade I had hair down to my butt was was weirdly pretty good at working the horizontal lathe at my school. It has tons of rotating parts — it’s used to cut and shave down pieces of metal. I had my hair in a pony tail instead of a bun and I thought someone was pulling my hair. Then, my head slammed down to the machine and within like three seconds my hand broke because I put my hand in to save my hair. My classmate pulled the plug on the machine and saved my life."
12. "Riding a horse is comparable with serious extreme sports, and head injuries are one of the most common."
"A few days before my wedding, my wife, my sister, and a couple of her kids went to a ranch where we rode horses for an hour or two. Fun outing, right? My sister fell off her horse and walked back with it — she wasn't going to get back on.
For the next couple of days, she was telling us she must have pulled a muscle or something when she fell because it kept hurting. 'Yeah, yeah,' we'd say, a bit sick of hearing about it.
She finally went to the hospital. Had two broken ribs, a punctured lung, and had to spend the night while they drained her abdominal cavity."
13. "Motorcycles, ATVs, really anything without a cage around it. Even if you wear a helmet, the brunt of the impact force goes on your spinal column."
14. "Going to a bar, drinking, and driving home. It's so goddamn casual."
Just yesterday I was in my living room when I heard tires squeal and then BOOM! and glass! I live in a basement apartment.
Turned out some guy who'd been on a three-day bender passed out behind the wheel and drove his minivan into my building. Took out three other cars in the process. His van was crashed like five feet from my unit's windows.
I shudder to think what would have happened if any of my neighbors were walking their dogs or going somewhere with their kids when it happened."
15. "Trampolines, especially with multiple people."
—u/wolfthedestroyer and u/Endl4ss_
"As a little kid (5 or 6) I was on a trampoline with my older cousin and her friend, who were both probably double my size. At one point they decided to have me bounce way higher, so they both jumped. I went flying up over the sides (it was enclosed) and came down hard. I have no idea how I didn't break my neck that day."
16. "The springs in your garage door."
"One of those yeeted itself across my garage, through two paint cans, and punched a hole in the drywall. We installed safety cables after that surprise…"
Are there any other things that are actually pretty dangerous but everyone acts like they're safe? Tell us in the comments below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.