The biggest factor is selection bias. If you are in the hospital with some terrible medical condition you aren’t going to Burning Man.
It would be interesting to look at cause of death at Burning Man, I would expect it to differ significantly from the population overall (even accounting for age).
Given that firearms are prohibited and motor vehicle traffic is limited to 5mph, that alone would take out two unnatural causes of death. Also, drowning is a lot less likely to occur in the desert.
This year of the 3 deaths, 1 was just a heart attack in someone around 60 yrs old (a ranger who was working, so not drug related most likely). The other fell from an installation. Some of these are literally just scaffolding with a couch on top or something - I climbed one and was terrified and even said "wow, I will be surprised if someone doesn't fall off this intoxicated at night".
Some people see that as a feature though - they want the danger and lack of regulation and safety. It's part of why they attend I guess.
note: it was my first time - i'm not a "burner", just wanted to finally see what all the hype was about
It's good to give any sort of thing you're going to climb at the burn a bit of a once over and think about failure modes and worst cases before going on.
In 2018 there was a tower of cars on a spike. [1][2]
One of the cars bent in half (turns out cars aren't design to be supported by a stake in the middle but instead on their two axles. Who would have guessed).
Climbing was closed for the rest of the week.
In 2016 there was a giant boar you could climb on that swiveled at the base and head. There were rumors going around of severed fingers. Surprisingly (or not) it was welded stationary mid-week. [3][4]
zeroonetwothree · · focus · HN ↗
It would be interesting to look at cause of death at Burning Man, I would expect it to differ significantly from the population overall (even accounting for age).
swerner · · focus · HN ↗
bherms · · focus · HN ↗
Some people see that as a feature though - they want the danger and lack of regulation and safety. It's part of why they attend I guess.
note: it was my first time - i'm not a "burner", just wanted to finally see what all the hype was about
rottencupcakes · · focus · HN ↗
In 2018 there was a tower of cars on a spike. [1][2]
One of the cars bent in half (turns out cars aren't design to be supported by a stake in the middle but instead on their two axles. Who would have guessed).
Climbing was closed for the rest of the week.
In 2016 there was a giant boar you could climb on that swiveled at the base and head. There were rumors going around of severed fingers. Surprisingly (or not) it was welded stationary mid-week. [3][4]
[1] <a href="https://www.rgj.com/story/life/arts/burning-man/2018/08/29/burning-man-art-installation-closed-after-someone-fell-off/1133499002/" rel="nofollow">https://www.rgj.com/story/life/arts/burning-man/2018/08/29/b...
[2] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/9crpce/night_at_the_climb_aka_tower_of_terror/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/9crpce/night_at...
[3] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/51d1t5/comment/d7b3k2j/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/51d1t5/comment/...
[4] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4l-eAJT1Cg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4l-eAJT1Cg