10 Common and Uncommon Causes of Death, From Smoking to Serial Killers

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Forget fear of flying, there’s a new scare going around New York City: fear of riding.

New Yorkers are up in arms over the death of Young & Rubicam executive Suzanne Hart, who was crushed Wednesday when boarding an elevator in her company’s midtown office.

Hart’s death was a potentially unnecessary tragedy in a building rife with elevator safety violations (citywide elevator inspections have since been ordered). Still, elevator accidents remain exceedingly rare, and fatalities are even less common—but they do occasionally happen and can be harrowing for victims.

From smoking tobacco to lightning strikes, The Daily Beast looks at 10 causes of death that occur more frequently than elevator-related fatalities. (Airplane crashes, for what it’s worth, are also very rare—in developed nations the odds of dying on a scheduled flight are about 1 in 14 million)

This list is not all-inclusive (heart disease and cancer are the first and second most common causes of death in the United States), but is merely an illustrative sampling of accidents and illnesses that cause more deaths per year—many more—than elevator-related incidents.

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Deaths per million: .10
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Frederic J. Brown, AFP / Getty Images

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Deaths per million: .13
Source: ABC News

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

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Deaths per million: 3.3
Source: Medscape

Rick Barrentine / Corbis

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Deaths per million: 6.0
Source: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

William Whitehurst / Corbis

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Deaths per million: 8.6
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Corbis

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Deaths per million: 97.1
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Corbis

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Deaths per million: 106.8
Source: National Highway Transportation Safety Administration

Erik Von Weber / Corbis

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Deaths per million: 162.9
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Frederic J. Brown, AFP / Getty Images

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Deaths per million: 243.1
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

John Tlumacki, The Boston Globe / Getty Images

10 Common and Uncommon Causes of Death, From Smoking to Serial Killers

The Daily Beast finds 10 common and uncommon causes of death.