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Some people spend their days working safely in an office. For others, every day can be a dangerous challenge. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 2.8 million nonfatal on-the-job injuries in the U.S. in 2022, and about 374 million workers suffer nonfatal injuries every year globally.
Accidents can happen anywhere and in any profession, but some careers are inherently more dangerous. Seeking examples of these hazards, one netizen recently asked, "What's the 'Widowmaker' of your career field or hobby?" Turns out, danger lurks for veterinarians, divers, electricians, mail carriers, and fishers alike, only in different ways. Read on and find out which careers are the riskiest according to the people who work in them.
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#1
For kayak fishing, it's a spring day over 75 degrees. Guys go out on their local pond or bay wearing shorts and a T instead of a drysuit, and accidentally capsize into water still in the 40s. The shock alone often causes them to aspirate water and drown. But you only have minutes to get out before you succumb anyway. And they're typically not wearing life preservers, which can't do much in these circumstances anyway except aid body recovery.
Back when I paddled whitewater, it was trees in the water, colloquially called a 'strainer'. Even in flat water with a strong current, a swimmer caught in a tree is often pushed down and drowns.
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#2
Cook here. For me it's those commercial industrial sized hobart mixers. Those things are out for blood and will absolutely amputate or pulverize your limbs if you aren't extremely careful.
#3
Ladders. No, seriously. Ladders.
My profession has innumerable ways to get injured, sometimes seriously, but falls are the most common and most deadly. Just like with every dangerous thing(vehicles, power tools, electricity, heavy machinery, etc) people are super careful with them at first then get comfortable, then get stupid.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 minutes ago
That's exactly how/why my dad's accident occurred :( He wasn't at work, he was at home, but it was the same concept. He went up a ladder to our roof to help put up Christmas lights on Thanksgiving Day. He was in flip-flops and had had a few beers with lunch. The ladder tipped back from the roof as soon as he reached the top, and it fell backwards, taking him with it. He fell about 10 feet and smashed his skull and ended up with several subdermal hematomas. He had catastrophic brain damage and was fully disabled after he came out of a 6-month coma. He never recovered. He had to have a feeding tube, a trach hole, and wore diapers for the next 21 years. His entire life vanished in the space of seconds, all because he was not careful or aware enough when he went up that ladder. I don't sit and blame him any more (I did at first - his accident happened when I was 18 and I was devastated) but it absolutely could have been prevented.
#4
I work in Veterinary Medicine so the rate of people who off themselves is quite high anyway, but compassion fatigue is a big warning sign. .
#5
I work in manufacturing. Lockout tagout violations are our widowmaker.
Someone was just k****d at another site in our network by a machine designed to push stacks of fully-loaded milk crates (stacked up to 8 high) into a square to palletize them. Stepped in to fix a jam-up but didnt stop the machine properly. Every site had to have an emergency meeting on LOTO protocol.
Upstaged75 29 minutes ago
LOTO means that you disable the machine so that it can't accidentally be turned on while someone is working on it. There are lots of horrible stories about people who didn't follow the procedure and d.ied an awful d.eath.
#6
I’m a primary care physician. I’d argue it’s the “50 year old person who hasn’t been to the doctor in 30 years because they ‘don’t get sick’.”.
#7
Mailman, getting hit by other drivers in these tin cans we call vehicles, extreme heat, and dogs.
#8
For fishing, it’s definitely not wearing a life vest/PFD.
Five d**d so far this year from the areas I fish and follow on social media. All the same story: they took the vest with them but didn’t put it on. .
UnclePanda 42 minutes ago
I bought four of the inflatable life preservers for my boat - you don't really notice them after a few minutes. I also bought an extra recharge kit and jumped in the lake. It expanded as advertised and I would have had to work to get my face in the water.
#9
Cirrus aircraft. Often referred to as doctor k*****s.
A lot of rich guys go out, get their private pilots license, then go out and buy the most expensive aircraft they can find. It's a Cirrus SR-22. It's a complex aircraft to fly and a lot of low skill pilots get themselves k****d in it. They aren't forgiving to fly like a Cessna 172 or another type of Piper trainer
Back in the day it was the Bonanza V Tail.
Upstaged75 24 minutes ago
You couldn't pay me enough to get in any small plane. Regardless of how good the pilot is. I don't even like the commercial commuter jets. The plane needs to have at least 3 seats on each side to make me comfortable. Probably irrational, but I feel how I feel. 🤷♀️
#10
Alcoholism is the widowmaker of the alcohol industry. From producers to salespeople, distributors to retail/bar sales. 20%+ alcoholism rate that I’ve seen many people ruin their lives in this career. It can be lucrative and a lot of fun but it can also take hold and be tough to shake.
Upstaged75 23 minutes ago
I worked in a fancy hotel when I was younger. The sommelier was a cool lady, but a total alcoholic. I hope she's OK now.
#11
Sparky here. I’ve seen the guys who have no fear of live voltage and they wind up getting hurt or k****d every time. It just takes the smallest mistake and you can only go so long without making one.
#12
Scientific diver. Decompression sickness, or, "the bends" almost always means the end of diving and sometimes is a literal widow maker.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 4 minutes ago
That is what kílled the rescue diver who tried to recover the bodies of the Maldives divers :(
#13
I’m a musician… the two biggest hazards are either d**g use or driving home tired after a late gig.
#14
Armored truck driver/ ATM technician here. Biggest one is not wearing your vest when out of the vehicle. The threat is still there when you have the vest on, but your odds are a little better and your beneficiary will get a larger insurance payout if you have it on and something should happen.
#15
I’m a runner. So cars, or more like the idiots operating the cars while also on their phones.
#16
In zookeeping where I was, zebras were known as keeper k*****s. I only worked with primates, birds, and a couple smaller carnivores. (Of which there are some more hazardous than others).
#17
Film crew: 12+ hour days + driving and stress. First ADs have a life expectancy of about 55 because of stress.
#18
Eye doctor here. Not wearing safety glasses. It can take alot less to destroy an eye than you think. There are even documented cases of permanent damage to eyes from small nerf darts, let alone more serious trauma like from an airsoft or nail gun ricochet.
#19
I work at a Target store. There have been a few employees hit by cars in the years I’ve worked there.
I don’t care if you’re going 10mph in a parking lot, pay attention while you’re driving.
#20
Brass player here. You can tear the orbicularis oris (muscle around your lips) by using improper technique, which easily creeps in if you’re overdoing it by playing beyond your endurance. I’ve had this happen, but was inspired to work toward recovery after reading about Colin Williams (trombone).
Also, focal dystonia. In sports it’s called the “yips”. This is a neurological issue where you cease to be able to perform a fine motor action, such as forming your embouchure, pressing your instrument’s keys with speed and coordination, etc. This has ended the careers of numerous virtuosos such as Warren Deck (tuba) and Phil Smith (trumpet) due to their inability to form their embouchure, as well as oboists and flutists due to their inability to press the correct keys.
These two problems turn musicians’ lives inside out.
#21
I own a countertop company. Plenty of people get crushed by stone slabs falling on them.
#22
I'm a motorcyclist. I'd classify the Yamaha Vmax as a widowmaker. Accelerates like a race bike, turns and stops like a 900 pound Harley. Plus they don't make new ones anymore. If you buy one now, it was probably ridden and maintained by the kind of person who would read this description and want one anyway.
#23
Construction = everything will k**l you. The fatal four:
1) Falls (especially from 6’ or more)
2) Caught In Between (especially between heavy equipment)
3) Struck By (heavy equipment and materials huge here)
4) Electricity
But the biggest k****r of all: inexperience. It’s always the new guys with little training that get hurt and k****d.
#24
I work EMS, so what we call a "Widowmaker" is a heart attack specifically involving the left anterior descending artery. I know other fields call other things widowmakers, like I saw an electrician call a double male ended extension cord a Widowmaker, and car people describe a certain type of jack one as well.
#25
I’m a meteorologist, and in college, we had a storm chasing field study that was a requirement. With college kids out there, we obviously were SUPER careful. But there’s several stories where chasers got too close….
#26
Psych nurse - Quit first job because mgmt wouldn't replace ceiling tiles where patients were starting to hide weapons. Head nurse and another quit too. Cops would drop violent patients off in cuffs and release them to us.
#27
Pilot. Multiengine flight instruction specifically is probably the most dangerous type of instruction. The margin between ‘maneuver we have to demonstrate’ and ‘unrecoverable spin’ is very narrow.
David Paterson 34 minutes ago
Oh golly, that happened to Buzz Aldrin when he was still a test pilot.
#28
Not securing your uprigging harness, video wall with poor latches and fully loaded stage decking carts in small spaces.
(Live events and theater)
You’d think it’s the huge quantities of electricity. But actually people are generally very aware and safe around the electricity.
It’s the equipment cart that weighs more than a rhino getting out of control that straight k***s people at my job. New People wonder why I’m the middle aged floor lady who barks about the d**n carts all day, it’s because they will k**l you d**d and new people take them way too lightly all the time. .
#29
I had to look it up, but for teachers it’s apparently autoimmune diseases. Likely from chronic stress. Or “conditions where their immune system attacks it’s own internal organs.” Good thing I had that before I started teaching.
#30
Chemical engineering: About a generation ago, it used to be cancer. Now we are a lot better at chemical hygiene and safety in general.
David Paterson 28 minutes ago
My father was a chemical engineer, and joked that he wanted a list of the deadly chemicals he worked with on his gravestone.
#31
In the park ranger world, probably literal widow makers. (Hanging trees/tree branches.)
If not those, probably motor vehicle crashes,falls (we have a lot of 200+ year old wells randomly in the woods) lightning, or an irate visitor who has nothing to loose.
#33
Crunch time and lack of sleep. It’s better but back a couple of decades ago when I was a young guy in IT, I worked an on call job for a number of years. Averaged about 4 hours of sleep before pages and interruptions for about three years. I mostly got by, lots of slipping in naps, and a decade of insomnia after.
The older folks in the job though? Had more than one teammate rushed to the hospital because of heart attacks. Just the exhaustion and stress eventually gets to people.
It’s largely why now that I’m the old guy I absolutely tell jobs up front that I don’t do on call and that I won’t work for companies that don’t staff properly in the first place.
#34
I would say having long hair that can be grabbed and the potentially fatal head injuries that can result from that. I work in behavioral health.
#35
Nothing really for my industry (illustration), but for a couple hobbies there are some dangerous situations.
For gardening, specifically growing squash and saving seeds, there's something called toxic squash syndrome which can happen when wild squash crossed with cultivated squash and can actually k**l you.
For canning: not following tested recipes and safe procedures can end up with botulism, which is also deadly. And you can't taste it or see it. Which is why I don't accept home canned goods from people I wouldn't trust with my life.
#36
In SCUBA diving it could be a few things since most of the safety precautions are about lowering the risk not really eliminating it:
* a nitrogen bubble that makes it to your brain or heart
* oxygen toxicity resulting in seizure (this results from high partial pressure of oxygen when you go deep with a Nitrox/Trimix blend that is too oxygen rich). . . Or you get unlucky
* panic. . . You can get nitrogen narcosis which makes you feel drunk or buzzed and then you can make questionable decisions and/or panic
It is a great hobby but gotta remember the dangers. . . We are going where we are not supposed to be.
#37
My whole industry, welcome to the horsey world.
David Paterson 21 minutes ago
This is not a joke. For example 2/3 of all deaths from nonvenomous animals in Sweden are from horses. Similar for Australia. You don't even have to ride a horse to be injured by one.
#38
I’m a Realtor. I could make the alcohol joke but really, meeting absolute strangers in empty houses is not the safest thing you can do for a living.
#39
Foraging: D***h caps, destroying angels, poison hemlock…mainly through misidentification as an edible species.
#40
Historical reenacting: 60-year-old desk jockeys trying to run around like 18-year-old soldiers. Heatstroke and heart attacks abound.
#41
I’m a heart surgeon so that would be the LAD (widowmaker) But fixing that is also the Porschemaker.
David Paterson 17 minutes ago
LAD = left anterior descending coronary artery. Porschemaker = big money earner.
#42
In trucking its the large rolls of sheet metal loaded onto a flatbed, colloquially called s*****e coils.
#43
Former dog groomer. stress/burnout but also groomer’s lung from inhaling tons of hair. i’m not kidding. pretty gnarly (in a bad way). plus bites getting infected.
#44
I drive a concrete truck. Two of the biggest fears are rolling your truck over while you’re sitting next to a ledge on a job site or blowing a front(steer) tire on the highway and losing control while loaded and causing a major accident. The truck is top heavy and weighs over 70,000lbs. when loaded….
#45
I work in armed security. If you bounce in clubs, alcohol, women, late hours and egos are dynamite. A friend of mine had to k**l a patron who threatened him a few years ago. He never wanted to hurt anyone. He was never the same.
#46
Drag & queer nightlife entertainment in general: Unless you're at the absolute highest levels, it's not uncommon for your pay for a night's work to be $43 in tips and free drink tickets from the bar you're performing at, and so letting those free drinks go un-drunk feels like turning down half your pay. On top of that, your job requires you to be funny and sociable in the wee hours of the night while encouraging your audience to spend more and more money at the bar, while wearing uncomfortable costumes for hours on end, and on top of *that* all the societal factors that lead to higher substance a***e rates in the queer community in general, and your entire social and professional life (often one and the same) taking place in bars and clubs... it's a wonder there's anyone in this industry *without* full blown alcoholism. .
What do you think ?
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