Falling Coconuts!

[lawling]

A couple of evenings ago I saw a man almost being hit by a coconut falling from a tree on Beach Road, Jomtien. It missed him by inches and seemed to give him a right scare!

In fact, that was the second 'near miss' from falling coconuts I had witnessed in recent weeks!

It got me wondering if any readers had actually been hit or if they knew anyone who had received a thump on the head from a falling nut and had lived to tell the tale.

This being Thailand, I presume no legal redress would be available from the authorities on whose property the tree was growing in the event of an injury - or worse!

[Thaiboxer]

Some poor farmer was killed a few years back while asleep in his hammock. A coconut fell and cracked his skull open.

[Mossfinn]

Falling Coconuts

250,000,000/1 FALLING COCONUT

COCONUTS apparently kill around 150 people every year. Falling from a height of 80 feet, they can build up an impact speed of 50 mph.

I would probably treat this with a large slice of Farang propaganda

By the way

Good Luck

Moss

[AFKAFSinLOS]

Falling Coconuts

250,000,000/1 FALLING COCONUT

COCONUTS apparently kill around 150 people every year. Falling from a height of 80 feet, they can build up an impact speed of 50 mph.

I would probably treat this with a large slice of Farang propaganda

By the way

Good Luck

Moss

I think Falling Farang would be more dangerous

Some people refer to Thais as "Maprow" or Coconuts in the same way Thais refer to foreigners as "Farang" or Guava. Now if you hold that thought and reread the comments above it gives a whole different perspective.

Coconut = Thai person

eg I saw a person nearly killed by a Coconut/Thai person falling out of a tree...

Coconuts/Thai people kill at least 150 people a year. Surely more methinks, especially with things like war on drugs and the escalating (reported) violence against tourists

[aries27]

is this a serious thread or what?

lots of coconuts from where i come from too. strangely, i have never heard of someone who died because he got hit. i think the husk of the coconut sort of makes it softer on impact? a husked coconut (the one with the hard shell) is another story but they dont fall off trees like that. but if a tree is really high...hmm maybe.

anyway, the best way to avoid getting hit is always to look up the tree. if the coconuts are green, then its perfectly safe. if it has turned to brown and all dried and shrivelled, then watch out. they could fall anytime, strong winds or something.

[Thai at Heart]

A couple of evenings ago I saw a man almost being hit by a coconut falling from a tree on Beach Road, Jomtien. It missed him by inches and seemed to give him a right scare!

In fact, that was the second 'near miss' from falling coconuts I had witnessed in recent weeks!

It got me wondering if any readers had actually been hit or if they knew anyone who had received a thump on the head from a falling nut and had lived to tell the tale.

This being Thailand, I presume no legal redress would be available from the authorities on whose property the tree was growing in the event of an injury - or worse!

Careful, this might get used as the latest suicide explanation by the BiB

[Rimmer]

The coconut thread was done some time last year right here on TV

It's certainly not a joke nor farang propoganda. The Singapore authorities take it so seriously that all along the East Coast Park Way in Singapore there are signs warning people of falling coconuts and not to sit under Palm trees during strong winds.

The authorities here in Pattaya do cut the coconuts down along Jomtien beach so they must be aware of the problem as well.

[AFKAFSinLOS]

is this a serious thread or what?

....

anyway, the best way to avoid getting hit is always to look up the tree. if the coconuts are green, then its perfectly safe. if it has turned to brown and all dried and shrivelled, then watch out. they could fall anytime, strong winds or something.

Are you sure that's good advice. If you look up at the tree you could get hit square in the face...

[aries27]

oh i forgot to add...

dont look at the tree when you are already directly below it. just before you approach.

most resorts with coconut trees have staff to cut off matured cocos and even the branches. cheaper to hire people to do this than pay the medical costs and suits...

[sbk]

Well, I imagine that 150 dead a year statistic is worldwide and not specifically in Thailand. Somehow, I suspect most of the victims are actually people who get the coconuts down -- more people use monkeys now but it is still very common to use a long bamboo pole with a hook on the end and pull the coconut off the tree.

And I have asked an old woman in town about this and she can recall one person getting killed by a coconut when she was a young girl . She is about 80 now .

[AFKAFSinLOS]

oh i forgot to add...

dont look at the tree when you are already directly below it. just before you approach.

most resorts with coconut trees have staff to cut off matured cocos and even the branches. cheaper to hire people to do this than pay the medical costs and suits...

Lucky I saw your addition before walking outside.

For those cutting down coconuts as you describe, I think that would apply more to Philipine coconuts. Liability for medical suits of this type are thin on the ground in Thailand.

I also hope they don't consume vast quantities of lao khao before doing so. That could also be very dangerous: drunk in charge of a coconut...

[pickel]

I wouldn't be surprised if the number of deaths was higher. We've had more than a few of them come crashing through our cement tiled roof. We have to hire somebody to climb the tree to cut down the mature ones. Believe me, the speed at which they fall would be more than enough to crack a skull open, or break a neck.

[JetsetBkk]

Never park your car/pick-up near/under a coconut tree.

[AFKAFSinLOS]

Never park your car/pick-up near/under a coconut tree.

Excellent thread. Full of useful advice. People in glass houses................

...Should dress in the basement. Otherwise people will see your coconuts.

[Mossfinn]

The coconut thread was done some time last year right here on TV

Yup, I remembered it, but couldn't find it this time around.

It's certainly not a joke nor farang propoganda.

Of course not

Good Luck as you walk along Beach road, you might need it, but not for avoiding falling Coconuts

The authorities here in Pattaya do cut the coconuts down along Jomtien beach so they must be aware of the problem as well.

Moss

[sonnyJ]

Just to remind you that coconuts, farangs and even Thais fall at same speed if they have not grown wings or such. It's called gravity.

[susquosh]

Just to remind you that coconuts, farangs and even Thais fall at same speed if they have not grown wings or such. It's called gravity.

They fall at the same velocity.Speed = Mass x Velocity.

[tourleadersi]

Many moons ago when I was studying Tourism at Uni we were told that 3 times more tourists die each year from falling coconuts than die from shark attacks. Can't really see Spielberg making a new 'Jaws' series called 'Plummeting Nuts' though...

Can see the scene now, cut to tourist relaxing in hammock, then to coconut shaking in the tree, cue chello music, duh dun, duh dun, dun dun dun dun dalalaa, coconut falls, whack! tourist's head is replaced by coconut, wife screams, lifeguard blows his whistle, everyone runs into the water, grizzled battlehardened gardener looks intensely into the camera and says 'we're gonna need some bigger sheers/a higher ladder/a straw and cocktail umbrella.' Will have them queing out the doors. If anyone would like to buy the rights to the screenplay please PM me.

[tartempion]

Spent a week at Thung Wua Laen beach near Chumpon last week.

Lots of coconut trees at the beach, the hotel had a nice deck chair area under the trees.

Saw a thai parking his motorbike and carefully checking he was not parking it right under coconuts.

Must have been the first prudent Thai I observed in 10 years living here.

The reading a book in a deck chair a coconut come down a few trees away from me.

Yes I did check the trees before laying down.

Funny some people here do believe a falling coconut only hits your neighbour

Edited April 24, 2008 by tartempion

[duncaw]

They fall at the same velocity.Speed = Mass x Velocity.

Nope. Mass x Velocity = Momentum

Speed and Velocity are interchangable in this context.

[lawling]

Many moons ago when I was studying Tourism at Uni we were told that 3 times more tourists die each year from falling coconuts than die from shark attacks. Can't really see Spielberg making a new 'Jaws' series called 'Plummeting Nuts' though...

Can see the scene now, cut to tourist relaxing in hammock, then to coconut shaking in the tree, cue chello music, duh dun, duh dun, dun dun dun dun dalalaa, coconut falls, whack! tourist's head is replaced by coconut, wife screams, lifeguard blows his whistle, everyone runs into the water, grizzled battlehardened gardener looks intensely into the camera and says 'we're gonna need some bigger sheers/a higher ladder/a straw and cocktail umbrella.' Will have them queing out the doors. If anyone would like to buy the rights to the screenplay please PM me.

I thought I might have had a call from the local mayor telling me to keep the incident quiet in case it ruined the tourist trade!

But no demands either to close off Beach Road!

[jayjayjayjay]

This being Thailand, I presume no legal redress would be available from the authorities on whose property the tree was growing in the event of an injury - or worse!

and I think it would be pretty idiotic for there to "be" legal redress also. do we have a god given right to be able to sue anyone and everyone over an issue of nature like this........ if the coconut hits your spouse on the head and she clocks out, deal with it. The attitude of who can I "sue" leaves me wondering why westerners can be so greddy.

Edited April 24, 2008 by jayjayjayjay

[klikster]

For about a year, I lived in a house that backed up to a coconut grove. I could occasionally hear the "thud" of coconuts falling. Not all of them were "brown and shriveled". You can actually feel the vibrations on the ground when a large one impacts nearby.

And green coconuts do fall.

One acquaintance told me about getting hit on the arm by a falling coconut on Mali. A couple of years ago in Bangsaphan, a young boy was in the hospital and in danger of dying after being hit.

It may make a nice joke (or not) .. but probably not if a coconut hits you.

[Scott]

I once got hit by a 'fond' or branch falling from a coconut tree. It didn't hurt me, but I did get scratched up by the thing and it scared the absolute crap out of me!

Now I only sit under Durian trees.

[Cuban]

i think the husk of the coconut sort of makes it softer on impact?

This is not the case, the weight of a coconut is in the 'coconut water' inside the kernel as well as the water within the fibers of the husk itself, I don't have a coconut to hand but guess 3kg is about right, the outer skin/husk is quite tough the force of impact would be tramsmitted through a small cross section of the coconut to the victim's nut (head). Rather than the husk deform during impact and so spread the force of the impact I think the surface would be uniform, a smaller contact area means more damage, when pressed with a thumb the husk is more easily deformed due to slow displacement of the husk water.

Using some very rough calulations a 3kg coconut falling 7 meters would break a human skull with a contact surface area of about 2cm square.

--------------------------------------

While I was looking for some figures on the breaking force of an averagve human head I found this wonderful web site - it looks at the science behind some of the scenes portrayed in movies and whether a particular event is possible or not.

[Gary A]

Joke about it you like, but it is a real danger. A friend of mine had a chair/ lounger under a coconut tree. A quite large coconut fell and broke the chair. I wouldn't have wanted to have been sitting in that chair.

[morrobay]

The velocity of a falling object,discounting air resistance, = square root (2gh)

where g = 32'/sec and h in feet.

So a coconut 80 feet high hits ground at : square root (64x80) = 71 feet/sec

(71'/sec) x 3600 sec/hr=255600 feet/hr

(255600feet/hr) x (1 mile/5280 feet) = 48.4 miles/hr

[klikster]

The velocity of a falling object,discounting air resistance, = square root (2gh)

where g = 32'/sec and h in feet.

So a coconut 80 feet high hits ground at : square root (64x80) = 71 feet/sec

(71'/sec) x 3600 sec/hr=255600 feet/hr

(255600feet/hr) x (1 mile/5280 feet) = 48.4 miles/hr

After hearing (and actually seeing one) coconuts fall, my paranoia kicked in. I had to drive regularly along a couple of local roads where coconut trees actually lean out over the road. It was very common to see fallen coconuts on the pavement.

I shuddered to think if one of those came through my windshield.

I suppose they are also risky for motorbikes .. fallen ones might be hard to see at night.