Accidents
Numerous injuries accompanied M-80 use during the 1950s and 1960s, and still occur, as M-80s are still produced and sold. Despite instructions to only ignite the product on the ground (many M-80s even have the words "do not hold in hand" written on the tube), many users attempt to light an M-80 while holding it, then throw it before it explodes. Others attempt to relight a device that went out. Due to their illicit nature, M-80s may also contain unstable compositions, such as picric acid, nitroglycerin or chlorate/sulfur mixtures, which adds to the possibility of injury. There have been documented cases of users losing their fingers or hands. Peter Criss, the drummer for the rock band Kiss, was a victim of an M-80 during a 1976 Richmond Coliseum concert when a fan threw an M-80 onto the stage, nearly knocking him off his drum riser and leaving him with partial hearing loss for the remainder of the night.
Read more about this topic: M-80 (explosive)
Famous quotes containing the word accidents:
“Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“I can forgive even that wrong of wrongs,
Those undreamt accidents that have made me
Seeing that Fame has perished this long while,
Being but a part of ancient ceremony
Notorious, till all my priceless things
Are but a post the passing dogs defile.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)