Safety fears over falling pears A council has cordoned off pear trees in a public park over fears falling fruit could land on someone’s head. Two black pear trees in Cripplegate Park in Worcester have been sealed off with a safety barrier and tape and a sign warns people of falling fruit. A city council spokesman said the precaution was cheaper than the potential legal cost if someone was hit on the head with a pear and sued.
So says an October 3, 2006 BBC report. Concerned public officials would do well to consult the study that won the 2001 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize: Dr. Peter Barss’s “Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts.”
(Thanks to investigator Adiyasa Dwitama for bringing this to our attention.)