Can falling coconuts or flying coconuts kill you?

Here in the Dominican Republic, we have an abundance of coconut palms. They add charm and personality to the beaches they border. They are often depicted on tourist postcards and appear as an inspiring backdrop in many of the photographs taken. Still, tourists are often told not to sit under the coconut trees to avoid falling coconuts which could be dangerous. You’ll even see signs saying, “Watch out for falling coconuts.”

You will also see groves of coconut palms growing in agricultural fields as a cash crop to sell locally and export. A single coconut palm can produce between 50 and 150 coconuts per year and the Dominican Republic is one of the main exporters of fresh coconuts.

With all this in mind, I have seen questions like the following posted on the Internet:

1. Can falling coconuts kill you?

2. Can flying coconuts kill you during a hurricane?

3. Do people really die from falling coconuts?

I don’t want to sound alarmist, but the short answer is “yes” to the 3 questions above.

Before explaining further, I want to mention that Punta Cana, the most popular tourist destination in the Dominican Republic, is often referred to as “La Costa del Coco”. This is because the entire 30 to 40 mile stretch of Punta Cana coastline is lined with wind-sculpted coconut palms. As an eco-tour operator, I often take guests from Punta Cana on day trips to nearby Isla Saona, which is also fringed with coconut palms, so I’m sure you’ll understand my interest in this topic of potential dangers. due to falling coconuts and flying coconuts.

Actually, there was a peer-reviewed scientific study done in 2002 to determine bodily injury due to being hit by a coconut while sitting under a coconut palm tree. In the scholarly article resulting from this study, Dr. Peter Barss, a Canadian physician, reported two deaths and several serious head injuries due to impacts from falling coconuts. Some of these head injuries were severe enough to knock people out and put them in a coma. He was quite familiar with these cases as he worked as a doctor in the tropics for years and personally treated many patients who had been hit by coconuts.

From Dr. Barss’s study, it was calculated that if a coconut palm tree is 25 meters tall (more than 82 feet tall) and a 2-kilogram coconut (that’s 4.4 a pound of coconut) falls from this height, when it hits, hit at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, that’s about 50 miles per hour! Some coconut trees grow to be 35 meters tall (about 115 feet tall). No wonder a falling coconut can kill or seriously injure you!

So what happens to the flying coconuts picked up by a hurricane?

Well consider this. A mere Category 1 hurricane has sustained winds of over 74 miles per hour! A category 5 hurricane has sustained winds of over 155 miles per hour! It’s not a hard deduction that a coconut flying at this speed could kill you if it hits you in the skull.

Consider this: 155 miles per hour is the same speed as Andy Roddick’s very fast tennis serve and I’ve seen super tennis pro Roger Federer dodge it! Instead of a small soft tennis ball being fired at you, imagine what a 4-5 pound rock hard coconut missile could do if you don’t duck in time!

This explains why football helmets are sometimes added to hurricane preparedness kits in the Caribbean. It never hurts to protect your skull during a tropical storm. This is also why you should always pay attention to instructions given to you on how to properly cover up during a hurricane warning! Make sure to stay away from windows too because those coconut shell missiles can easily go through glass.

In the tropics, you will often see road crews and homeowners picking coconuts when a hurricane is expected to hit. It’s interesting to think of something as picturesque as the beautiful coconut palm becoming so dangerous, but it can happen and you should always be aware of it.

We often see comedy routines that feature a coconut hitting someone over the head while they are napping under a coconut tree, but consider what Dr. Barss said in an interview: “It may seem funny from our perspective, but when you deal with these injuries on a daily basis, it’s not funny at all.”

Keep in mind that the number of people who die each year from falling coconuts has been greatly exaggerated on the internet. The idea that more people die from falling coconuts than from sharks was a completely made up false story, with numbers (150 per year) pulled out of a hat. There is no real science or statistics to back it up. With that being said though, you should still avoid lounging under the coconut trees, especially in high wind conditions.

So when you travel to the Dominican Republic or anywhere else in the tropics where you grow coconut trees, be sure to maintain a healthy respect for the coconut palm tree as you take in its beauty. Above all, be sure to try a fresh coconut straight from the tree. It’s a force of nature in more ways than one.