Recent article says about 15,000 vacuum cleaner accident/injuries per year in U.S. What sort of injuries can vacuum cleaner cause?

My vacuum cleaners rotating brush can do a hell of a tear-up job on a throw rug. It is a less powerful model than some so fingers or toes in there could be part of those yearly accident stats.

You can trip over them.

Here you can find a detailed report with the concerned body parts and a short description of the accidents: http://www.hospital-data.com/accidents/115-vacuum-cleaners/index.html

Vacuum cleaner injury of the penis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1968092/?page=1 Similar injury cited in the Darwin Awards: http://darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid2000-05.html Additional ones from the British Medican Journal: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/914/whats-up-with-vacuum-cleaner-wounds-to-the-penis Probably many of the above incidents were intentionally set up but reported as "accidents" by the "victims" who did not want to appear hilariously stupid for trying interesting things with vacuum cleaners. Those who have worked in ERs often have stories of various things that homos stick up one anothers' anuses, including delicate and potentially injurious things like the wide end of an old-time light bulb. It would not be out of the ordinary if one somehow did another with some vacuum cleaner attachment. Unexplained electrocution while handling a vacuum cleaner: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-10-24/news/1995297053_1_vacuum-cleaner-circuit-city-freak-accident Friction burns on chidren's hands from models with beater-brushes: http://emj.bmj.com/content/19/1/80.full

I can only imagine.

Dogs being scared comes to mind.

A lot of them are young boys who slide their penises or scrotums into the hose to get sexual stimulation. Instead, they get massive bruising and internal bleeding if they are lucky, and permanent damage including lifetime inability to get an erection or achieve orgasm with ejaculation if they are not. Parents of young boys: please keep any vacuum cleaners with hoses under lock and key, or you could end up without any hope of having grandchildren.