Seen any near misses or accidents involving champagne corks?

Question

Got hit directly on the eye, blind for 5mths.

Answer 1

Oh yeah. Put a hole once in a plastic drop ceiling panel in the kitchen, another cork hit someone in the head, hit a wall and it zinged off there and hit another person. Finally learned ages ago to use a towel to cover and hold the cork so that it never goes flying off again.

Answer 2

I saw a man open a wine bottle in a restaurant, took out the overhead light, sparks flying and glass spraying.

Jim Gibson, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, December 31, 2005 Article tools
Printer friendly
E-mail
Font: * * * * VICTORIA - It's the warning dads have barked down through the ages: "Be careful or someone will lose an eye!''

Of course, dad was referring to pointed sticks, errant slapshots on the driveway and other youthful missiles. He didn't worry about kids losing an eye from a popped champagne cork.

Back to Body & Health

However, the ominous warning is just as valid now for bubbly-quaffing adult children.

"There is a lot of pressure in those bottles,'' says Roger Soane, general manager of Victoria's Fairmont Empress.

The resulting high velocity of the cork can cause eye injuries, according to Dr. Frederick Meikelberg, head of ophthalmology at the University of B.C.'s faculty of medicine. In fact, says Meikelberg, "it's a pretty common eye injury.''

So common the American Academy of Ophthalmology recently issued a warning citing champagne cork accidents as the most frequent holiday eye injury.

Victoria ophthalmologist Lawrence Brierley estimates he's treated six or seven patients with serious eye injuries from corks in his 25 years of practice. One, he remembers, was on New Year's Eve.

As a blunt object, the cork is less likely than a bungee cord to cut the eye, according to Brierley.

Still, the impact could cause internal bleeding or affect the eye's internal structure.

"You'll know (there's a problem) if you can't see,'' says Brierley, who recommends any vision problems that persist after the immediate impact be checked by a doctor.

Admittedly, that explosive pop and whoosh of bubbly foam is half the fun of opening champagne, says Soane. However, he adds, liability concerns mean customers shouldn't hear those celebratory sounds in restaurants or hotel dining rooms.

There is a safer way to release a cork, according to Emory Haines, operations manager of the Hotel Grand Pacific. Haines has yet to see a released cork cause injuries, but then professional servers are well-schooled in the art.

A pro's cork ``sighs'' rather than pops from the bottle. Nor does it bounce around the room the way corks often do at private gatherings.

By her own reckoning, Misty Kendal, Victoria-based manager of Hotel Grand Pacific's principal restaurants, has opened "millions'' of bottles in her professional career, with only one minor incident, fortunately out of view of diners. Kendal even shocked guests at her own wedding by "sabre-ing'' the tops off the champagne bottles for the toasts.

Sabre-ing is just what it sounds like a judicious whack with a sword on the bottle neck and shouldn't be tried at home by kids of any age, who risk losing more than an eye.

Kendal offers the following safer way to enjoy sparkling wines:

What's needed: a cloth, sharp fingernails or foil cutter, bucket with 50/50 mix of ice and water, bottle of bubbly and champagne flutes, which retain bubbles longer than flatter bowl glasses.

- Don't shake or wave the bottle around. It agitates the contents. Ensure the sparking wine is chilled. A warm bottle is more likely to pop unexpectedly. Leave the bottle in the ice bucket or on the table while removing the cork.

- Hold the bottle firmly in one hand with the other hand over top of the cork while removing the foil and wire cage.

- Point the bottle 45 degrees away from yourself and anyone else. With a cloth over the top, keep the hand firmly on top of the cork while slowly twisting with a slight upward pull. Continue until the cork is almost out of the neck. Counteract any upward pressure with a slight downward push until the cork is removed.

- Partially fill one flute, then another, and alternate until full.

- Quick toast to the New Year, then sip and savour.

Victoria-Times Colonist

Answer 3

Wow, that's nasty, we have taken to going outside to open them because those corks sure do fly.

Answer 4

i got one square in my eye, i thought i had blinded myself.