More people are killed each year by flying champagne corks than bites from poisonous spiders. Of the nearly two dozen champagne-accident fatalities a year, more than a third occur at weddings. Some Highlights:

In 2005, children’s entertainer Marlon Pistol – known for his giant blow-up elephant Colonel Jumbo – was killed when driving along a Californian highway on his way to a party. As he sped down the motorway the 20ft balloon elephant began to inflate, filling the cab almost instantly and causing him to crash.

A 58-year-old man from Albany, Australia, was blowing a chewing gum bubble while driving when it burst and stuck to his glasses. Blinded, he drove off the road and plunged down a hill to his death.

A man from Cambridgeshire was killed in February 2004 when his wardrobe fell to the floor and pinned the door shut while he was cleaning inside. He was found dead inside after trying to gouge his way out for a week.

Dr Oscar Dominguez, a 45- year-old psychiatrist in Sao Paulo, Brazil, admitted he’d shot and killed his patient while she told him about her sex life. He told the court: ‘I couldn’t take those nutcases any more.’

In March 1989, in South Carolina, prisoner Michael Anderson Godwin, who had recently had his sentence of execution by electric chair reduced to life imprisonment, died while he was sitting on the metal toilet in his cell. He was trying to fix his TV set, bit into the wire and electrocuted himself.

In November 2005, Li Xiao Meng, 16, a budding guitarist from China, got so carried away while bouncing on his bed mimicking a rock star that he flew out of his window and fell three floors to his death.

A Brazilian pilot was showing off to his girlfriend by performing loop-the-loops over her house in his Cessna aircraft. At the bottom of one loop, he flew low over the house and shouted ‘I love you’ – just before the wing of his plane clipped the chimney and sent the plane crashing to the ground, killing him instantly.