McDonald’s Soda Fountain Kills Customer

If you thought the food at McDonald’s was going to kill you think again, it could be one of the company’s soda fountain machines.

An 80-year-old woman in Georgia was eating at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant when she went to use the bathroom and never returned, she was later found in the bathroom having died from carbon dioxide poisoning.

It turns out that the substance, used to help carbonate beverages in the machines, was accidentally piped through a leaky gas line in the walls between the soda fountain machine and the restroom.

According to the police chief who was investigating the death, “at a high level of concentration, it displaces oxygen” which cuased the elderly woman to die by way of asphyxiation.

All of the gas lines and valves leading to the soda machine have been replaced and nine other visitors to the fast food restaurant were also treated for symptoms caused by leaked carbon dioxide.

I have a feeling we’ll be reading about a McDonald’s lawsuit in the near future, although the police chief doesn’t anticipate criminal charges since the leak appears to be an accident.

In the meantime the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration have opened an investigation into possible workplace safety violations at the McDonald’s location where the accident occurred.