What?

I have heard from multiple sources that 100 people choke to death every year... on ballpoint pens.  How the h*** do you choke on a ballpoint pen?  Do they get taken apart and the individual parts swallowed?  Some of the parts are pretty small.  But then, if they were small parts, swallowing them wouldn't make you choke anyway.  Maybe it's people chewing on the end of the pen, thinking about what to write next.  But how would the pen get from your teeth all the way into your throat?  If their hand slips, I guess.  Or it somehow hits something.  I can just imagine someone committing "murder by pen" in which the pen is shoved down the throat.  But 100 people?  Every year?  Some of that has to be stupid and accidental.  Again, how the h*** does this happen?  How do you choke on a ballpoint pen?