NEWS: Car Crashes Kill 40,000 in U.S. Every Year

Over forty thousand people die in automobile accidents each year in the United States. Weekends, holidays, the summer and fall, and the early evening hours are the most deadly. Independence Day is the deadliest day of all. Researchers hope these data will alert people to the potential dangers of driving.



I've been in bunch of car crashes ranging from the very minor to very severe and I have been struck vehicles twice, resulting in serious and near fatal injuries, so no one needs to remind me of how dangerous automobiles can be. However, as bad as these numbers are, in the sixties and seventies, the numbers were about fifty thousand deaths per year. Alcohol is a factor in very many accidents at night and on weekends.

[edit on 5-2-2005 by Banshee]

I dont see a solution, besides going back to horse-and-buggy, but you can improve your chances by sheer mass. Everyone go out and buy a large Chrysler Imperial and anyone you hit, besides an immoveable bridge or tree, will succomb to the idea of 'crumple zones', besides you of course.

Cigerettes still kill more, but they are so good. It's only 109 deaths a day due to car accidents than, 4.54 an hour, or 1 person every 13.21 minutes.

[edit on 3-2-2005 by The Division Bell]

Can you actually prove cigarettes kill more people? I think cars are a great deal deadlier than cigarettes.

Pro tobacco research dollars dried up, anti tobacco research dollars flooded the scientific community, studies came out claiming all kinds of ludicrous things in response to government nudging. At the maximum believable exposure, tobacco kills fewer people, by a factor of three, than forest fires in Canada.

By comparison, the greatest cause of lung cancer is small radioactive particles kicked up from nuclear tests decades ago. They fall to earth, settle on beaches, mix up with rain, you name it. It only takes one radioactive micro-particle to cause terminal lung cancer, by comparison rats and humans who breathe a steady diet of smoke show fewer incidences of lung cancer than a control group living in America. If people knew how many died annually as a direct result of government programs involved in nuclear testing, class action lawsuits would be way of life in America well into the forseeable future.

Smoking actually prevents terminal lung cancer to an extent, because of the increase in muccous plus expectoration and lung activity due to coughing. Radioactive particles that enter the lungs of a smoker have a chance to get stuck in the thick muccous layer coating the lungs, and subsequently get coughed up or safely passed in the other direction. Nuclear tests in America alone have put enough radioactive particles in the air to kill 50-100k people a year for the next 50k years. I smoke cigarettes to stay alive.

If you're going to go off topic, at least tell the truth.

As a former on-air traffic reporter,
here is a scary stat for you....most people die from being ejected from their vehicle, and then being killed as their OWN vehicle goes over them....
sound like a good ad for seatbelts eh?

Automobile deaths are way down compared to years ago, here is a comparison site that does include horse and buggy! Seat belts are the single most important factor in saving your own life,

This is a good plug for seatbelts, as has been stated. Especially for highway driving.

IMO, and I have no facts to back this, most accidents are caused by driver error. On the commute to work, it is common to see a guy with the Boston Globe spread across his steering wheel, glance-reading while driving 70MPH. Or, my favorite, some young lady applying makeup in her rear-view mirror while speeding at ten feet off the bumper of the car in front of her. One tap of the brakes, and....

One of the bigggest reasons that auto-related deaths are down is the new technology built into cars: brakes, suspension, etc. Not better drivers.

Same in the UK too jsobecky...
It has been illegal to use cell phones whilst driving for months now but I haven't noticed any decrease in the number of people I see with the phone held up or wedged under the chin.
I do use mine, mainly receiving calls, but have always used a fitted handsfree system or, for over a year now, a Bluetooth headset. It's automatic now, soon as I get into the driving seat I put on the headset before starting up.

I also think people need to chill a bit. So many seem to just want to get from A to B as quickly as possible, with little or no regard to other road users.

Don't forget the stats on drunk driving. I believe it's one person every minute that dies in an alcohol related traffic accident in the U.S. My 20 year old nephew died as the result of a drunk driver on Christmas morning 2004. I obviously could say a lot more about the tradedy of drunk driving and how to handle offenders. Ohio has a Supreme Court Justice that was arrested for drunk driving a couple of days ago. She had her drivers license suspended for three years automatically for refusing the DUI test. I understand there won't be any threat of her removal from the bench under these circumstances. Look at gun control and public bans of smoking compared to the risk of harm to the public when an intoxicated person gets behing the wheel of a vehicle. That vehicle becomes a weapon!

[edit on 3-2-2005 by clook]

I'm often chastized by my friends as a slow driver, as typically I only go about 5 mph OVER the speed limit, hehe...(the average is around 10-15 in my neck of the woods). Then again, I haven't been in an auto accident in over a decade (*knocks on wood*)....they can't say the same...

i read someplace that the average person will get into 3 minor accidents and 1 major one in thier lifetime...been there done that....fortunatly still walking...

that said...i wonder how many cars are on the road each day? and what the percentage of deaths is in relation to the number of vehicles on the road...should this justify random road check points to test for sobriety? or the now supreme court ok'd/sanctioned dog searches on any vehicle stop? or the police just randomly running vehicle plates, even though no traffic law has been broken?

now for those that say, 'well, any death is too much' ......

A Harvard law professor who co-authored the study calculated the annual national number of dead to be 150,000, with 234,000 injuries - and this estimate only included injuries and deaths caused by doctors in hospitals. By comparison, in 1992, 42,000 persons were killed in highway crashes; 27,000 died as victims of a crime; 23,000 died of AIDS. As one consumer group press release reads, "Negligent doctors kill more than twice the number of people killed by firearms and twice the number of people killed by auto accidents...."[889]

the article goes on to state that this is only one percent of the patients that see doctors......................so.....is the actual number dying more important than the percentage?....it appears that the issue of 'focus' is more important than the cause or the numbers.

"hmmmm, .....do you think that's air you're breathing?"
morphius

Alcohol kills more...take into account all those killed by drunk drivers, diseases from alcohol, people killed by someone drunk not care related, not to mention the ruined lives and families torn apart by alcohol