To put it into proper perspective, we would need to know how many of those traffic fatalities were caused by the victims’ own stupid choices and subtract that number.
When you’re driving, you have a certain amount of choice which you don’t have as a passenger on a plane. You can’t always avoid every accident, but if you’re the kind of person who cares about such things you stand a better chance than the person who throws their hands in the air and declares that bad things can never be avoided.
The greatest risk factor in an automobile is the driver. By being a good driver, you can reduce your risk. As a passenger in an airplane, the only choice you have is whether or not to get on the plane in the first place. Once you do, your risk is as high as everyone else on the plane. Even a passenger in an automobile has more choices than that, and can actively reduce risks, or voluntarily exit the vehicle if risk factors gradually increase.
Some accidents can’t be avoided, but if you’re going to compare the risk of flying with risk of driving carefully, you need to discount those risk factors that can be avoided.
The best thing you can do to reduce your risk in a car is to be off the road between Midnight and 4:00 AM.
Oh, and don’t drink and drive...
There is no question but that traveling by commercial airline is by far the safest mode of transportation. Driving from Los Angeles to New York is at least a thousand times more dangerous than flying. Probably a lot more than that. Honestly, other than dying by pulmonary embolism caused by the cramped seats in coach, how many people have died in commercial airline crashes flying between Los Angeles and New York in the last 25 years? I believe that number would be zero.
There are enough stories even from my county in this year of people dying while driving like they should and getting bowled over by a speeding semi-truck with inadequate brakes, by a drunk dirving the wrong way on an interstae, etc. to convince me driving is never truly “safe”, no matter how defensively and safely you personally drive.