The tobacco death number is BS.........it is a GIGO computer generated number, thus nothing else in that post is worth paying a danged bit of attention to, is it?
Sorry, the paragraphing was fine when I hit post.
Trying again . . .
A 1993 study found: 400,000 deaths from tobacco 300,000 deaths from diet/activity pattern causes and 100,000 deaths from alcohol.
Same doc:
Causes of ACCIDENTAL DEATHS:
(1) MOTOR VEHICLE 43.3%
(2) Falls 17.8%
(3) Poison,liq/solid 13.0%
(4) Drowning 3.9%
(5) Fires, Burns,Smoke 3.4%
(6) Medical/Surgical Complication 3.1%
(7) Other land transport 1.5%
(8) Firearms 0.8%
(9) Other (nontransport) 17.8% 2002 STATS ABOVE The five leading causes of fatal accidental death have remained the same between 1970 and 1998, and these top 5 account for 80% of all accidental deaths.
Approximately forty percent of deaths from acts of nature are due to floods.
Approximately forty percent of fire victims die in their sleep.
Motor vehicle fatalities are the leading cause of death for people between ages 1-29, and the rate is particularly high between the ages of 15-24. A 16-year-old has 3 times the crash risk of an 18-year-old and 7 times the crash risk of a 25-year-old.
As reported by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in 2005 the States with the highest number of motor vehicle crash deaths per 100,000 people were
Wyoming (33.4),
Mississippi (31.9),
Montana (26.8) and
South Carolina (25.7),
whereas the States with the lowest were
Massachusetts (6.9),
New York (7.4),
Connecticut (7.8) and
Rhode Island (8.1).
The fatalities were most likely to occur in single-vehicle crashes for
Montana (72%) and
the District of Columbia (71%),
whereas fatalities were more likely to occur in multiple-vehicle crashes in
Delaware (65%) and
Michigan (60%).
The percentage of pedestrians killed in motor vehicle accidents was highest in
the District of Columbia (33%),
Hawaii (25%),
New York (22%) and
New Jersey (21%),
whereas it was lowest in
Nebraska, Idaho and
New Hampshire at 3%
.
According to CarandDriver.com there are 2.28 fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles driven in
Mississippi as opposed to
only 0.87 in Massachusetts.
In Wyoming 24% of the traffic is heavy trucks, whereas
Hawaii is at the other extreme with only 3% of traffic being heavy trucks.
(Crashes involving left-hand turns are much more likely to result in injury -- it is often safer to make three right turns than one left turn.)
Driving under the influence of alcohol is the most important cause of death in automobile accidents --
followed by driver fatigue.
The percentage of traffic fatalities attributed to alcohol dropped from 57.2% in 1982 to 45% in 1992.
The figure is probably much higher, because amounts of alcohol below the legal level of intoxication (all amounts of alcohol) reduce cognitive & physical function.
More than a third of pedestrians killed by a motor vehicle fatalities in 1992 were intoxicated.
A Gallop poll indicated that nearly a third of respondents remember falling asleep while driving an automobile. People often have "microsleeps" without being aware of them. Automobile accidents due to such incidents are typically unexplained or attributed to other causes.
Alcohol and sleepiness interact in a way that is far more dangerous than might be expected.
Experiments with twelve healthy men in the 20−26 age range showed that either restriction of sleep to 5 hours or a blood alcohol level roughly equal to the United Kingdom limit for automobile driving nearly tripled the number of lane drifting incidents in the 30−60 minute driving period on a driving simulator.
Combining both those levels of alcohol with sleep deprivation again nearly tripled the number of lane drifting incidents above that seen for either the alcohol or sleepiness alone.
But the reported sleepiness of those who had the alcohol/sleep-deprivation combination was no greater than what was reported by those who had only been sleep deprived [OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE; Horne,JA; 60(9):689-692 (2003)].
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QX:
There's a comment above that such stats are worthless.
That's one of the silliest statements I've read on here since FR was founded.
Statistics need to be collected with sound methodology and analyzed and interpreted in logical, meaningful and appropriate ways. When they are, they distill a lot of very potent and practical information of great usefulness to thoughtful responsible persons. Such statistics responded to in thoughtful practical, responsible ways can save lives. Lives are precious and worth saving.
Suicidal/self-destructive behavior is not a good survival habit. And rants about how itÂ’s an individualÂ’s right to cause loved ones unnecessary pain and suffering just do not move me. Selfishness is selfishness and destructive, deadly.
It's interesting that the person making such a narrow, rigid, biased, off the wall statement about statistics asserts that statistics are worthless because of bias!
GTTM GUFFAWS TO THE MAX!
ROTFLOLHMHS ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING OUT LOUD HOLDING MY HURTING SIDES.
The same poster has the brazen audacity to imply that we should take their posts on such topics seriously! GTTM.
For others without much experience with statistics and their origins . . . bias can be a problem with statistics IF the biases cause the methodology of collecting the data to be skewed for some reason(s) in some way(s). However, bias can be 100% on one side but the methodology in collecting, analyzing and reporting the statistics can be very solid and the resulting statistics can be totally objective and useful. ItÂ’s sad the one allergic to statistics is so uninformed as to miss such potentially life-saving facts.
A clue as to why might be found in an evidently fierce death wish to die early from smoking related diseases.
You can lead a horse to the solid statistics but you canÂ’t make him think.