[Conspiracy Guy]

I am starting movement to ban driving. First we'll ban driving in all public and private office buildings especially on elevators. Next we'll force restaurants into providing driving and non-driving sections then force them to be non-driving only. We will ban driving near entrances to buildings and on sidewalks. This will force drivers to pursue there nasty habit in alleyways or streets. Then we will go after bars, "no driving in bars" we'll chant. Then we'll ban it on the streets and alleys. Pretty soon drivers will be forced to drive only in their driveways or homes. Then if a neighbor complains about the noise and the fumes we'll go after the home too.

[wideawake]

I wonder how many fatalities occurred at night?

[Leo Carpathian]

Where is the breakdown how many dummycrats in yugos, how many drunk? Mabee they are purposely trying to skew the statistics in order to exert pressure on SUVistas.

Freep & Roll!

[68skylark]

While the information in this article is good, I dont care for the cavalier tone -- as if 48,000 deaths is no big deal at all.

Actually, I'm really glad to see an article on this topic. Just think about all that's been written about terrorism since 9/11, compared to the articles on traffic deaths. It's odd how one topic looms so large in our minds and the other gets such little press. In fact, lots of people got so scared to fly after 9/11 that they decided to drive more instead of flying -- how smart is that?!

I remember driving a 2-lane rural highway at night in late 2001 and listening to a dumb radio report trying to get listeners worked up about their risk from an anthrax attack. At that time another driver came across the center line at me. Luckily he turned away from me and there was no collision. It got me thinking about how for every one foreign terrorist who wants to kill Americans, there are hundreds of thousands of home-grown drunks on the road who do that job far more effectively.

[68skylark]

Based on the numbers in this article, I calculate that the average driver has a 1-2% chance over a lifetime of dying in a vehicle accident. The chance of a serious injury must be higher -- maybe 3-5% or so. So your the average risk of being killed or badly injured on the road is around 4-6%. I'd say that's fairly high.

I read somewhere that we'll spend many millions or dollars to save one life in our air transport system. People want this money to be spent because they're so afraid of flying. But we could save one life on the highway for roughly every $50,000 to $100,000 we spend to improve the design of our roads. There isn't as much political will for these expenditures because most people don't feel the same level of fear when they're driving.

Personally I think spending $100,000 to save a life is a good idea. But maybe it's not so good if we have to raise taxes to do it -- better to curtail spending in other areas.

[Doe Eyes]

If an intoxicated driver is legally stopped at a red light and rear ended by a sober person, the accident is considered alcohol related.

[Bluewave]

You are so wrong. I too have read and analyzed the statistics. Without getting into a statistical whiz match, I would like to point out to you that virtually all automobile accidents are the result of moments of inattention on the part of someone operating an automobile.

Automobile accidents are random events which expose you and I to the same risk that is minimally reduced by "good driving." Good drivers get killed in automobile accidents.

Your chances of getting there are indeed excellent, each time you go, but over a lifetime, you are at great risk of not getting there once.

The highway death statistics represent a great failure of our government as high speed travel has increased on low speed roads.