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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.

"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."

So true. Of course, most people don't use their brains for much more than keeping their heart pumping and lungs moving air, and to keep their skull from collapsing. Most people just don't like to think about the risks involved in operating a motor vehicle. Many of those that do just buy the "Speed Kills!" propaganda - of course, they may be right - accidents that happen at higher speeds involve higher energies and risks of inury and death, and it doesn't appear that there's any chance at all that we're going to improve the overall quality of driving on our roads anytime soon. Europeans that come here are appalled by the quality of driving demonstrated on our streets and highways (yes, they do manage to do some things better over there, and driver training is one of them).