Is 40,000 deaths every year a lot?
IMHO it kinda is. It's 13x as many people as died in 9/11
IMHO it kinda is. It's 13x as many people as died in 9/11
No. It's 1.25 per 10,000 per capita. Most people understand the risk ahead of time and yet still choose to drive. They clearly don't think it is.
> It's 13x as many people as died in 9/11
And 50x 9/11 many people die of accidental self inflicted injury. This is an absurd metric.
The majority of those people who had their lives cut short cut it short themselves and didn't take anyone with them.
Likewise, that 40k includes 6k pedestrians and 6k motorcyclists.
You can't just take the 40,000 figure and do _anything_ with it because there are so many peculiar modes of accidents which /dominate/ that data set.
Obligatory “almost nobody in the US chooses to drive” comment.
Driving in the US is a lifeline. It’s closer to food and shelter than a product or action. Remaining economically afloat in the US without a car is extraordinarily difficult. Many people, especially poor people, would much rather lose their job or health insurance than their car.
The only meaningful way to say is to compare it to other countries. Pr vehicle mile it is a lot more than many Western European countries and Canada, and a lot less than Mexico.