# The odds of being killed during a scheduled airline flight are about one per million -- nearly four times greater than the odds of being killed in an automobile ride.
# Per passenger mile, an automobile ride is 10 times more likely to result in fatality than an airplane journey. (Airplane fatalities occur most frequently during takeoff & landing -- especially takeoff.)
# Buses are safer -- per passenger mile an automobile is 25 times more likely to lead to death than a bus.
# Motorcycles are 35 times per passenger mile more likely to cause death than automobiles.
# Boat travel is hard to compare per passenger mile, but the risk of death during a boat trip is far more dangerous than one in a car. Most boating deaths are due to drowning -- with 80% of those dying not wearing life jackets.
# 44% of non-motor vehicle accidents occurred in the home.
Odds summarized in the journal NATURE give the following lifetime odds of dying of the following causes:
1:90 for motor vehicle accident
1:9,000 for drowning
1:30,000 for airplane crash (not just scheduled airlines)
1:130,000 for earthquake
1:600,000 for fireworks accident
1:720,000 for asteroid impact
1:8,000,000 for shark attack
1:300,000,000 for food poisoning by botulism
[NATURE; Harris,A; Volume 453; page 1178; 26 June 2008].
Don't think I like that asteroid impact stat.
I was reading about asteroids impacting on earth earlier today!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like homes are also very dangerous places. Better ban them, or at least slap a danger tax on them.
ReplyDeleteI have said it many times on many different comments on many different blogs but here it is........my fave stat:-
ReplyDelete"100% of all non-smokers die"
Are you feeling well today James? That's two death-themed posts.
ReplyDelete"botulism" is a word derived from the Greek for 'sausage'. You have been warned.
ReplyDeleteYou mean extruded, high-fat offal tube?
ReplyDeleteWell? No, Tom - see later boiler post.
ReplyDelete