death on the road

raka · 07-30-2005, 02:53 AM

not to depress all of you, but kid coastal's recent thread on street racing made me think of this again:

driving a car (or being a passenger) is one of the most mundane, but also one of the MOST dangerous things you can do in your life. if you are reading this & you are under 35 & you were to die this year - this will be the most probable cause.

so, PLEASE stay alert, because the other drivers probaly aren't - keep yourself safe & your 300C dent-free!

here are some interesting (USA) stats:

Leading cause of death by age:

age 3-34: car crash = #1
age 35-44: car crash = #3 (disease takes over)
age 45-64: car crash = #8 (ditto)

equally disturbing:

age 16-34: homicide & suicide=ranked #2 and #3 - so watch the road rage - and the depression when your SRT8 gets a ding...

Countries with HIGHEST annual car death rate:

1 - portugal
2 - greece
3 - venezuela
4 - russia
5 - cuba(!?) - those 50's chevys not so safe?

Countries with LOWEST annual car death rate:

1 - sweden (ice on the road - staying home!)
2 - bahamas (rather be on the beach, mon!)
3 - united kingdom
4 - norway
5 - netherlands

(canada, israel, australia also makes the safe top 10)

note: since the above is per population, another way to look at it is by actual miles driven, so:

deaths per 100 million vehicle miles:

1 - sweden (1.2) - all those volvos!
2 - UK (1.4) - thks to all the london black cabs?
3 - finland (1.5)
4 - USA (1.7)
5 - netherlands (1.8) - remember parking brake by canals!
6 - denmark (2.0)
7 - italy (2.2)
...
14 - turkey (21.3)
15 - s. korea (35.8)

ps: if you aren't depressed enough yet, you can also check the odds of dying table here:

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofn...ing.html#table

raka · 07-30-2005, 03:00 AM

link to the stats i quoted - if you care to see the complete rankings (pdf table):

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd...005/809831.pdf

Lik2race · 07-30-2005, 03:01 AM

Street Racing is bad..no doubt.
Driving Under The Influence is WORSE

http://www.schp.org/inmemoryof/Profile.aspx?Id=155 !!

**vvv90** · 07-30-2005, 10:34 AM

THE leading factor to both accidents involved with carelessness OR drivers under the influence is the simple fact that....

OUT ROADS OR OVERLY CONGESTED!

I'm not saying that's any kind of excuse because I believe everyone should hold themselves responsible for their own actions.

But it doesn't change the fact that more cars on the road, closer together, results in more collisions.

II kings 9:20 · 07-30-2005, 11:57 AM

Click it or ticket, don't forget the seat belts, and Keep em tight, many American cars 80s to late 90s cars allow lots-o-slack, you have to routinely pull on the shoulder belt to keep it tight. In a crash, every inch of slack in the belt increases forces to the head by 50%. This has been reduced with the advent of pretensioners thanks to MB and BMW. Some Euro cars, Volvo, have pretensioners in all seating positions, most only have pretensioners on the front seats. Have you noticed the rear 300 belts are the older American style that rely on deceleration to lock, they will not lock no mattter how hard or fast you pull unless you are decelerating, very poor. You cant even lock a child seat in with the belt, thankfully DC surpassed the govt. standard by putting latch and tether anchors in all three rear seating positions, few cars/SUVs have this, few cars can fit 3 car seats in the rear.
WC air bags and ESP are making a huge impact in reducing injury and death, thanks to the Europeans. From 95-99 and 2000-2004 the E320 was studied in Germany. From 200-2004 single car crashes were down (as I recall) 45% and deaths in single car crashes were down 35%. This was essentially the same car, same population of drivers, etc., the only major difference was ESP, remember these were single car crashes. ESP has already had more of an impact than ABS over more than 20 years as will WC airbags.

Pop quiz, what was the first car with ABS?, first American car? Top of the head please, no search engines or all prizes will be null and void.

Model 57 · 07-31-2005, 04:56 AM

Ok off of the top of my head; I say that the 1st car w/ABS, probably MB. The 1st American car w/ABS, I'd say Oldsmobile, GM liked to use them for a quinea pig.

charlie D · 07-31-2005, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vvv90

THE leading factor to both accidents involved with carelessness OR drivers under the influence is the simple fact that....

OUT ROADS OR OVERLY CONGESTED!

I'm not saying that's any kind of excuse because I believe everyone should hold themselves responsible for their own actions.

But it doesn't change the fact that more cars on the road, closer together, results in more collisions.

Let's us not forget CELL PHONES ! Invariably, when you see someone pull a real boner and almost, or cause an accident, check and see if they don't have a cell phone held to their ear. You'll be surprised !!