[DeTomaso] NPC: Traffic fatalities in Sweden 2009
MikeLDrew at aol.com
MikeLDrew at aol.com
Mon Jan 4 14:05:08 EST 2010
In a message dated 1/4/10 10 05 51, Thomas.Tornblom at hax.se writes:
> Sweden had the lowest number of traffic fatalities since they began
> tracking it in the 1930:s. A total of 355 deaths out of a population of
> about 9.2 mil.
>
That's an amazing statistic--although perhaps a bit misleading.
Rather than tracking fatalities vs. population, it would be more accurate
to track fatalities vs. miles driven. The USA is huge, and is also a very
mobility-driven society. As a broad, general guess, I'd say that the
typical American driver travels much, much further in a given year than his
European counterpart. This is due to a number of unrelated factors--Europe's
smaller geographic separation, more effective mass-transit systems, much higher
cost of fuel, and a lingering 'village' culture that causes people to shop,
dine etc. close to home.
We have none of that here. We chose to live a long way from where we
work, quite often. We're unable or unwilling to use mass transit to get back
and forth. And our cheap gas lets us do things that would be unheard of
anywhere in Europe--like driving 50 miles each way to go to a favorite
restaurant. So the average American's exposure to the threat is probably far
greater than his European counterparts, and it's only natural for the statistics
to be a bit higher as a result.
Having said that, I'm positive that once the statistics were revised, the
European results would still be far, far better than ours, by orders of
magnitude. For we are still plagued with a culture that is very soft on driving
while drunk. There isn't nearly enough safety ingrained into our culture
so seat belts use is far from universal (although it's improved
substantially from years past), and our driver training is abysmal, so there are an
awful lot of poor drivers out there who don't even realize they're poor drivers.
Vehicle maintenance standards are generally poor to nonexistant, so there
are some real deathtrap cars rattling around on our roads (despite the
appearance of some of my Sciroccos, mechanically they're all tip-top!). And
finally, in some areas we have a substantial immigrant population, people who
were not necessarily raised in an automotive culture, and thus are still
quite new to the whole concept--or who resolutely refuse to learn and adapt to
it, and drive their cars the same way they used to ride their bicycles
through the streets of Beijing or Hanoi or Mumbai or wherever.
All of these things combine to result in a death rate that is astronomical.
Using the Swedish population model, their death rate is 3.85 per 100,000
people. Meanwhile, the best rate in the USA (2006 statistics) was 6.8 per
100,000 in Washington DC (a tiny area, with an effective mass transit
network), going all the way up to 33.3 per 100,000 in Mississippi.
It's interesting to look at a map of the US that shows death rates vs.
population by state.
http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparemaptable.jsp?ind=118&cat=2
Note that in the more cosmopolitan, densely populated east coast region the
rates are the lowest. That can be attributed to the high number of people
living in urban areas (many New Yorkers don't even own a car), the relative
close proximity of everything, effective mass transit, and a generally more
educated populace. Meanwhile, the death rate is the highest in the
southern states, where poverty and ignorance are far more prevelant. There's
also a high incidence in the remote states in the north, where people are often
VERY removed from civilization and thus have to drive great distances on a
routine basis, often facing severe weather challenges.
It would be interesting to chart the death rate versus a number of
different factors, i.e. average income, average education, average mileage driven,
average age, and compare the differences.
As bad as things are in the USA, it's nothing compared to China.
According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, 680 people die
and 45,000 are injured every day in motor vehicle accidents there. For
comparison, in the United States where there are more than 600 cars for every
thousand Americans (versus 7 or 8 out of every 1,000 in China), daily deaths
are around 115.
Mike
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