I think the math works out that each year the average American has roughly 1 in 10,000 chance of dying in a car crash and a 1 in 200 chance of being injured in a car crash (Though the second stat likely leaves out a lot of unreported injuries). The average American rolls those dice once a year.
Car crashes have killed and seriously injured roughly the same number of people as shootings in Chicago this year. Only one of these things is treated as a safety crisis in the media
Submitted 5 hours ago by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/135e37ca-940c-4bc6-a037-445057776537.webp
Comments
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 40 minutes ago
Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
This doesn’t super surprise me. Driving should be taken more seriously. You’re controlling a 2 ton death machine and it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
reddig33@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
We should be retaking driver tests every seven to ten years to keep our license.
Poorly designed roads, signage, and intersections cause a lot of accidents. Think on ramps that throw you into traffic, and off-ramps that want you to get over three lanes after exiting in order to turn right at your cross street.
Lack of traffic enforcement drives up insurance costs and reduces city revenues. Some states have cheaped out on the reflective paint used to stripe roads, so you can’t see lane dividers in the rain. More of that wonderful “deregulation” and people not wanting to pay taxes I guess.
It also doesn’t help that many states are getting rid of car inspections for some bizarre reason. Not great to avoid shot falling off of the car in front of you when you’re going 70 mph.
Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Yeah my state has gotten rid of inspections and it’s baffling to me.
A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
It would have to be a written test to do any good. And for that to be administered properly costs money.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 3 hours ago
it shouldn’t be taken lightly
Well, of course not. It’s 2 tons!
I’ll get out…
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
Not gonna make much of a difference unless you take your mum with you.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 hours ago
Cars are not designed to inflict harm. This cheap false equivalence tells us a lot.
Dozzi92@lemmy.world 34 minutes ago
Right. I can’t ride my gun to work or the grocery store. I get that there’s a lot of negatives associated with car culture, but it’s a tool in a way that firearms are not.
limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 58 minutes ago
Cars, roads, and car culture are inflicting harm though, even if it’s seen as a neutral tool by many
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
Road deaths are typically viewed as a risk we take while going about our day, while firearm deaths are either an intentional act, or someone doing something very stupid.
How many people drive a car daily in this area?
maxwells_daemon@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Driving is orders of magnitude more likely to kill you at any second you’re in a car, than flying is at any second you’re in a plane.
People who are terrified of flying will get in a car and drive like a monkey like it’s no big deal.
radix@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Dumb question: which one draws more media attention in Chicago?
In my own experience (not Chicago), the local news is dominated by where the rush-hour crash is today, while national news talks way more about gun deaths.
I’m going to go with the general vibe of Lemmy here and assume you mean that auto deaths need to get more attention in America. To that I would say there is a general cultural attitude that cars are a necessary evil (even among most people who don’t outright love them, which is a huge demographic), and fixing the zoning and infrastructure would take decades and many tens of billions of dollars to restructure a large city around public transit. Besides bumper-sticker-slogan politics (“more public transit!”) there are precious few real, concrete plans for getting from the current situation to the car-free utopia.
Even then, you’d not eliminate cars entirely. Among the more developed western European nations that are known for good public transit, Ireland seems (at a quick glance) to have the fewest cars per person at 536 per 1,000, while the car-happy US has 850/1,000. So best case, you reduce cars by ~35%.
Gun deaths, on the other hand, are easier to imagine as a problem that can be solved relatively quickly and with less disruption. From an advocacy point of view, it’s the lower-hanging fruit.
ReasonableHat@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Genuine question: do the lines diverge (and in which direction / how much) if you account for the number of cars / guns per person?
jacksilver@lemmy.world 44 minutes ago
I think the better stat would be time handling a gun/driving a car.
The average person probably spends about an hour in the car per day (based on some loose numbers I saw online). But I suspect the number of hours holding a gun is a lot less.
Its kinda like the fact that new Yorkers bite more people than sharks. It isn’t because new Yorkers are more likely to bite you, but with eight million people interacting daily the amount of interactions outweighs the odds of a bite.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I want to see it broken down into the fatal and non-fatal portions and also the mental health of the cars at the time of the crash.
adb@lemmy.ml 4 hours ago
I want to know how many people got shot while driving and then had a fatal car accident
Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Oh is today your cake day? You have a slice next to your name.
sundray@lemmus.org 3 hours ago
Fuck cars and guns, ban both.
ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
this is not a valid comparison. the number of people in and around cars–and the amount of interactions that the average person has with a car–vastly outstrips those near or using guns. by at least two orders of magnitude, one would estimate.
it’s like saying that the number of papercuts received is marginally higher than the number of intentional stab wounds and the media only focuses on one.
that’s how it should be. one of those two things impacts a larger percentage of the people that encounter it.
count_dongulus@lemmy.world 39 minutes ago
Neither of these topics should even be drawing media attention, considering how frequent and non-notable they are. They just report on this stuff every day because it’s cheaper and easier than exclusively finding and reporting on real local news, and television news needs filler content for selling ad spots. Ever had a day where there was no news, and they ended early?