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by terryf 3869 days ago
> It's sadly not surprising how many people are killed on the roads.

In 2013, US, total number of traffic deaths was 32719. Total number of miles driven: 2,946,000,000,000.

Miles driven per one death: 90,039,426

It's not even one-in-a-million chance of dying. It's one-in-90-million chance. That is really very good odds. Driving is really quite safe and getting safer all the time. Cars manufactured today have safety systems and braking ability, traction control and other safety measures that are basically incomparable to cars made 20-30 years ago. The speed limits are still the same for everyone though. The whole point of a car is to quickly get from one location to another.

2 comments

> It's not even one-in-a-million chance of dying. It's one-in-90-million chance. That is really very good odds.

For you individually. Multiply that by the amount of drivers and the average amount of miles driven, and you get multiple deaths per day - almost one hundred a day, actually, in 2013.

The individual odds make drivers feel safe - and thus behave like idiots - and the result is tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths annually.

> It's not even one-in-a-million chance of dying. It's one-in-90-million chance.

How many trips are only 1 mile in length?