[WalterBright]

I don't envy your job. I'm sure it is tough. I respect you for taking on such a difficult task.

However, people still have a right to be stupid with their own life. It's not nonsense.

For example, Wilbur and Orville Wright were quite aware that they stood a high chance of dying in their airplane experiments. Neil Armstrong figured that he had a 1:3 (or something like that) chance of dying going to the moon. The people who free climb have a very high death rate.

They all have the right to decide for themselves what is worth doing and what isn't. If you've got family depending on you, you should think about them before taking stupid risks. It's your right and your responsibility and your decision.

[pshc]

> For example, Wilbur and Orville Wright were quite aware that they stood a high chance of dying in their airplane experiments. Neil Armstrong figured that he had a 1:3 (or something like that) chance of dying going to the moon. The people who free climb have a very high death rate.

In these examples, these people aren't posing a threat to other people around them in their risky behavior.

[base698]

Rescue attempts for a variety of mountain sports do put others at risk. In addition most of the above post was about the effect on first responders.

[anigbrowl]

the other poster's point went over your head. Risk-accepting people and their families understand what they're doing and that they're making a bet with their life. I've done so, and not without cost. Opinions might differ on the value of such bets, and acceptance of that risk might be grudging rather than serene, but it's not unexpected.

But sudden random death is a different story. Car crashes or stray bullets can suddenly kill people uninvolved in and not seeking any risk. An unbuckled driver is primarily a danger to themselves, but also highly incentivized to drive differently - eg swerving to avoid an unsurvivable collision, but causing someone else to have a more serious accident.

I'm not sure where you'd start a statistical analysis, but the worst outcomes in the many traffic accidents I've seen always seem to involve 2 cars that have a minor collision causing a third car to have a major one, like hitting a structure or rolling.