"Leon van Dommelen" > wrote in message
news
> >The critical column is 2nd from the right, persons killed per 100 million
> >vehicle km travelled. The US is tied for the lowest rate (of those
> >available), and better than France, Germany, Japan or Switzerland.
>
> I do not agree. The critical column is deaths per 100,000
> population. How likely are you to die from a traffic accident
> is clearly the bottom line.

Not at all!!

Look at it this way. The UK is the size of just one US state, so
hypothetically driving may be something like this:

UK: Perhaps 200 trips per year to work (and home) over a 5 mile distance.

US: Perhaps 200 trips per year to work (and home) over a 15 mile distance.

The death rate per hour in the car is the same if the UK has 5 deaths per
population versus 15 in the US.

Or.

UK: Average driver take 100 trips per year.

US: Average driver goes 300 trips per year.

The death rate is the same: 5 per pop in the UK equals 15 per pop in the US.

Wouldn't you EXPECT truck drivers to have a higher death rate than average
drivers?

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5312a3.htm

"During 1992--2001, fatal work-related roadway crashes most often involved
collisions of vehicles (6,593 [49%]), followed by single-vehicle incidents
that did not involve a collision with another vehicle or with a pedestrian
(e.g., rollovers) (3,492 [26%]), and collisions between a vehicle and a
stationary object (2,369 [18%]). Vehicles most commonly occupied by fatally
injured workers were semi-trucks (3,780 [28%]), cars (3,140 [24%]), other
and unspecified trucks (2,359 [18%]), and pickup trucks (1,607 [12%]). The
annual number of deaths of pickup truck occupants increased 96%, and deaths
of semi-truck occupants increased 49%. Deaths of car occupants decreased 33%
(Figure).

The transportation, communications, and public utilities industries, which
include commercial trucking, had the largest number and rate of roadway
deaths (4,358 deaths; 4.6 per 100,000 FTE workers) (Table 1). The services
industry accounted for the second highest number of deaths (1,884) but had a
low fatality rate (0.5). The construction; public administration; wholesale
trade; agriculture, forestry, and fishing; and mining industries all had
higher death rates than the overall rate for workers (1.1), ranging from 1.7
to 3.4 (Table 1).

Occupations in which the largest numbers of roadway deaths occurred were
transportation and material moving (6,212 deaths; 11.1 per 100,000 FTE
workers). These occupations accounted for 47% of all work-related roadway
fatalities (Table 2). Truck drivers, who are classified within
transportation and material-moving occupations, accounted for 5,375 deaths
(17.6), the highest number and rate for any single occupation. "


> Persons killed per 100 Gm traveled just reflects the fact that
> the size of the US is vast and the population spread out, which
> has the effect of increasing the distances between the points where
> accidents are likely to happen and probably make them less dangerous
> and numerous.

Not at all. See above. We have a lot of high speed accidents and rely on
trucking to move food and goods around. We have a lot more top-heavy pick
ups that are more likely to be involved in fatal accidents. More time behind
the wheel = more chances of having an accident.

> The US drivers die at a rate of 15.2, while the educated and
> civil drivers in the UK die at a rate of 6. I would call
> that a dramatic difference, much more than I expected.

See above. When you look at death per hour of driving (original links) the
US is very low and this suggests that US drivers are *more* safe in terms of
hours spent behind the wheel.

> Based on these numbers, it seems to me that it could make a
> dramatic difference if the drivers' education was turned from
> a joke into something serious.

No, just the opposite. See above.

-John