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A Pilot’s Comparison of Safety in Planes Versus Cars

I’ve just had a great conversation, this evening, with a pilot who was at the next table to mine at dinner.

Our initial topic came from him and was about the safety comparison between air travel and driving, so I asked whether he was aware that for every person killed in commercial flights worldwide, each year, over 2,160 people are killed in road crashes.  Yes, a ratio of more than 2,000-to-1,  and even the number of people killed annually just on America’s roads is over 60-times greater than the total number of plane-crash fatalities worldwide.

Various Boeing jets in BBJ livery. (Wikimedia Commons.)

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Should the USA Adopt the ‘Safety Corridor’ Approach for Crash Scenes?

Eight European countries are now requiring drivers to create a “safety corridor” to allow emergency vehicles swift access to trapped and injured people at crash scenes on congested roads.  This methodology could be a life-saver here in the USA, too.

Traffic separates to leave a ten-foot ‘lane’ to allow rescue and police vehicles to reach crash scenes. Getting this to work requires the provision of good education regarding the technique, together with enforcement that significantly penalizes those who selfishly try to cheat.  (Image courtesy of the ETSC)

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Cruelty to Animals is now a Federal Felony yet a Drunk Driver Killing Someone is Not

According to ABC News, animal cruelty is now a federal felony.We have no problem with this scenario whatsoever, except to ask that if animal cruelty warrants classification as a federal felony, why are people who drive drunk, drugged, distracted or plain dangerously, and kill someone as a result, not treated in the same ‘federal felony’ manner?

What is this if not an astonishing and frankly inexplicable imbalance of priorities?

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Move Over Or Slow Down (the wording is important)

Around the USA, most states have legislation for which the name is typically shortened to the ‘Move Over Law,’ but some states then go on to give advice that is inaccurate and potentially unsafe.

An almost perfect sign in New York State.  The safest advice is ‘Move Over or Slow Down.’ See the article for a full explanation.   (Copyright image, 2019.)

For example “slow down and move over” is inviting extra danger yet some states do use that wording in the advice they give.

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Drivers do NOT ‘Cause’ Over 90 Percent of Crashes – Misquoting it is Bad!

Even on the fringes of road safety, most people now understand that we should use the word ‘crashes’, not accidents, but there are many other important topics where there is still confusion and inaccuracy.  This includes the proportion of crashes that are — quote — ’caused’ by driver error, or less accurately, human error.

Almost certainly driver error but for example it could have been due to a brake failure or even a medical emergency such as a heart attack. (Wikimedia Commons)

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Memorial Page – Tyler Smedley – WA, December 2, 2015

Tyler Smedley

November 16, 1993 — December 2, 2015

 

Joanne Higgins’ nephew and Godson, Tyler Smedley, made some horrible choices on Dec 2, 2015, that cost him his life in a crash on Steamboat Island Rd., Steamboat Island, Washington State.

Joanne writes:

The pictures here are hard for me to see, yet I feel it’s important that I share them.  I want to show the dangers of cellphone use, the dangers of drinking & driving, and the dangers of speeding.

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