Auto accidents: #10 cause of death worldwide

[Fraggle Rocker]

Lol at #7, you know if we removed alcohol from our lives that traffic injuries would be off that list

Even in the USA, where drunk driving is our national pastime, only half of our traffic fatalities are "alcohol-related." That only means that at least one driver was intoxicated, not that his intoxication actually caused the accident. Alcohol is hardly a major factor in traffic fatalities in countries like Germany and the U.K., where draconian laws practically allow drunk drivers to be executed by public stoning. And you can be sure it's not an issue in places like Africa, where the roads are primitive and chaotic, paramedic services are nonexistent, and running down pedestrians from another tribe is their national pastime.

Still, if you'd like to help me lobby for a law requiring a breathalyzer ignition interlock in every new car in America, we can save thirty times as many lives per year as the average number killed by terrorists, for a negligible fraction of the cost of the War on Terrorism.

1. World population growth is 77 millions annually, which is still twice the summary of the list.

As you can see, once you get beyond #3 it doesn't attenuate very rapidly. I'm sure the next twenty causes of death total another ten million, and so on.

2. In the USA something like 50K die on the road (compared to less than 100 executed) and about 6000 of it are teenagers (compared to 3000 at 9/11)

Thank you! As I noted, we could save around half of those lives by simply installing a breathalyzer interlock in every car. It wouldn't harass anybody or interfere with their rights, and it would be dirt cheap. (Last figure I saw was closer to 40K but the difference is unimportant to the argument.)

 

[Syzygys]

Well, people have to die of something. Imagine if we could save half of the people on the list. That would mean 2 NYCs population added to Earth as an extra every year.

Also bad people die in accidents and illnesses too. So in those cases we can look at the bright side..
In quite a big % of the cases the dying person actually caused or speeded up his/her death. I know, not in every case, but if you kill only yourself while driving under the influence, you do a favour to society...