First I googled "fatalities airline US 2006". I found a couple articles referencing the fact that there had been no fatalities on large commercial domestic airline flights in the US for four and a half years as of mid 2006. None. Zero. Zilch. An amazing statistic considering the huge numbers of commercial flights in this country. I would like congratulate the FAA and the airlines for their work in reducing accidents.
Next I googled "fatalities motor vehicle us 2006". What do I find? "Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens". Forty-two thousand road deaths in the US in 2004. This country has got to get it's priorities straight!
The federal government which regulates air travel in the United States has done a fantastic job making air travel safer. The FAA, Federal Aviation Administration goes to great lengths to investigate every accident involving an aircraft and prevent its recurrence. If an airplane crashes the area is immediately cordoned off and no one, other than emergency personal aiding the injured or fighting fire is allow to touch anything. A team of experts with years of training is flown in and the crash site is gone over with a fine tooth comb. Every piece, no matter how small is collected and cataloged. If necessary the entire plane will be completely reconstructed in a hanger. Even "near misses" are thoroughly investigated and a pilot who inadvertently fails to follow correct procedure will have his licence suspended. A pilot who deliberately breaks the rules faces having his licence permanently revoked. If a mechanical defected is found to be the cause of an indecent all similar planes are grounded until they can be inspected and up graded. As a result airline travel in the US is statistically the safest way to go.
By contrast after an automobile accident tow trucks are immediately dispatched and the wreck cleared away ASAP. Often times the only investigation is done by a policeman, with little or no formal training in accident investigation, taking a statement from the driver. A driver whose negligence caused injury or death might be given a small fine to pay and have his insurance rate go up. The United States of America has one of the highest accident rates in the industrialized world!
Over the last ten years the number of deaths on airlines per one hundred million passenger miles, .002. In motor vehicles .08. You're forty times more likely to die in a car than in an airplane if you travel the same distance in each.
This is crazy! I and just about every American has to get into a car every day. To work, to go to school, to buy food, etc. It is a part of our daily existence. Can you remember the last time a day went by that you didn't have to go some where in a car. I can't. How often does the average American fly? Once or twice a year to go on holiday? So why hasn't this country made an effort to reduce auto accidents.
Sadly it seems that the less likely something is to kill you the more people get excited and want something done about it. Back in 1982 someone put cyanide into capsules of Tylenol, seven people died of cyanide poisoning. Almost over night tamper resistant or tamper evident packaging was introduced. Now virtually all over the counter medications and many other products are sold in "secure" packages. The way an entire industry markets its products was changed because of seven deaths. Product tampering was and still is very rare. West Nile virus which killed one person in California two years ago is on the front page of today's paper.
How many people were killed or maimed before seatbelts became standard in automobiles? And then only because they were required by the federal government. How many more fatalities happened before states made laws requiring their use. And how many people paid stiff fines before they started using them?
What can be done about the high numbers of traffic related deaths. While we may never make driving as safe as flying a mere one percent reduction in accidents would save four hundred lives per year. A twenty-five percent reduction would save ten thousand. First of all we need to change the perception that nothing can or should be done. Driving is an awesome responsibility and should be treated as such. Start with education, drivers education needs to be a part of the curriculum at all schools. A hundred hours on a high tech driving simulator, without a simulated infraction, should be required to get a licence.
Speed limits must be enforced! When everyone is going down the freeway at seventy-five miles an hour and the posted limit is sixty-five people get the impression that traffic laws are some kind of game and the rules are made to be broken. Set reasonable speed limits and impound the first car that exceeds it. Do likewise with other traffic laws. Don't just slap the drivers hand for running a red light or passing on a curve. Take their car away and impose heavy fines to be paid and many more hours on the simulator before the car is returned.
Heaving handed? No, heavy handed is getting broadsided in an intersection. Harsh? No, harsh is when you get a phone call from the Highway Patrol saying a loved one was killed by someone who was doing eighty-five and lost control.
And safe roads must be made a priority for state and local governments. In the county where I live several people have been killed and many injured at an intersection which has been known for years as a hazard because it needs a stoplight.
The light is scheduled for installation some time next year.....
OWL
July 10, 2007
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