• @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    I actually never realized this, but car are much more dangerous than any other threat to human life.

    My parents are always worry about my safety whenever I go to less-populated areas or big cities in the U.S. Yet in 2021 there are total 26k homocide death in the U.S. [1] and there are 31k traffic death in the U.S. [2], you are almost 20% more in danger to be killed by a car than by a person, even in the U.S., a country with one of the highest homicide rate in the “developed” world [4].

    We always convey something is “safe” by arguing that it is “safer than cars”, plane, buses, or even guns. But we never realized that cars are probably the MOST dangerous killing machine besides diseases [3]. Staying away from cars is actually one of the best strategy to survival for people in the U.S.

    [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm

    [2] https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/traffic-fatalities-estimates-jan-sept-2021

    [3] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

    [4] https://ourworldindata.org/homicides

    • @schroedingershat
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      1 year ago

      This is also vastly undercounting car-related deaths and overcounting non-car deaths. They are a major cause of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular, and respiratory disease as well as chronic injuries that cause death later. Irate car drivers are also a significant category of homicides.

      A lot of violent crime can also be traced to leaded gasolene.