I went jogging on Sunday past where an accident had happened, and despite the closing of the street and multiple police cars and officers around, I didn't know that someone had died until today as the news reports started to come out. A 21-year-old UW-Madison student was run down while trying to apparently fix his car on E. Johnson St., about 4 blocks North of where I live. It is being called an accident - the driver who hit him was a 19-year-old woman. Here's some of the news and police reports: http://www.nbc15.com/news/headlines/Police_Investigating_Fatal_Crash_10564181... (UPDATE 5/25/2011 - Driver may have been texting while driving - http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_7bbdd7ca-8657-11e0-a028-001cc4c002e0.html)
This accident got me thinking again about the fragility of human life when it comes into contact with automobiles. It made me want to know exactly how often this type of thing happens. What I found out, was that for those of us under 44, and in fact quite a few who are 44 and over, it happens much too often. In order to show rather than tell how serious a problem this is for us, I decided to draw some comparisons between cancer and motor vehicle injuries.
Cancer affects almost 12 million Americans annually and killed about 559,000 Americans in 2007 (Source: American Cancer Society, 2007, Cancer Facts and Figures, http://www.cancer.org/Research/CancerFactsFigures/CancerFactsFigures/caff2007... But motor vehicle accidents kill a disproportionately high number of young Americans - two to four times as many who die from cancer between the ages of 1-44. Indeed, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for all Americans between age 1-44, (Source: Centers for Disease Control, 2007, http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/images/Death_by_Age_2007.gif), and motor vehicle related deaths are either the leading or second leading injury-relate causes of death for all age groups during 2007, the most recent year that data was available, equaling 42,031. (Source: Centers for Disease Control, 2007, http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/images/Unintentional_2007.gif)
The number of fatalities is much lower per year than it used to be, especially as a proportion of the population. So it's not all bad news, there's just much more to do.
What we can do as a society to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our fellow citizens? Wear a seatbelt, be cautious, don't drink and drive, share the road with bicycles and pedestrians? All good ideas.
I would also add things that we don't typically think of as safety related - we need to encourage public transportation or carsharing, carpool, and reduce the number of trips on the road.
Be safe out there, people.
(Caveat: In this post I use the colloquial term for people who live in the U.S., "Americans." I hope that this doesn't offend any of my Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Mexican, or Canadian friends!)
This accident got me thinking again about the fragility of human life when it comes into contact with automobiles. It made me want to know exactly how often this type of thing happens. What I found out, was that for those of us under 44, and in fact quite a few who are 44 and over, it happens much too often. In order to show rather than tell how serious a problem this is for us, I decided to draw some comparisons between cancer and motor vehicle injuries.
Cancer affects almost 12 million Americans annually and killed about 559,000 Americans in 2007 (Source: American Cancer Society, 2007, Cancer Facts and Figures, http://www.cancer.org/Research/CancerFactsFigures/CancerFactsFigures/caff2007... But motor vehicle accidents kill a disproportionately high number of young Americans - two to four times as many who die from cancer between the ages of 1-44. Indeed, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for all Americans between age 1-44, (Source: Centers for Disease Control, 2007, http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/images/Death_by_Age_2007.gif), and motor vehicle related deaths are either the leading or second leading injury-relate causes of death for all age groups during 2007, the most recent year that data was available, equaling 42,031. (Source: Centers for Disease Control, 2007, http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/images/Unintentional_2007.gif)
The number of fatalities is much lower per year than it used to be, especially as a proportion of the population. So it's not all bad news, there's just much more to do.
What we can do as a society to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our fellow citizens? Wear a seatbelt, be cautious, don't drink and drive, share the road with bicycles and pedestrians? All good ideas.
I would also add things that we don't typically think of as safety related - we need to encourage public transportation or carsharing, carpool, and reduce the number of trips on the road.
Be safe out there, people.
(Caveat: In this post I use the colloquial term for people who live in the U.S., "Americans." I hope that this doesn't offend any of my Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Mexican, or Canadian friends!)
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