Accidents causing death…
The Economist has a nice table showing the likelihood of death by a variety of mundane and more unusual accidents. The stats, derived from the US National Safety Council, show that:
- you’re 52 times more likely to be poisoned than drown in the bath;
- falling will kill you 56 times more often than electrocution and;
- your more than 2100 times more likely to die from a car than you burning up in your pajamas.
If you compare these to other statistics related to non-accidental death and violence based on some US statistics Americans have about a 1 in 230 chance of being murdered in their life time (based on a 2007 murder rate of 5.5 per 100,000 and an 80 year lifespan) - roughly equal to dying by poisoning, falling or car accident.
So the strident conclusion I would draw - since people view murder with so much fear - is that it’s time for our law makers to ban stairs, cars and bathtubs. Just think of the children. You don’t care about the children?
(BTW, if anyone has issues with my quick derived murder stat, please let me know).
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