Around the globe it is estimated that 1.2 million people die in car accidents in one year – that equates to 3200 traffic deaths every day. This figure equals or surpasses some of the more high profile – and newsworthy – events that resulted in large death tolls. As Trevor Reichman at Treehugger points out in some of the following examples
1) Every day more people are killed in auto related deaths than in the 9/11 attacks on America. 2) Every day, about 3 times more woman, children, and men are killed in auto related deaths than in the recent Gaza conflict. 3) Every day, more than twice as many people perish in auto deaths than in Hurricane Katrina . 4) The daily toll from traffic accidents is equivalent to 15 plane crashes, each with 200 passengers aboard.
One would think that saving these kind of number of lives would rate a little higher in our collective concern about human lives. Instead we continue to relegate things like public mass transit and safer vehicles to the fringes. while the number of deaths has waned slightly in the wealthier nations due to higher fuel prices the death tolls in developing nations has increased. As it is though 110 people die every day in the United States which works out to 40,000 people a year.
[pic courtesy of CarAdvice.com.au ]
