A new report by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety lists the number of yearly deaths per million vehicles registered. They break it down by models.
Before we get into the numbers, let’s remember the 757, 767, 777, and Airbus 319, 320, 321 (and all higher numbered models) are accident free and fatality free in the U.S. and Canada . . . not just last year, but ever since they have been flying.
The two-door Chevy Blazer had 308 deaths last year per million of them on the road, the most of any vehicle in the study. If you put that another way, it means there for every 3,237 two-door Chevy Blazers, there was one death. If you figure the average life of that SUV is ten years, that means one of every 324 two- door Chevy Blazers is going to die in one.
The safest car on the road was the Mercedes E-Class sedan. For every 100,000 of these, there was one death. If you figure the Mercedes is good for twenty years, that means one out of 5,000 of them will kill someone.
Somehow, compared to flying, I am not impressed even with the performance of the Mercedes. Why? Because all the major U.S. airlines put together which were flying day in and day out and carrying – not just a couple of passengers like a car does – but hundreds each – failed to kill anyone last year . . . or the year before.
And further, I’m equally unimpressed when someone says, ‘If something goes wrong with a car, you at least have a chance of surviving, but if something goes wrong with an airplane, you’re dead.’ If that logic is correct, nothing went wrong with any airliners last year . . . or the year before.
Want to read the stats yourself?
