<VV> Safety - Cars and other

[Sethracer at aol.com]

By definition, we survived. But many did not, hence the reasons for the  
Coddling of the new car safety, the bicycle helmets, etc. Many would say that 
is  just trying to thwart Darwinism. But it is interesting to see the  
difference in (US) deaths per mile in cars over the last 50 years. From  1962-69 
there were around 5 deaths per 100 million miles driven. Starting in  1970, 
the number started dropping almost every year. In 2011, it was 1.1 deaths  
per 100 million miles. That is an amazing change, though certainly not all 
due  to car design. 
 
I do agree on the "Terror Merchant" concept. If you watch just the nightly  
news, you would swear crime is running rampant. But, according to the 
Christian  Science Monitor newspaper: 
 
 
"In the past 20 years, for instance, the murder rate in the United States 
has  dropped by almost half, from 9.8 per 100,000 people in 1991 to 5.0 in 
2009.  Meanwhile, robberies were down 10 percent in 2010 from the year before 
and 8  percent in 2009. The declines are not just a blip, say 
criminologists. Rather,  they are the result of a host of changes that have fundamentally 
reversed the  high-crime trends of the 1980s. And these changes have taken 
hold to such a  degree that the drop in crime continued despite the recent 
recession. Because  the pattern "transcends cities and US regions, we can 
safely say crime is down,"  says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern 
University in Boston. "We  are indeed a safer nation than 20 years ago."
I will still wear my seatbelt, adding a helmet when I Autocross. The thing  
to remember with a helmet is you are supposed to wear it, not use it!
 
-Seth
 
 
In a message dated 2/12/2014 8:20:13 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
kenpepke at juno.com writes:

And that  list goes on and on … While we are all now totally under the 
influence of the  'terror merchants' the 
fact is, even though we all had all that stuff and  we did all that stuff, 
we survived and are here to tell the story.
If it  was a serious as 'they' would have us believe we would all be dead.

Ken  P