If you think driving is dangerous, maybe it's time to adjust your perspective.
According to a new study, your chances of dying in a car crash are miniscule compared to your prospects of death from other causes. But some places are riskier than others: the percentage of people who die in a car crash in Montana is 7.4 times higher than in the District of Columbia, for example.
These are among the findings of "Mortality from Road Crashes in the Individual U.S. States: A Comparison with Leading Causes of Death." Prepared by Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute, the study turned up some fascinating statistics. Among them:
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- Car crashes were responsible for 10.4 deaths per 100,000 population members as a national average. Heart diseases killed nearly 19 times as many - 193.3 per 100,000 population members. Cancer killed 185 per 100,000 population members. Strokes killed 47.2 per 100,000, lung disease 40.8 and Alzheimer’s disease yielded a death rate of 26.8 per 100,000.
- There are wide regional variations in death rates from car crashes. Montana had the highest rate of car crash fatalities (22.6). The lowest rate of crash fatalities was in the District of Columbia (3.1).
- After compiling statistics on the five leading causes of death, including car crashes, the authors found the riskiest place to live in the United States was West Virginia, which had a death rate of 1,178 per 100,000 from all causes. The least risky state was Alaska, with a death rate 543.7 per 100,000.
- In the United States, fatalities from road crashes represented 1.3 per cent of fatalities from all causes. The highest percentage (2.4 per cent in Montana) was six times the lowest percentage (0.4 per cent in the District of Columbia). The five states with the highest percentages were Montana, North Dakota, Mississippi, Wyoming and South Dakota. The five states with the lowest percentage were the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New York.
- The study found a correlation between car crash rates and disease: “In the United States, fatalities from road crashes corresponded to 21.9 per cent of fatalities from lung diseases,” the authors found. “Fatalities from road crashes as a percentage of fatalities from other causes of death varied greatly among the states. For example, fatalities from road crashes as a percentage of fatalities from Alzheimer’s disease ranged from 91.4 per cent in New Mexico to 13.3 per cent in Washington.”
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