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#11
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
Well, not to beat this to death Steven, but, I didn't say I worried. I said
I feared. I said my worst fears in driving. And, more deaths are caused on the roads in the US by drugs and alcohol use then any other: The number of people killed in alcohol-related crashes has risen slightly since 1999 ending years of steady decline. Last year, 17,448 were killed, accounting for 41 percent of all U.S. traffic deaths. http://www.ghsa.org/html/media/mediacoverage/121802.htm So, if you are going to die in a traffic related incident, you have a 41 percent chance it will be by a drunk. This statistic doesn't include drug related, which puts it over 50 percent by those impaired by drugs or alcohol So, if I were to worry, I guess it would have been by something that was the most common cause of death. Now, as far as bicycling goes, I don't worry at all. It's too damn fun to be worrying. "Steven M. O'Neill" wrote in message ... iLiad wrote: "Steven M. O'Neill" wrote in message ... iLiad wrote: A drunk driver is one of my worst fears in driving (much less cycling), as there really isn't anything you can do about it. My granparents were killed by a drunk driver. No matter how alert, and safe you are, if someone swerves across the road at you, there isn't much time to react. So if a sober person were to kill you, you'd die happy? And you drew this conclusion how? I didn't, really. Just trying to point out that it's silly to worry most about something that isn't the most common cause. -- Steven O'Neill www.bridgetolls.org |
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#12
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 17:20:10 GMT, "iLiad"
wrote: So, if you are going to die in a traffic related incident, you have a 41 percent chance it will be by a drunk. (Not here to argue iLiad, but I've always loved this particualr statistic). Or, a 59% chance of being killed by a sober driver . . . Ergo, let's concentrate on the sober drivers first. They would appear the bigger threat. Grin, I'm outta here . . . . |
#13
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
It is an international statistic that your safest bet in cycling is to cycle
on minor roads. I do. You are 6 times less like to be killed on a minor road, as on a major one. |
#14
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
"Gearóid Ó Laoi/Garry Lee" wrote in message
... It is an international statistic that your safest bet in cycling is to cycle on minor roads. I do. You are 6 times less like to be killed on a minor road, as on a major one. Please don't quote statistics without a link to the source of said statistics. Otherwise it is just hearsay. If you can provide the source, it would be appreciated and provide credibility to your position. I would be more likely to believe this statistic if it were applied to automobiles. But I have doubts about it being true for cyclists as many cyclists avoid major roads anyway. It seems the data would be seriously skewed. But please, provide a link if you have one. Thanks, Buck |
#15
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
iLiad wrote:
The number of people killed in alcohol-related crashes has risen slightly since 1999 ending years of steady decline. Last year, 17,448 were killed, accounting for 41 percent of all U.S. traffic deaths. http://www.ghsa.org/html/media/mediacoverage/121802.htm It's nice to see that alcohol-involved (maybe a passenger had alcohol in his system) has been replaced by alcohol-related (a vehicle operator or pedestrian had alcohol in his system) but it would be nice to know how many were drunk, how many were impaired, and how many just had a dose of cough syrup last night. It would also be nice to know if the alcohol-related person had anything to do with causing the death. Mitch. |
#16
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
So you are saying I should drive drunk then ;-)
Actually I'm not sure you've followed closely. As I mentioned, 41 percent were alchohol related, if you include drugs, that puts it over 50 percent. So those that are driving without the influence of drugs and alcohol are the least to worry about. I would much rather be on the road with sober drivers and deal with them, then drunks. "Fraser" wrote in message ... On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 17:20:10 GMT, "iLiad" wrote: So, if you are going to die in a traffic related incident, you have a 41 percent chance it will be by a drunk. (Not here to argue iLiad, but I've always loved this particualr statistic). Or, a 59% chance of being killed by a sober driver . . . Ergo, let's concentrate on the sober drivers first. They would appear the bigger threat. Grin, I'm outta here . . . . |
#18
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
In article ,
Buck s c h w i n n _ f o r _ s a l e @ h o t m a i l . c o m wrote: "Gearóid Ó Laoi/Garry Lee" wrote in message ... It is an international statistic that your safest bet in cycling is to cycle on minor roads. I do. You are 6 times less like to be killed on a minor road, as on a major one. Please don't quote statistics without a link to the source of said statistics. Hear, hear. For what it's worth, the one study I remember off the top of my head having a comparison between "major" and "minor" roads is this summary of a survey of LAW members-- http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Library/Moritz2.htm which finds the major roads slightly safer. (See "major w/o bike facilities", "minor w/o bike facilities", in table 5.) --Bruce Fields |
#19
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
David Kerber wrote:
In article , says... iLiad wrote: http://www.ghsa.org/html/media/mediacoverage/121802.htm From what I've read, in accident statistics, "Alcohol-related" means that the alcohol contributed in some significant way to causing the accident. A drunk pedestrian on the sidewalk who is killed by a reckless driver who loses control on the road and runs up on the sidewalk and kills said drunk pedestrian is not considered an "alcohol- related" accident. In the link above, this definition was given: NHTSA defines an alcohol-related fatality as any that occurred in an accident where a driver, pedestrian or cyclist had alcohol detected in their blood. In most states, it is legal to drive with less than 0.08 percent blood alcohol content. After seeing that definition of the alcohol relationship with the 17,000 deaths, we see this quote on the same page: "We have very little evidence that a significant number of people are dying from cell phones, yet we know that more than 17,000 people died from drunken driving," Mitch. |
#20
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Great Cycling Advocate Killed by repeat Drunk Driver
Mitch Haley wrote:
David Kerber wrote: In article , says... iLiad wrote: http://www.ghsa.org/html/media/mediacoverage/121802.htm From what I've read, in accident statistics, "Alcohol-related" means that the alcohol contributed in some significant way to causing the accident. A drunk pedestrian on the sidewalk who is killed by a reckless driver who loses control on the road and runs up on the sidewalk and kills said drunk pedestrian is not considered an "alcohol- related" accident. In the link above, this definition was given: NHTSA defines an alcohol-related fatality as any that occurred in an accident where a driver, pedestrian or cyclist had alcohol detected in their blood. In most states, it is legal to drive with less than 0.08 percent blood alcohol content. After seeing that definition of the alcohol relationship with the 17,000 deaths, we see this quote on the same page: "We have very little evidence that a significant number of people are dying from cell phones, yet we know that more than 17,000 people died from drunken driving," It's not illegal so no one ever follows up with an investigation (cell phone records could be used to prove it - but there's no reason to). Annnnd ...... as it is now; who would admit to it? Nearly every close call I've had in the last few years has involved a driver with their cell phone clamped firmly to their head and NOT paying attention. My daughter, when driving an Access Ride bus said that bus drivers talk about seeing that inattention due to cell phone usage all the time. Seen many cars changing lanes without a blinker? In my experience, odds are very high that the person is on their hand held cell phone - too busy - too mentally occupied - to reach the blinker lever. I have a friend who was hit by a cell phone toting driver and and suffered a serious back injury. This may all sound anecdotal, but I've seen enough to know that cell phones are a unique hazard and their use while driving should be banned. -- ***************************** Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO http://www.CycleTourist.com Integrity is obvious. The lack of it is common. ***************************** |
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