Crash... NOT!!

[jimvw57]

Originally Posted by sarahsally

Here's the link from Snopes.com

The car involved was actually a Ford Escape SUV!

(Well, I tried to post the link but the site isn't letting me because I only have 1 post.) So go to Snopes.com and search "Smart Car." It'll be the first link on the list.

Edit:
Sorry, didn't realize that I was duplicating someone else's post. I'm still learning how to deal with message boards.

Well, your heart is in the right place.

[SmartDigger]

it is a chevy Cobalt and the driver lived.

[mrc59]

Originally Posted by BobDiaz

...

People die every day in auto accidents; it's just a fact of life.

Bob Diaz

Don't we really need to compare apples to apples though? That is, the number of deaths per mile driven?

I don't disagree with your premise: that smart cars are not unsafe (sorry for the triple negative).

But we must control for the age of the car (older cars tend to be less safe than newer), the age of the driver (younger drivers tend be be less safe than older drivers), the conditions (rural vs. urban), etc. But mostly, the miles and time spent on the road.

Just a nit.

[BobDiaz]

Originally Posted by mrc59

Don't we really need to compare apples to apples though? That is, the number of deaths per mile driven?

I don't disagree with your premise: that smart cars are not unsafe (sorry for the triple negative).

But we must control for the age of the car (older cars tend to be less safe than newer), the age of the driver (younger drivers tend be be less safe than older drivers), the conditions (rural vs. urban), etc. But mostly, the miles and time spent on the road.

Just a nit.

There are a lot of factors that would require a major and expensive study to take into account all of these factors. Such a study is well beyond the scope that I'm able to do, or I should say, could afford to do.

At best I can show that the numbers do NOT support the idea that the smart fortwo is a "Death Trap" or a "Coffin On Wheels". There is some hint that Smart Drivers drive more miles than the average driver, but due to the limited number of samples and the non-random nature of who responded, I can't say this for sure.



Bob Diaz

[mrc59]

Fair enough Bob. We agree that our smarts are not worthy of the general criticism.

[SmartDigger]

I heard a stat the other day on the radio. The roads claim the equivalent of a loaded 747 jet crashing every week.

[BobDiaz]

The number of people killed in 2008:

In their car = 26,689
Motorcycles = 5,290
Other (mostly Pedestrians) = 5,282
----------------------------------------
Total = 37,261 people

FARS Encyclopedia

37,261 people / 52 weeks in a year = about 717 people per week.
Out of a population of about 309,000,000 people, that's about 0.01% of the population.

So there are two ways to look at the numbers, the first is that the total is very large. The other is that as a percentage of the population, it's small.

In terms of leading causes of death, it's high, but at around age 45+, Malignant Neoplasms (Cancer) becomes #1 with Heart Attacks as #2.

WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Reports

Life is filled with risk and in the end, death always wins...


Bob Diaz

[SmartDigger]

100% of people die because their heart stops. What causes that is merely a leading cause, or should a say a " cardiac arrest Due to ________"

[jetfuel]

...we all begin to die the day we were born...

jetfuel...rock on...

[Neonspinnazz]

Originally Posted by mrc59

Don't we really need to compare apples to apples though? That is, the number of deaths per mile driven?

I don't disagree with your premise: that smart cars are not unsafe (sorry for the triple negative).

But we must control for the age of the car (older cars tend to be less safe than newer), the age of the driver (younger drivers tend be be less safe than older drivers), the conditions (rural vs. urban), etc. But mostly, the miles and time spent on the road.

Just a nit.

Originally Posted by BobDiaz

There are a lot of factors that would require a major and expensive study to take into account all of these factors. Such a study is well beyond the scope that I'm able to do, or I should say, could afford to do.

At best I can show that the numbers do NOT support the idea that the smart fortwo is a "Death Trap" or a "Coffin On Wheels". There is some hint that Smart Drivers drive more miles than the average driver, but due to the limited number of samples and the non-random nature of who responded, I can't say this for sure.



Bob Diaz

Why do I have the feeling that both of you are engineers?

It's like a train. You could start out at Union Station in Chicago and go in just about any direction, but the line ends somewhere, maybe one sooner than another.

It's just a part of life, besides, if there were no such thing as death then I bet the world would have maybe 3 times the population it has now!

That would just make my chances of getting a smart 1 in 21,000,000,000!