Statistically Speaking…
I recently stumbled across the old, 1994 comedy “Dumb and Dumber” on Netflix. I’m sure you know it, probably even have seen it (even if you won’t admit it). By this point, the tale of two nimrods trekking across country to return what they assume is a woman’s left-behind briefcase is pretty much considered a comedy classic (at least by my generation). I hadn’t seen it in ages and, though I like to think my tastes have matured as I’ve grown older, I have to admit it still made me laugh.
Please don’t hate me.
Anyway, there’s an iconic scene in that movie where Lloyd, played by Jim Carrey, is driving Mary, played by Lauren Holly, to the airport. In the rearview mirror, he happens to notice Mary wrap her fingers nervously around her gloves and asks, “What’s the matter? Little tense about the flight?” to which she replies, “Something like that.”
“There’s really nothing to worry about, Mary,” he quips. “Statistically they say you’re more likely to get killed on the way to the airport. You know, like, in a head-on crash or flying off a cliff or getting trapped under a gas truck–that’s the worst.” He says all of this while turned around backward, running a red-light and narrowly avoiding a T-bone crash (though others around him don’t fare as well).
When Mary asks him if he can please keep his eyes on the road, he gives her a thumbs up and says, “Good thinking. You can’t be too careful. Lot of bad drivers out there.”
It’s all very tongue-in-cheek nonsense, showing viewers just how “dumb” our Dumb and Dumber main characters are going to be. BUT, there is some truth to our friend Lloyd Christmas’s words. According to the National Safety Council, in 2021, the death rate for automobiles was 1.66 per 10,000 vehicles. A total of 42,939 people died in motor vehicle crashes in that year alone. Your odds of being in a motor vehicle crash are 1 in 366 for every 1,000 miles driven.
Pretty scary stuff considering many of us drive every single day.
But, before you swear off your daily drive, consider this (again from National Safety Council):
The population motor-vehicle death rate reached its peak in 1937 with 30.8 deaths per 100,000 population. The current rate is 14.3 per 100,000, representing a 54% improvement.
In 1913, 33.38 people died for every 10,000 vehicles on the road. In 2021, the death rate was 1.66 per 10,000 vehicles, a 95% improvement.
In 1923, the first year miles driven was estimated, the motor-vehicle death rate was 18.65 deaths for every 100 million miles driven. Since 1923, the mileage death rate has decreased 92%.
While any motor vehicle death is one too many, the fact remains that traveling by car is a lot safer than it used to be. Modern safety features and traffic laws have had a tremendous impact on death rates. Even with fewer cars on the road, the early days of the automobile were much more dangerous than they are today. In fact, it was on this day all the way back in 1899–way before cars became a staple of the American way of life–that the first automobile-related death was ever recorded.
On September 13, 1899, at West 74th Street and Central Park West in New York City, Henry Hale Bliss, a 69-year-old local real estate dealer, was exiting a south-bound 8th Avenue trolley car when he was struck by a taxicab. Bliss hit the pavement, crushing his head and chest. He was taken by ambulance to Roosevelt Hospital but died from his sustained injuries the next morning.
Arthur Smith, the driver of the taxicab, claimed that a large truck occupied the right side of the avenue, making it necessary to drive his vehicle closer to the car. Smith was arrested and charged with manslaughter, but was subsequently acquitted on the grounds that he had no malice, nor was he negligent.
A plaque was dedicated at the site on September 13, 1999, to commemorate the hundred-year anniversary of this event. It reads:
Here at West 74th Street and Central Park West, Henry H. Bliss dismounted from a streetcar and was struck and knocked unconscious by an automobile on the evening of September 13, 1899. When Mr. Bliss, a New York real estate man, died the next morning from his injuries, he became the first recorded motor vehicle fatality in the Western Hemisphere.This sign was erected to remember Mr. Bliss on the centennial of his untimely death and to promote safety on our streets and highways.
So, though statistically speaking, your odds of being in an automobile crash are much lower than they ever have been, let the anniversary of Bliss’s death be a reminder of our continued need for improvements and advancements in the arena of vehicular safety.
