Relative risk perception and public investment

 Motor vehicles are not quite in the top 10 causes of death in the U.S.The way the CDC categorizes causes of death, unintentional injuries are number 3, about 173,000 deaths per year, and motor vehicle-related injuries constitute about 1/3 of those. If you were to extract those 40,000+ motor vehicle deaths they would probably be at about #11. (This data is from 2019, and for 2020 Covid has undoubtedly bumped up cause number 9, " influenza and pneumonia, from 9 to 3 making unintentional injuries number 4, but we can hope this is temporary.) However, unlike the other leading causes of death, which disproportionately affect old people and hence result in fewer years of life lot, motor vehicle deaths affect people of all ages, including children. And, obviously, serious injuries are much more prevalent than deaths, and may result in permanent disability including traumatic brain injury.This otherwise good discussion of motor vehicle safetybyMarina Bolotnikovaignores the important issue of non-fatal injuries, and the age of victims,so I ' ll fill in the blanks with this CDC page. The data here ends in 2015 so the number for fatalities is lower than the past two years, but in that year motor vehicle injuries resulted in 2.3 million emergency department visits and $44 billion in costs for health care and work loss. And yes, they were the leading cause of death for people in the first three decades of life.The CDC considered motor vehicle injuries a " winnable battle " when...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs