It is late and I want to make sure that this post has the amount of sensitivity it deserves but I feel like a comment I just read on Facebook it making me post this before bed time. In regards to the horrific Malaysian flight that has disappeared.
Someone just posted that this is making her scared flier or a husband even more scared to fly.
I am a scared flier. I will admit. I get it.
My brother is a pilot.
I feel awful and sick about that plane and those people, really awful.
Since the plane has gone missing, I believe one week ago from today with all of it's 239 people on board in the USA alone around 700 people have probably died in car crashes.
Because on average 110 Americans die in car crashes daily.
Worldwide since the plane went missing around 3,287 people have died EACH DAY.
So that means around 23,000 people have died in car crashes in the last 7 days in car crashes.
80% of car crashes are preventable.
So why the world waits in horror, including me, to find out what happened to that plane, let us also concentrate what is happening due to our own hands which we have more control over.
It too is catastrophic.
Here are some more stats:
- Nearly 1.3 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day.
- An additional 20-50 million are injured or disabled.
- More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among young adults ages 15-44.
- Road traffic crashes rank as the 9th leading cause of death and account for 2.2% of all deaths globally.
- Road crashes are the leading cause of death among young people ages 15-29, and the second leading cause of death worldwide among young people ages 5-14.
- Each year nearly 400,000 people under 25 die on the world's roads, on average over 1,000 a day.
- Over 90% of all road fatalities occur in low and middle-income countries, which have less than half of the world's vehicles.
- Road crashes cost USD $518 billion globally, costing individual countries from 1-2% of their annual GDP.
- Road crashes cost low and middle-income countries USD $65 billion annually, exceeding the total amount received in developmental assistance.
- Unless action is taken, road traffic injuries are predicted to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.