There’s this thing I don’t get. No this isn’t a rhetoric ploy, joke or an attempt to be cute. But why is it that we are shocked and upset when the news fill up with another airplane crash or two more soldiers killed in action? Of course any premature death of one of us is saddening – upsetting even. To the loved ones still alive it is evidently devastating. But when I bring up the fact that the equivalent of two full intercontinental passenger aircraft are killed every week on the road in car accidents, I’m most often met with incredulence. Then I’m told it is an irrelevant comparison. That I’m talking gibberish. Trying to compare apples with oranges.
Is it? Am I? If so, I’d like to have someone go real slow on the explanation to me, please. Allow me to make some observations: In 2009 (full stats for 2010 not yet available to me) the world registered 1,103 deaths in airplane transport. This includes airplanes from eight passengers and up. That same year we had 33,808 deaths on the roads – in the US only! Forget India, Nairobi or France. That’s 75 Boing 747 planes! They can’t make new planes that fast. 75!? – that’s six full planes per month. Read the rest …
