From: miller@polaron.Physics.ColoState.EDU (Allen Miller)
Subject: Re: Accident rated (was Re: Corporate reimbursement ...)
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1992 16:57:51 GMT
Reply-To: miller@lamar.colostate.edu
Organization: Department of Physics, Colorado State University

In article <1992Nov04.021659.8435@qdeck.com>, jbrown@qdeck.com (Jordan
Brown) writes:
> jbrown@qdeck.com (Jordan Brown) writes:
> >peted@microsoft.com (Peter Duniho) writes:
> >>jbrown@qdeck.com (Jordan Brown) writes:
> >>>somebody writes:
> >>>>But which mode of transportation is safer per mile?
> >>>Car.  Sorry.
> >>Can you justify this statement "Car.  Sorry."?
> >... I'll see if I can find some evidence.
> 
> Well, here are some figures...

Lots of figures deleted...

>  
> It would be interesting to look at non-participant fatality rates - people
> on the ground killed by airplanes and pedestrians and bicyclists killed
>

According to "MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY 1990" published by the U.S. Department of
Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, page 2:

DISTRIBUTION OF TRAFFIC FATALITIES FOR 1989 AND 1990 (Preliminary Estimates)

Fatality Category               1989        1990

TOTAL OCCUPANT FATALITIES      38065       37081

NON-OCCUPANT FATALIES
     Pedestrians                6552        6468
     Bicyclists                  831         856
     Other                       107         124

TOTAL NON-OCCUPANT FATALITES    7490        7448

TOTAL FATALITIES               45555       44529

The OCCUPANT fatalies are broken down into categories such as Passenger Cars,
Motorcycles, etc.   I'm not going to type those.

So it appears that the number Jordan used for traffic fatalies includes non-
occupant fatalies in the statistic.

Now, according to the NTSB Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data, U. S.
General Aviation Calendar Year 1998, in 1988 there were 6 fatalities 
among people who were not "Passenger" or "Crew".  They are listed as
"Other Persons" in the table.  The previous year, 1987 there were 16 such
fatalities, and in 1986 there were 89.  The average for 1984-1988 is
29.  (What happened in '86?)  

So, an interesting statistic is that 17% (using 1990 data) of the people
killed in traffic accidents were non-occupants, while 1% (using the 
apparently rather low 1988 number) to 3% (using 5 year averages) to 9%
(using the 1986 data) of the people killed in GA accidents are "other persons".

What does this mean?  Normally airplanes don't share much common ground with
bicyclists or pedestrians, so we wouldn't expect a very high non-occupant
injury rate.  These books don't give much explanation of the numbers, but
my guess is that the "Other persons" were people on the ground either hit
by planes landing/crashing into them, or people injured in airport accidents
such as walking into a turning prop.

I'm a graduate student trying to scrape up enough money (and time) to begin
seriously working towards my private pilot certificate.  Of course part of
that is "educating" concerned friends and relatives that I'm not a 
suicidal lunatic.

To find these and many more facinating numbers, stop by your friendly local
government documents depository, located at many university libraries.

Allen Miller                                  miller@lamar.colostate.edu
Department of Physics
Colorado State University 
Fort Collins  CO
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.misc