Originally Posted by
Timbo
I've always wondered why little airplane crashes always get headlines, yet more than 30,000 people die every year on America's roads, no headlines, no cry from the NTSB to ban driving, or improve driver training?
I'd guess a bit of your post was a bit hyperbolic
, but along those lines I am happy to see the laws against texting and driving and recommendations against cellphone use by high level advisors. It does show that regulators are paying attention to the problem, and there are efforts to improve driver education, just not enough effort IMO. Start by enforcing left lane usage.
There are just a lot less planes in the air so each crash is more dramatic and thus significant. Simply a numbers game... Locally, auto fatalities usually are in fact reported on evening news.
It is interesting that small/private plane flying per mile is still higher death rate than automobile travel (last I checked), but airliner / commercial is much safer than driving per mile. Makes me think twice when I use the 172 for transportation instead of fun (rarely do it anyway because of my weather limitations.)