car seat fatality
Need help with math problem?
The probability is 1 in 4,000,000 that a single auto trip in the United States will result in fatality. Over a lifetime, an average of U.S. drivers takes 50,000 trips.
b. Why might a driver be tempted not to use a seat belt “just on this trip”?
Because the probability of fatality is only 1/4,000,000.
An average person who drives, only makes 50,000 trips, so the probability of them getting into a car without their seat belt just one time makes the probability of a fatality look like 50,000/1 .
You have thrown too much into the stew while leaving out some key ingredients.
For your ‘average’ driver, the chance of his dying is 1. The chance of it being while he is driving is 50,000/4,000,000 = 1/80. The figures are high because they include teen drivers who went wheels up before collecting anywhere near the average number of trips. (So driving 4 million trips, as impossible as that is, would not guarantee your death.)
Some people die with belts on. Riders are included in the fatalities. Fatality isn’t the only reason for belt use; injuries average worse for those not wearing belts, and there are times injury is worse than death.
Pew: Half of cell users text and drive
Americans overwhelmingly think texting while driving is dangerous, but about half of cell phone users do it anyway. Worse yet, 44 percent of U.S. adults say they’ve been a passenger in a car when a driver used their cell phone in a way that created a dangerous situation, according to a poll released Friday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The finding suggests that drivers are …
