It is often said that driving a car is more dangerous than flying in a plane, but when a plane crashes or a ship sinks, the incessant media coverage that follows makes this claim difficult to believe.
The sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship this month once again highlighted the overall safety of transportation. But considering how rare a disaster like this is, especially compared to car accidents, it begs the question, what is really the safest mode of transportation?
Globally, there were only 373 deaths on scheduled commercial passenger flights in 2011, according to the nonprofit Aviation Safety Network database. According to the International Air Transport Association, an airline trade organization, there were 2.84 billion business passengers last year, which means the average odds of dying on a commercial flight was about one in 7.6 million in 2011.
Over the course of a lifetime, the risk increases. For example, in a 2006 article in Reason magazine, the National Safety Council stated that the odds of the average person dying in a plane crash in the United States during their lifetime are about one in 5,000.
But compare these odds to vehicular fatalities. In the same article, the National Security Council reported that the lifetime odds of dying in a car accident in the United States was about one in 83. While the number of global vehicle occupants and drivers may not be known, the World Health Organization estimates that it is 1.2 One million people die every year in road traffic accidents (about half of them pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists). Although we drive our cars more than we fly, with apologies to Jack Kerouac and George Clooney, there seems to be some basis for the claim that being on the road is more dangerous than being in the air.
While cruises are more optional than planes and vehicles when traveling, the odds of death are as small as flying. As for cruise ships, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), an association of cruise lines, said that from 2005 to 2011, only 16 people died in cruise accidents, out of 100 million passengers, putting the odds of death within That period is at one level. At 6.25 million. But the Costa Concordia disaster doubled the number of deaths in the first days of 2012. (The death toll in the latest accident now stands at 16, and at least 16 people are still missing.)
However, a new report from Reuters questions the validity of any cruise safety statistics because there is no public database of cruise line accidents. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which provides regulations for cruise ships, does not keep complete records of maritime casualties but has recorded fewer than 300 incidents since 2000, while the independent website CruiseJunkie, run by sociology professor Ross Klein of Memorial University of Newfoundland, , has published reports on 644 incidents in the same period.
Whatever the number, the industry can always increase safety. As the Costa Concordia disaster is investigated, IMO regulations — which, according to Reuters, are open to interpretation by governments, captains and operators — are coming under scrutiny. For example, passengers on board the Costa Concordia did not complete lifeboat safety drills, because the ships have 24 hours after sailing to conduct the drills. Now some in the industry are calling for cruise lines to take charge of this protocol and require safety drills before ships depart.
At the end of the day, you have to get from point A to point B – whether it’s for work, pleasure, or personal obligations. The best thing you can do is take proper precautions, sit down (or stand up, if you’re driving) and relax. Here are some travel safety tips for driving, using public transportation, flying, and cruises. If you’re still nervous, this BBC Travel article highlights which airlines had the safest route records in 2011, and you can learn about incidents at sea on the CruiseJunkie website.
