Mikiel's blog <- This is the new site. The stuff below is the old, neglected, not-yet-migrated, sad and lonely site.
Mercedes stuff
Other stuff:
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles...
It seems every do-gooder I run into on the bike is apt to tell me how terribly dangerous and short-sided it is to operate a motorcycle. Well, ladies, here's a list of stuff which is much more likely to get you killed.
| Deaths per year | Cause |
|---|---|
| 696,947 | various heart diseases |
| 162,672 | cerebrovascular diseases |
| 157,713 | lung cancer |
| 124,816 | chronic lower respiratory diseases |
| 73,249 | diabetes |
| 64,954 | pnemonia |
| 62,969 | all "other" cancers |
| 58,866 | Alzheimer's disease |
| 56,741 | colon cancer |
| 56,225 | lymphoma |
| 41,883 | breast cancer |
| 40,974 | nephrosis |
| 40,222 | renal failure |
| 33,865 | septicemia |
| 30,466 | prostate cancer |
| 30,264 | pancreatic cancer |
| 29,975 | symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified |
| 25,039 | "other" respiratory diseases |
| 21,344 | motor vehicle occupants |
| 20,261 | hypertension and hypertensive renal disease |
| 17,593 | pneumonitis due to solids and liquids |
| 17,593 | poisoning |
| 17,201 | other accidental deaths not related to vehicles |
| 17,108 | suicide by firearm |
| 16,959 | Parkinson's disease |
| 16,257 | falling off of things (Actually, it's probably the landing that kills you, not the fall.) |
| 15,136 | cirrhosis of the liver |
| 14,682 | ovarian cancer |
| 14,547 | suicide without a firearm |
| 14,254 | pregnancy complications |
| 14,095 | HIV |
| 14,047 | liver cancer |
| 13,961 | unspecified motor vehicle accidents |
| 13,299 | benign tumors of uncertain or unknown behavior |
| 12,830 | brain cancer |
| 12,791 | suffocation |
| 12,701 | esophageal cancer |
| 12,628 | bladder cancer |
| 12,165 | kidney cancer |
| 12,198 | stomach cancer |
| 12,121 | alcoholic liver disease |
| 11,829 | homicide by firearm |
| 10,687 | congenital birth defects |
| 7,737 | oral cancers |
| 7,514 | skin cancer |
| 6,853 | uterin cancer |
| 6,091 | pedestrians struck by vehicles |
| 5,809 | homicide without a firearm |
| 5,793 | viral hepatitis |
| 4,830 | undetermined intent (might be homicide, might be suicide, but the cops are too stupid or too lazy to tell) |
| 4,711 | "other" disorders of the circulatory system not included in "heart disease" |
| 4,614 | anemias |
| 4,079 | peptic ulcer |
| 3,952 | cervical cancer |
| 3,779 | nutritional deficiency |
| 3,723 | laryngeal cancer |
| 3,447 | drowning |
| 3,159 | burnings |
| 3,153 | U.S. motorcyclists killed in 2002 |
| 2,979 | gallbladder cholelithiasis |
| 2,843 | complications from medical care |
| 2,465 | intestinal infections |
| 1,554 | natural disasters |
| 1,900 | water, air, and space accidents |
| 1,086 | "other" land transport accidents. (I'm not sure how "land transport" falls outside the scope of "motor vehicle" unless a lot of Cub Scouts are getting killed in soap box derbies.) |
| 767 | bicycling |
| 762 | accidental firearm discharge |
Unless otherwise noted, this data was taken from the CDC's survey of stuff that killed people in 2002.
It turns out you're nearly twice as likely to die walking down the street than you are on a motorcycle.
For some more great stats on the odds of dying, try this National Safety Council site.