4 ms·

Travel is still risky. Automobile accidents are, by a substantial margin, the leading cause of death in young people. It may have been somewhat more risky bac

Travel is still risky. Automobile accidents are, by a substantial margin, the leading cause of death in young people. It may have been somewhat more risky back then -- in terms of fatalities per mile traveled, if not fatalities per hour traveled -- but I don't think that's perfectly clear. A fall from a horse, which has happened to me more than once, is a lot less injurious than an automobile accident. It would be interesting to see a comparison table. Besides, the risks didn't stop every enterprising English and Protestant German youth from embarking upon the Grand Tour: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour

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kunwon1 3y ago
One might argue that a fall from a horse in the 17th century is more injurious than an automobile accident in the 21st
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  we don't have much data for then, but we do have it for now. See my other comment.
b112 3y ago
A fall from a horse, with mild injury, was far more serious though. No antibiotics, and geneally no operating for internal body cavity injuries.
bemusedthrow75 3y ago
s/enterprising/independently wealthy/
AlbertCory 3y ago
I don't have a dog in this fight, honest! /s but I got curious, so as a fun math exercise: go crazy! HORSES: https://horsesonly.com/horse-riding-accidents/ https://horsesonly.com/horse-riding-accidents/ > According to the research (2002) on horseback riding danger statistics, the rate of hospital admissions for equestrians is 11.8/1000 riders or, assuming one hour per day riding on average, 0.49/1000 hours of riding. (1) > 7. 81% of equestrians get injured at some point in their riding career. CARS: https://www.valuepenguin.com/car-accident-statistics#injuries https://www.valuepenguin.com/car-accident-statistics#injurie... we have some numbers that don't quite compare: >In 2020, Americans had a 1 in 63 chance of getting in a car accident. > At least one driver or passenger is injured in 43% of car crashes. There were 2,282,015 injuries reported in 2020 — that's 6,252 per day, or four per minute.
- thmsths 3y ago
  So cars are roughly 10 times safer than riding horses? And that's without accounting for the difference in distance travelled. The number of injuries for the car are staggeringly high because of how common they are. I bet if we enacted policies that made owning a horse as likely as owning a car, we would also find that every minutes a several horse riders get injured.
  - pixl97 3y ago
    I would also make a guess that cars operated at the same speed (with current safety equipment) that cars would be closer to 100 times safer than horses. The entire velocity squared multiples quickly.
    - thmsths 3y ago
      I think so too. Motorcycles are the closest thing we have to a very fast horse and according to [1] they are 35 times more likely to result in a fatal crash than a car. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety
    - hgomersall 3y ago
      It's complicated the other way because we design our environment to be safe for cars; horses on the other hand tend to go everywhere, including jumping over stuff.
  - A_D_E_P_T 3y ago
    > So cars are roughly 10 times safer than riding horses? Well, all of that refers to injury -- which may be serious, but may also be very mild. A sprained ankle is an injury. Horseback riding is a lot like a contact sport; it's very easy to pick up musculoskeletal injuries from getting pulled or thrown (or kicked, which has also happened to me once,) but only a very small proportion of those lead to serious and lasting disability. If we look solely at fatalities, a different picture might emerge. Automobile injuries are, I surmise, more likely to be very serious or fatal. And, of course, motorcycles are in a different plane of existence entirely.
nugget 3y ago
I’m pretty sure the opioid epidemic is the leading cause of death in the US. Enormous numbers of Americans are dying from fentanyl and other poisons, but the media doesn’t like to cover it and the Government doesn’t like to talk about it.
- robotresearcher 3y ago
  Among young people it is currently guns, until recently was cars, and drugs is about half of either, but rising. Drugs has recently risen to be about the same as cancer. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2201761#:~:text=The%20previous%20analysis%2C%20which%20examined,to%2019%20years%20of%20age https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2201761#:~:text=T....
  - nradov 3y ago
    A lot has changed since 2016. "Poisoning was the leading cause of preventable death for all ages, combined, for the ninth consecutive year and was the leading cause of preventable death for every age from 22 to 68. This is largely due to the opioid epidemic affecting millions of people in the United States." https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/deaths-by-demographics/deaths-by-age/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/deaths-by-demograph...
    - robotresearcher 3y ago
      The data I used was up to 2020 (see the chart) and your link says that for people under 22 the leading cause was vehicle accidents in 2021. But your point is made: drug poisonings are now the scourge of adults in the main years of life.
  - refurb 3y ago
    I find it curious that the age cut off for that study was under 20 years of age. Why not 18 or under? That's what we've typically used as the cutoff between childhood and adulthood. I think I know why.
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kunwon1 3y ago

One might argue that a fall from a horse in the 17th century is more injurious than an automobile accident in the 21st

AlbertCory 3y ago
we don't have much data for then, but we do have it for now. See my other comment.

b112 3y ago

A fall from a horse, with mild injury, was far more serious though. No antibiotics, and geneally no operating for internal body cavity injuries.

bemusedthrow75 3y ago

s/enterprising/independently wealthy/

AlbertCory 3y ago

I don't have a dog in this fight, honest! /s but I got curious, so as a fun math exercise: go crazy! HORSES: https://horsesonly.com/horse-riding-accidents/ https://horsesonly.com/horse-riding-accidents/ > According to the research (2002) on horseback riding danger statistics, the rate of hospital admissions for equestrians is 11.8/1000 riders or, assuming one hour per day riding on average, 0.49/1000 hours of riding. (1) > 7. 81% of equestrians get injured at some point in their riding career. CARS: https://www.valuepenguin.com/car-accident-statistics#injuries https://www.valuepenguin.com/car-accident-statistics#injurie... we have some numbers that don't quite compare: >In 2020, Americans had a 1 in 63 chance of getting in a car accident. > At least one driver or passenger is injured in 43% of car crashes. There were 2,282,015 injuries reported in 2020 — that's 6,252 per day, or four per minute.

thmsths 3y ago
So cars are roughly 10 times safer than riding horses? And that's without accounting for the difference in distance travelled. The number of injuries for the car are staggeringly high because of how common they are. I bet if we enacted policies that made owning a horse as likely as owning a car, we would also find that every minutes a several horse riders get injured.
- pixl97 3y ago
  I would also make a guess that cars operated at the same speed (with current safety equipment) that cars would be closer to 100 times safer than horses. The entire velocity squared multiples quickly.
  - thmsths 3y ago
    I think so too. Motorcycles are the closest thing we have to a very fast horse and according to [1] they are 35 times more likely to result in a fatal crash than a car. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety
  - hgomersall 3y ago
    It's complicated the other way because we design our environment to be safe for cars; horses on the other hand tend to go everywhere, including jumping over stuff.
- A_D_E_P_T 3y ago
  > So cars are roughly 10 times safer than riding horses? Well, all of that refers to injury -- which may be serious, but may also be very mild. A sprained ankle is an injury. Horseback riding is a lot like a contact sport; it's very easy to pick up musculoskeletal injuries from getting pulled or thrown (or kicked, which has also happened to me once,) but only a very small proportion of those lead to serious and lasting disability. If we look solely at fatalities, a different picture might emerge. Automobile injuries are, I surmise, more likely to be very serious or fatal. And, of course, motorcycles are in a different plane of existence entirely.

nugget 3y ago

I’m pretty sure the opioid epidemic is the leading cause of death in the US. Enormous numbers of Americans are dying from fentanyl and other poisons, but the media doesn’t like to cover it and the Government doesn’t like to talk about it.

robotresearcher 3y ago
Among young people it is currently guns, until recently was cars, and drugs is about half of either, but rising. Drugs has recently risen to be about the same as cancer. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2201761#:~:text=The%20previous%20analysis%2C%20which%20examined,to%2019%20years%20of%20age https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2201761#:~:text=T....
- nradov 3y ago
  A lot has changed since 2016. "Poisoning was the leading cause of preventable death for all ages, combined, for the ninth consecutive year and was the leading cause of preventable death for every age from 22 to 68. This is largely due to the opioid epidemic affecting millions of people in the United States." https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/deaths-by-demographics/deaths-by-age/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/deaths-by-demograph...
  - robotresearcher 3y ago
    The data I used was up to 2020 (see the chart) and your link says that for people under 22 the leading cause was vehicle accidents in 2021. But your point is made: drug poisonings are now the scourge of adults in the main years of life.
- refurb 3y ago
  I find it curious that the age cut off for that study was under 20 years of age. Why not 18 or under? That's what we've typically used as the cutoff between childhood and adulthood. I think I know why.

deleted 3y ago

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