4 ms·

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-ridin

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.
  - zarzavat 3y ago
    The problem with horses is that you tend to fall on your back from a moderate height, which makes them very good at causing paralysis.
    - lazide 3y ago
      Also, even the sketchiest car is far more predictable than a cranky or barn sour horse.
      - hutzlibu 3y ago
        I had a brake failure once (which did not caused damage due to luck and reaction). It was a old car, but it was checked before.
        lazide 3y ago
        That’s pretty hard to do. Out of curiosity - how old, and how did the brakes fail?
        hutzlibu 3y ago
        20 years old and the break strings(?) just snapped. I suppose the mechanic did a sloppy job before (never went there again). It was flat where it happened, but we have mamy quite steep roads here as well. So could have ended badly. (So it was just a allmost crash)
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  the denominator is clearly the big question. Is it "miles traveled" or "time spent doing it"? or in practical terms: "what's the likelihood you'll be injured if you do it every day"?
  - lazide 3y ago
    Much, much higher for the horse. Horses are far less predictable, temperamental, harder to manage and keep healthy, etc. And more than powerful enough to kick someone in the head and end them in an instant if they really wanted to.
    - AlbertCory 3y ago
      although they will avoid colliding with other horses, AFAIK
      - lazide 3y ago
        Cars will also avoid eating random things and pooping in public, thankfully!
        AlbertCory 3y ago
        I see a YouTube video here! $$$$$$
  - thmsths 3y ago
    We can also look at which is the most dangerous to pedestrians (probably the car by a wide margin), or even which is the most dangerous when not ridden/in use. For that last point I would expect the horse to be the most dangerous, while you have the occasional death due to being crushed by a car I bet stable accidents are more frequent.
    - AlbertCory 3y ago
      Good point on pedestrians. Cars can roll down hills, although that's probably infrequent. They can also catch fire. I'm not even horse-experienced, so my knowledge is mainly from TV.
nradov 3y ago
A horse can also injure you when you're not riding it. A friend of mine was badly hurt by her horse when she tried to lead it into a trailer and it went nuts. Similar types of incidents can potentially happen with cars, but anecdotally seem quite rare. There probably aren't any good statistics on this, though.
nitwit005 3y ago
I'm sure the modern equestrian statistics aren't comparable, as the people putting the most hours in tend to be doing sports, rather than daily work as in the past. Modern horses are dramatically larger than what was available in the past, which means some injuries have more force involved.
- bewo001 3y ago
  Looking at pre-car city street scenes, not many people rode horses. Most horses pulled carts and coaches. Of course, a shying horse attached to one of those can still kill people.
Symbiote 3y ago
Trains: 5 railway passengers killed in the EU in 2021, and around 20 seriously injured. 261 billion passenger-km travelled. 0.02 deaths per billion km. Cars: the best EU country has 3.3 per billion-km, the worst 9.8. (Not included: deaths from people not travelling, like trespassers on the railway, maintenance staff.)

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.
- zarzavat 3y ago
  The problem with horses is that you tend to fall on your back from a moderate height, which makes them very good at causing paralysis.
  - lazide 3y ago
    Also, even the sketchiest car is far more predictable than a cranky or barn sour horse.
    - hutzlibu 3y ago
      I had a brake failure once (which did not caused damage due to luck and reaction). It was a old car, but it was checked before.
      - lazide 3y ago
        That’s pretty hard to do. Out of curiosity - how old, and how did the brakes fail?
        hutzlibu 3y ago
        20 years old and the break strings(?) just snapped. I suppose the mechanic did a sloppy job before (never went there again). It was flat where it happened, but we have mamy quite steep roads here as well. So could have ended badly. (So it was just a allmost crash)
AlbertCory 3y ago
the denominator is clearly the big question. Is it "miles traveled" or "time spent doing it"? or in practical terms: "what's the likelihood you'll be injured if you do it every day"?
- lazide 3y ago
  Much, much higher for the horse. Horses are far less predictable, temperamental, harder to manage and keep healthy, etc. And more than powerful enough to kick someone in the head and end them in an instant if they really wanted to.
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    although they will avoid colliding with other horses, AFAIK
    - lazide 3y ago
      Cars will also avoid eating random things and pooping in public, thankfully!
      - AlbertCory 3y ago
        I see a YouTube video here! $$$$$$
- thmsths 3y ago
  We can also look at which is the most dangerous to pedestrians (probably the car by a wide margin), or even which is the most dangerous when not ridden/in use. For that last point I would expect the horse to be the most dangerous, while you have the occasional death due to being crushed by a car I bet stable accidents are more frequent.
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    Good point on pedestrians. Cars can roll down hills, although that's probably infrequent. They can also catch fire. I'm not even horse-experienced, so my knowledge is mainly from TV.

nradov 3y ago

A horse can also injure you when you're not riding it. A friend of mine was badly hurt by her horse when she tried to lead it into a trailer and it went nuts. Similar types of incidents can potentially happen with cars, but anecdotally seem quite rare. There probably aren't any good statistics on this, though.

nitwit005 3y ago

I'm sure the modern equestrian statistics aren't comparable, as the people putting the most hours in tend to be doing sports, rather than daily work as in the past. Modern horses are dramatically larger than what was available in the past, which means some injuries have more force involved.

bewo001 3y ago
Looking at pre-car city street scenes, not many people rode horses. Most horses pulled carts and coaches. Of course, a shying horse attached to one of those can still kill people.

Symbiote 3y ago

Trains: 5 railway passengers killed in the EU in 2021, and around 20 seriously injured. 261 billion passenger-km travelled. 0.02 deaths per billion km. Cars: the best EU country has 3.3 per billion-km, the worst 9.8. (Not included: deaths from people not travelling, like trespassers on the railway, maintenance staff.)