Look at the number of people lost every day on the roads: in the US alone that's 92. Look at the number of people who've died during space flights: 18 total; 7

Look at the number of people lost every day on the roads: in the US alone that's 92. Look at the number of people who've died during space flights: 18 total; 7 from Challenger and 7 from Columbia, 3 from a decompression in a Soyuz 11 and 1 cosmonaut from a failure in a parachute system. More people die during the "safe" operation of tested equipment like cars, trains, boats, planes and helicopters. The biggest issue in space flight is the inbetween. You're strapping yourself to a rocket that with a very small flaw turns into a bomb, or you're hitting the atmosphere at upwards of Mach 10 and expected to stop in what amounts to about 10m of water (that's the rough measure used for meteorite impacts). By the realities, space flight is extremely safe because we do take so many precautions.