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From: Lancair Mailing
List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Barry
Hancock
Subject: [LML] Re: response to Terrence O'Neill's
posting...
Anecdotally, think of how many people you know or have heard of dying in GA
accidents and compare that to how many people you know have died in
airliners.
My
grandparents were killed in a car accident (drunk driver hit them) and my uncle
was hit by a train (engineer's blood alcohol not tested), but so far no
relatives have died from a GA aircraft related injury. So GA
must be much safer than cars and trains. Or maybe we need a different
sampling.
A
better comparison for airlines would be commercial bus
transport - the Greyhound. Airliners are essentially buses with wings
(Ralph Cramden PIC) and GA aircraft are automobiles with wings.
Except for the mountains in South America buses are rarely associated with
fatalies whereas we have perhaps 40k to 50k automobile fatalities per year
in the US alone. Buses seem to be safer than cars but we all
choose a car 99% of the time and accept the risk. We minimize that risk by
avoiding alcohol (bus drivers of both types take note), do not run red lights,
travel at a safe speed, etc. I believe that if we were to sift out
all the GA accidents caused by moronic behavior that the remainder
would render a safety record a whole lot closer to 121 travel.
Robert
M. Simon
ES-P
N301ES
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