[bodhi]

That was my thought as well. Just to drive the point home:

> costs some 10,000 Americans their lives each year

with

> Maybe a plane load every month or two.

Would have to be 100 planes/year (at ~100 people/plan)! Imagine if you had 8 plane crashes/month due to drunk pilots!

[Asbostos]

Excuse my math problem :P It seems to me that these factors can make people much more concerned about a danger:

A) Few but large scale killings - eg 100 planes of 100 people each seems worse than 10,000 cars of 1 person each.

B) A single identifiable group of outsiders that can be blamed. Most people drink so drinkers aren't outsiders.

But this last factor surprisingly doesn't seem to be a worry, as evidenced by people's willingness to drive, despite the fact that it sounds like it should induce terror:

C) Random sudden death without warning.

[bodhi]

I agree. Also, I think the amount of input you have into an activity is also somewhat inversely proportional to the shock when the accident happens.

People actively drive the car, so they may think "I have a chance to affect the outcome", whereas being a plane passenger is basically vegetating for X hours in a very uncomfortable seat, and there is no way you can actively influence the outcome in a positive way.

[hussong]

I'd like to add D) Cannot be attributed to 'shit happens'