Statistics
Feb. 4th, 2010 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderplanetMore of the same on what I wrote yesterday about the manufactured controversy over the Toyota recall. It's still all over the news, so I'm still responding. I should probably stop reading the news.
Which of the following problems warrants a government investigation?
1. "Sudden unintended acceleration in all Toyota vehicles had resulted in 19 deaths in the United States over the last decade."
That's an average of about two deaths per year, approximately .0075 percent of the 25,428 automobile passenger deaths in 2008. The United States Secretary of Transportation has deemed it necessary to publicly address a problem involving less than one one-hundredth of a percent of auto fatalities.
Compare these statistics to statistics involving single-vehicle rollover crashes in SUVs.
2. In 2008, single-vehicle rollover crashes in SUVs accounted for 2,064 deaths, a little over eight percent of the 25,428 total. 48 percent of occupant deaths in single vehicle rollover crashes were in SUVs.
Since 1978, pickups and SUVs have a consistently higher percentage of rollover deaths than cars. Pickup trucks are the most likely to be involved in a rollover death, but the number of passengers in a pickup is typically lower than the number of passengers in an SUV.
Toyota has suspended production of the affected cars until the problem is resolved, and has announced plans for the necessary repairs. SUVs continue to be manufactured in such a way that rollovers are more likely, and more damaging than they are in cars.
I can find no warning from Mr. LaHood about the intrinsic safety issues involving either SUVs or pickup trucks.
This post is still a bit incomplete, but I really need to go work on other stuff.
Source
Source
Which of the following problems warrants a government investigation?
1. "Sudden unintended acceleration in all Toyota vehicles had resulted in 19 deaths in the United States over the last decade."
That's an average of about two deaths per year, approximately .0075 percent of the 25,428 automobile passenger deaths in 2008. The United States Secretary of Transportation has deemed it necessary to publicly address a problem involving less than one one-hundredth of a percent of auto fatalities.
Compare these statistics to statistics involving single-vehicle rollover crashes in SUVs.
2. In 2008, single-vehicle rollover crashes in SUVs accounted for 2,064 deaths, a little over eight percent of the 25,428 total. 48 percent of occupant deaths in single vehicle rollover crashes were in SUVs.
Since 1978, pickups and SUVs have a consistently higher percentage of rollover deaths than cars. Pickup trucks are the most likely to be involved in a rollover death, but the number of passengers in a pickup is typically lower than the number of passengers in an SUV.
Toyota has suspended production of the affected cars until the problem is resolved, and has announced plans for the necessary repairs. SUVs continue to be manufactured in such a way that rollovers are more likely, and more damaging than they are in cars.
I can find no warning from Mr. LaHood about the intrinsic safety issues involving either SUVs or pickup trucks.
This post is still a bit incomplete, but I really need to go work on other stuff.
Source
Source
