Will I die in a car accident?

[blinkandfbreath]

How likely is it to die in a car crash? I have a fear of dying and every day I see a new article about someone dying or being seriously injured in a car accident. Every time I get in a car journey I feel like this might be my last moments of being alive.

On the other hand, your lifetime risk of dying in a car accident is 1/240. Death from cancer, dementia, stroke or heart disease is much more likely... but car crashes are a big killer of healthy adults.

Suicide is about six times more likely.

@jimmyhill forguve my ignorance but can you explain that stat to me? Does that mean that 1 in 240 people will die of a car accident taken over a lifetime?

OP you realise that’s not normal? Have you spoken to someone about this?

The reason it’s in the news is because it’s a remarkable against the odds event. Car accidents are fairly rare. If the news only reported the mundane every day no one would read it

No. It means it's one of the number on causes of death in healthy adults. The risk is still minuscule

No. If I posted about struggling with anxiety and someone replied 'You seriously need therapy', it would make me feel like shit.

However, if somebody replied (for example) 'Oh, that sounds really tough. Have you considered speaking to a GP about getting some help with how you're feeling?' That would be fine.

Maybe you can copy the second one into your notes and use that in future

Bit like saying you’re afraid to go on a date because a man might murder you because you’re always seeing that on the news. But of course ‘Jim and Melanie had a lovely date on Friday night and Jim hopes she’ll give him a call to arrange another date soon’ doesn’t really make the 9 o’clock news does it?

In the same way, we’d never see ‘Kimberly drove to Manchester today to do a bit of shopping. It was a nice drive and she had no problems.’ Whereas 10 car pileup on the M6 is significantly more newsworthy.

@workiskillingme thanks! But assume that I am as thick as an absolutes brick….can you tease that out a bit more. What is the 240??

@JesusInTheCabbageVan sorry if the truth is upsetting to you

Maybe you can work on your sensitivity

Redirect this anxiety into things you really can do something about. Like if you have a terrible diet and are over a certain age, the odds of you having a heart attack randomly one day are much higher than dying in a car crash.

Source for 1 in 240: www.bandolier.org.uk/booth/Risk/trasnsportpop.html

Slightly out of date but basically still correct. 530,000 people died in UK in 2019, of which 1,700 in road accidents. That's about 0.3% of all deaths. Not a "minuscule" risk but a very big one. Think how many people you know who have died in road crashes.

You've had (so far) two people telling you you were an asshole, and nobody defending you. Also lots of people saying the same thing far more kindly than you did. But you do you.

The risks for dying in a car accident are drinking driving or being a passenger of a drink driver, being a young man driving late at night with other young people in the car, or being a passenger of such a young man - basically someone late at night driving very fast, often in stolen cars.

I assume you are not a young man or friend of a young man who drives fast in stolen cars? So do not drink and drive. Also do not drive when very tired. Follow that advice and you are very unlikely to die in a car crash.

That is true. But as I said above it is certain risky behaviour that makes deaths in car crashes far more likely.
Also drunk walking home alone is very dangerous as a pedestrian. I know someone killed that way when they fell into the road.
Think though of deaths like Anne Heche and Princess Diana, the issues was drunk drivers. Also suicide through car crashes is not that uncommon.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan that was exactly my point, there’s a way to say things. Thank you xx