this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2026
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Organizations like the NHTSA actually do study car accidents and safety. There’s a problem of scale though. There are so many more car accidents than plane crashes that studying them thoroughly in an individual manner becomes impossible.
But investigations do happen, especially when trends evolve. Hence all the various improvements to car safety over the decades. There’s been a significant reduction in automobile related casualties per distance driven over the history of the technology. Think things like crumple zones and seatbelts, and more recently automatic braking.
Yet deaths are up, especially for pedestrians and cyclists. Per distance driven is the wrong metric anyway since more highway miles makes the system appear safer than it actually is. Plus automakers and regulators prioritize occupant safety, not actual absolute safety. And traffic "engineers" optimize travel time while ignoring things like induced demand. The regulators (US focus) are an absolute joke whem it comes to safety, as the multitude of gigantic pickup trucks and SUVs and the dogshit infrastructure clearly show.