On Thursday, 10 November 2011 23:26:49 UTC-5, Eric Greenwell wrote:

Step outside this little world of soaring, and think about why the
automobile fatality rate has dropped so much over the last 50 years. The
majority of the improvement comes from safety devices like divided
highways, seat belts, crush zones, and other improvements in safety devices.

While this is true, Eric, I wish to point out that all but one of the devices you mention are intended to save lives "during" the ensuing crash. Only the divided highway "prevents" the crash, and that by forcibly separating the traffic flow. To my knowledge there is no existing automotive device (except my wife) that screams out, "Stupid! You're going to get us killed!!"..

On a negative side of your argument, the great decrease in fatalities has been matched by a great increase in permanent life-altering injuries. I leave it to individual discretion to determine which is personally preferable.

-John