This vehicle may be hazardous to your health

Most people killed in accidents involving cars die the way you would expect -- smashing into another vehicle or other unyielding object while traveling on a public roadway. Those basic scenarios killed more than 41,000 people in the U.S. in 2007 and injured 2.5 million more.

But, as is often and depressingly the case with death and maiming, there's more. According to a new federal study, mishaps that involved cars but aren't classified as traffic accidents on public roads claimed the lives of more than 1,700 Americans in 2007 and injured an additional 841,000.

Not surprisingly, about two-thirds of those deaths and about 10% of the injuries are caused by what NHTSA calls "nontraffic crashes," a statistical category that includes wrecks on nonpublic roads and in parking garages; accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists; and back-over incidents.

More intriguing is the breakdown of the various ways that vehicles kill and injure people in "noncrash incidents," which caused 588 deaths and 743,000 injuries in 2007.

Being crushed by a falling vehicle -- such as a car slipping off a jack during a DIY oil change -- was the leading cause of noncrash deaths. Unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning was No. 2. Other major threats included falling from vehicles, hypothermia (excessive cold) and hyperthermia (excessive heat).

On a lesser but arguably more gruesome scale, seven people were killed by exploding tires, five were strangled by windows, three died while locked in the trunk and two were scalded to death by overheated radiators.

The main reason the injury total for noncrash incidents is so much higher than for crashes is that it includes people who slammed their hands in a car door or were otherwise injured by a closing door (148,000), were injured unloading cargo or pushing a vehicle (88,000) or hurt themselves getting in or out of a vehicle (84,000).

NHTSA compiled the study only after being ordered to by Congress, and it's not hard to see why. Unlike highway crashes and other accidents on public roadways, information on the type of incidents tracked in this report is much harder to collect. After considering several approaches, the agency ultimately relied on a mixture of data gleaned from police reports, death certificates and hospital emergency room reports.

You can check out a two-page summary of the report's findings on the NHTSA website.

And, hey, let's be careful out there.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Logo credit: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Comments

[P H D]

The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. the wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out what it was and what had happened.
It seems that a guy had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off - actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!
The facts, as best could be determined, are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within five seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 MPH, continuing at full power for an additional 20-25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.
Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.

[Martin Zimmerman]

Lemme guess -- and the charred remains are now hidden away in a vault at Area 51?

Martin Zimmerman

[TerryLeon]

Nice story, PDH. Too bad it's fiction. Ever heard of Snopes?

[Strad]

Please use jackstands when working under your car. Working under a vehicle that is only supported by a jack is extremely dangerous. And any deaths therefrom are completely avoidable, which is the saddest part.

[356man]

It looks like a fundamental "stupidity test" needs to be passed as part of a driver's license test, like: don't open hot radiator caps, don't go under a car supported by a jack alone, etc.etc. But then driving while drunk/high is an obvious no-no and look how many people choose to ignore that fact.

[miguel r.]

i like all the car mostly the fast ones becausethey look much cooler

[Salvador A.]

I like the cars .You guys have good cars and good models .