this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] simplejack@lemmy.world -1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 59 minutes ago)

How you know this is good data

  1. No sources. Just a chart.
  2. Randomly compares some places in North American to some places in Australia.
[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

The fact that California, a state with THIRTEEN TIMES MORE PEOPLE than Mississippi, has less than half the number of traffic fatalities is mind blowing. Mississippi is just 30% of the landmass that California represents, and yet it gets more than double the amount of traffic fatalities.

Looking at the left side of the graph, the trend is easily recognizable. Drunk angry and repressed, poverty stricken republicans will drive drunk like it's the right to bear arms. The further right you go, the more democratic the state.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

just to be clear, this is per capita. not actual totals.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

But they have more people per capita! Because they're so much bigger, see?

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

America is more in the middle of the road when you look at the whole globe, and don’t just select a few counties with lower death rates.

https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/estimated-road-traffic-death-rate-(per-100-000-population)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

Africa is currently the reigning champ for vehicle related deaths.

[–] bier@feddit.nl 1 points 1 hour ago

The Netherlands has 4.19

The Netherlands is close in size to Maryland, and close in the number of inhabitants as New York. Also half of the traffic is cars and half is bicycles. It's pretty insane how bad Mississippi is.

[–] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I think it’s fair to compare like with like. Many African countries have poor infrastructure, inadequate enforcement of traffic laws, rapid urbanization, unsafe vehicles, and limited emergency medical services. Its easy for a Western country to look better compared to that, but is it a fair comparison?

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Well, if you're comparing the US south, it might be fitting.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

That’s not fair. Blue state tax pays have paid for some really nice infrastructure down there.

[–] dastechniker@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

SOUTH CAROLINA #2!!!! 🥳🥳🎉🎊🎉🎉🎊🍻🥳🎉🎉🪅

[–] LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The hell is a "major state"

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Whatever comes before a lieutenant state?

[–] DrWorm@piefed.social 61 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Mississippi is always the worst of any statistic

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

New Jersey is too low. Serious doubts about the validity of this table.

[–] match@pawb.social 4 points 3 hours ago

It's comparing against total population, not driving population, so any amount of mass transit will greatly reduce this number

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 5 points 7 hours ago

Probably not. The state has been implementing Vision Zero as a statewide program along with several cities.

The two major highways have lower than average accidents due to design.

One of the state's signature traffic configurations, the Jersey Jughandle, eliminates left turn movements on older highways, a major source of accidents.

[–] Lembot_0004@discuss.online 22 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Ok, noted: New York is almost on par with civilized regions.

[–] funkajunk@lemmy.world 21 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

That might be skewed as most of their population are in New York City, and more than half of the city doesn't even own a car.

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 13 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

That's pretty much the point of the chart. Better public infrastructure decrease the deaths from cars.

[–] Xaphanos@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Or commuting accidents in traffic are rarely fatal.

[–] Geometrinen_Gepardi@sopuli.xyz 17 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I understand this is largely due to Americans wanting to get drunk like everyone else but also having to drive everywhere.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 21 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

And gigantic motor vehicles.

[–] Botzo@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

There are so many dumb regulations and circumstances that functionally push people to giant vehicles.

For instance: I replaced my 2016 VW golf base model with an electric F150 this year for a multitude of reasons. I got a refund from insurance (with the same coverage). None of this makes sense except that I'm less likely to be injured by other motorists in my 3.5ton truck. I found this depressing.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

And terrible roads and/or regulations? I can't help but notice the worst offenders are conservative areas and those usually are neglectful.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

And lack of pedestrian infrastructure, and..., and... We can go on and on at how baked into the cake these deaths are in the car cult.

[–] PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

The transportation departments of red states just funnel the monies to corrupt buddies and nothing gets fixed even though there is perpetual road work being (performatively) done.

[–] huppakee@feddit.nl 14 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Thought it would be interesting to compare with EU, they published an article in 2023 (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?oldid=630784) with the following data. This graph uses a number per 1 million inhabitants so divide by 10 to compare it.

Road accident fatalities, 2023 (number per million inhabitants)

[–] sep@lemmy.world 1 points 10 minutes ago

How is norway so low?? We have mostly trash roads with a few noteable exceptions. Cliff on one side, river or fjord on the other. No shoulder worth mentioning unlike sweeden, that often have half a lane on either side of the road.

[–] Coelacanth@aggregatet.org 3 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

As far as I know Finland has the world's strictest driving licence, so I'm actually surprised to see it posting worse statistics than Sweden here.

[–] Tobberone@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Sweden is as expected. 200-something fatalities for 10 million people. Norway stands out😃

It got me thinking about definitions, though. For Sweden every death during transportation is counted (including busses, heavy trucks and single accidents with a bike), while the definition my 2 minute googling found for Canada said deaths resulting from accidents involving automobiles.

[–] Coelacanth@aggregatet.org 1 points 5 hours ago

The stats are normalised for per 1 million inhabitants are they not?

But your second point is definitely very good. I imagine getting consistent fully comparable numbers from all the various countries isn't easy.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

Sweden went insane with road security in the nineties (nollvisionen?) so maybe that's why.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 9 hours ago

Need to factor in terrain and weather conditions too.

[–] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Took a closer look to see if I was surprised by any correlation about poverty, and browsed away with the belief that the south is still a shithole... which might still correlate with poverty. I think kansas/oregon is the first entry that wouldn't be 'south.'

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

Drinkin' beers an' drivin' yer trukk is a highly traditional pastime in the US deep south. Typically done in the middle of the night, in my experience, for the maximum probability of contacting the local wildlife or making friends at high speed with a tree.

[–] goldenquetzal@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

I'd like to see the % of trucks vs cars for each location.

[–] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

The south is killing it!

[–] Magister@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago

Not surprised by SC, as a Canadian I had one accident in 40 years of driving, it was in SC, caused by a 17yo girl driving an old suburban or something.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 2 points 9 hours ago

USA #1! 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Is it the issue of safety standards?

[–] ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I'm guessing there is some correlation to total miles(/km) driven. Not all of it, but some. If people in one location drive drastically less distance annually, I'd expect their numbers to show drastically lower on the chart, as well.

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

I am not convinced with Australia and Canada being much better? It would make sense if you were comparing to Europe.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 2 points 11 hours ago

. . . Huh. Here in Vic every year we get targeted with so many ads being like 'worse year ever for road deaths, drive safe, etc'

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 hours ago (5 children)
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