Is it safer to fly in an aeroplane or to drive a car?

Answer 1

By the number of people killed per distance travelled, by the number of people killed per person flying/driving, by the number of people killed per person in the country? Accurate (or even existing) rates are not obtainabe for all, and so only assumptions and estimates can be made.

However, by deaths per distance, air travel is by far the safest; by deaths per people using the vehicle, it would probaby be just on the side of cars; and by deaths per people in the country/world, air travel again has the upper hand.

Another view:

There are other factors at work, however. Taking only survival into account (ignoring non-fatal injuries and property damage), a person is more likely to survive a driving accident than an aeroplane accident, though planes crash much less often than people get in auto accidents.

Passengers on a plane have no control and there are few things a person can do to help save themselves if a plane is going down. People in a car can do many things to protect themselves, such as wearing seatbelts, not drinking and driving, staying aware, etc.

When it comes to statistics, if done according to time or distance, the results will be skewed in favor of flight since most travel done by plane is usually much longer than most travel done by car.

Statistics also do not ignore car accident deaths that were cases of suicide or drunk driving with no other fatalities than the drunk driver.