Accidental Death Stats

[MikeCam]

Article has links to other articles and background facts, opinions, findings and dissents.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19080118/

U.S. Data

After Heart Disease, Cancer, Stroke, and Respiratory Disease (these cannot be readily separated all the time); Accidents of all types cause about 110000-115000 deaths per year. Reporting protocols and such make exact numbers difficult to report and combined synergistic causes skew the data.

Among accidents the most common reported statistic is: Young people die in cars; middle aged people die from inadvertant or intentional poisoning (including prescription drug interactions and overdoses); old people fall (stairs, bathtubs, etc).

As always, middle aged motorcyclists are mentioned as a rising group of dying people (35 % self induced non-alcohol related; 35% resulting from other vehicles; 30% alcohol related) 4000-5000 per year (of some 5-6 million registered motorcycles).

Some extracts (data are sketchy but generally accepted at both National and local reporting levels).

Motor Vehicle accidents (all types) -- about 40000-50000 per year
Accidental drug OD or bad reaction to prescription drugs -- about 20000 per year
Falls -- about 17000 per year
Gunshot (non self inflicted)-- about 10000 per year
Bathtubs -- about 8000 per year (these are an included part of the Falls data listed above)

Just a sampling. The data are fascinating.

PS

In the U.S. about 7000-8000 people die each day.