unlucky, yet lucky
- Thread starter Bigus Termitius
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Odds been hit by a falling tree are around 5 million to 1. Odds been involved in a motor vehicle incident around 13,000 to 1.
Combining the 2 in one place and getting out alive, phew thats used up all you luck for a while.
The exposure of people to falling trees and limbs is generally very low. Data extracted from the National Coroners Information System from July 2000 to November 2004, identified 17 non-work tree-related fatalities across Australia, five of which were in urban areas [Hoy and Holley 2004, cited in 101. This can simplistically be expressed as a societal risk of 1:5.2 million per annum, or 1:17.7
million per annum in urban areas [101]. Data on the rates of personal injury related to trees is difficult to obtain. In Great Britain, 32 fatalities and 22 serious injuries were claimed to have occurred as a result of tree-related accidents from 1998 – 2003, translating to a societal fatality rate of 1:8.9 million per annum, and a serious injury rate of 1:5 million per annum [101]. To put this into perspective with other risks faced by society, 119 people died and 1,127 people were seriously injured in South Australia as a result of vehicle accidents in 2009. This gives a fatality rate of 1:13,730 per annum and a serious injury rate of 1:1,450. Over the period from 2000 to 2004, 1120 people drowned in Australia, 16 died from bee/wasp stings, 13 died from dog bites, and nine died from lightning strikes.
Combining the 2 in one place and getting out alive, phew thats used up all you luck for a while.
The exposure of people to falling trees and limbs is generally very low. Data extracted from the National Coroners Information System from July 2000 to November 2004, identified 17 non-work tree-related fatalities across Australia, five of which were in urban areas [Hoy and Holley 2004, cited in 101. This can simplistically be expressed as a societal risk of 1:5.2 million per annum, or 1:17.7
million per annum in urban areas [101]. Data on the rates of personal injury related to trees is difficult to obtain. In Great Britain, 32 fatalities and 22 serious injuries were claimed to have occurred as a result of tree-related accidents from 1998 – 2003, translating to a societal fatality rate of 1:8.9 million per annum, and a serious injury rate of 1:5 million per annum [101]. To put this into perspective with other risks faced by society, 119 people died and 1,127 people were seriously injured in South Australia as a result of vehicle accidents in 2009. This gives a fatality rate of 1:13,730 per annum and a serious injury rate of 1:1,450. Over the period from 2000 to 2004, 1120 people drowned in Australia, 16 died from bee/wasp stings, 13 died from dog bites, and nine died from lightning strikes.
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They were particularly lucky they got swatted by white pines. Something stiffer would have been a lot worse.
