I've just come back from a week in America and, amongst other stories that I picked up whilst over there.....
1) Three people were killed when a light-aircraft crashed into a car
2) A greyhound bus flipped over, seriously injuring 34
3) Two American children are killed EVERY DAY by being reversed over in their own driveways
4) Four Scoutmasters were killed when they inadvertently touched a tent-pole onto a pylon at a jamboree
All of these stories were very minor items on the local news. I've been over there may times, and there is always this constant drip of stories about people having the sort of rogue accidents which would make the national news over here.
America only has about four times our population, though I think they do tend to bunch together a lot more and are possibly falling over each other, but this level of accident seems freakishly high. 3) can maybe be explained by having such big vehicles, but does anyone have any idea why else the accident rate could be as high as it seems.
Another 'stat' that I caught was outside a church. They had rows of white crosses, and then a banner stating that 721 American children are killed 'by choice' EVERY HOUR. I presumed that meant abortion, but that figure equates to 6.3m every year, or roughly 1 in 20 American women (probably about 1 in 8 of child-bearing age) having an abortion every year. That can't be right, can it ?? Even if the sign had said every day instead of every hour, I'd still be very doubtful.
1) Three people were killed when a light-aircraft crashed into a car
2) A greyhound bus flipped over, seriously injuring 34
3) Two American children are killed EVERY DAY by being reversed over in their own driveways
4) Four Scoutmasters were killed when they inadvertently touched a tent-pole onto a pylon at a jamboree
All of these stories were very minor items on the local news. I've been over there may times, and there is always this constant drip of stories about people having the sort of rogue accidents which would make the national news over here.
America only has about four times our population, though I think they do tend to bunch together a lot more and are possibly falling over each other, but this level of accident seems freakishly high. 3) can maybe be explained by having such big vehicles, but does anyone have any idea why else the accident rate could be as high as it seems.
Another 'stat' that I caught was outside a church. They had rows of white crosses, and then a banner stating that 721 American children are killed 'by choice' EVERY HOUR. I presumed that meant abortion, but that figure equates to 6.3m every year, or roughly 1 in 20 American women (probably about 1 in 8 of child-bearing age) having an abortion every year. That can't be right, can it ?? Even if the sign had said every day instead of every hour, I'd still be very doubtful.
