The Tornado Takes on the SUV . . . and loses?!

Geek Alert! - some posts might be funny, others serious, well, this is a Geek Post, so be warned.

(Hat tip to my good friend Jeff who pointed this out to me during lunch today, I just did the little research)

I live in the great state of Kansas. When I’m outside the state and talk to people I hear a lot about Toto, Dorothy, and all the tornados. I guess there’s a rash of tornados that I haven’t noticed. To be fair, I’d say about once a year we spend about a half hour or so in our basement with the sirens going, but I can’t say it’s too scary anymore. It’s more on the exhilarating side. “I hope I get to see one,” is what’s flowing through my mind. But people absolutely freak out about the things. Don’t get me wrong, they are big and scary, but maybe we should be more frightened about getting plowed over by a coffee-drinking, cell-phone-yapping distracted driver in the SUV on the way to work. Our chances of dying in an auto accident are 1 in 6,515. The odds of biting it via a tornado are 1 in 6,059,318. That means we’re about 930 times more likely to die in an auto accident. So why do people refuse to own a home here without a basement, yet they pay little attention to the safety features when they’re buying a new car? Just a little thought – one that I hadn’t had until Jeff pointed it out. This is just an interesting question, not a rant or anything.

(You’ll likely here more of my anti-SUV stuff in the future)

(Ok, so the stats are nationwide, but you get the point. The vehicle death rate in KS is actually higher (19.9 vs 15.4) than the national average, so that makes up for my slight distortion a little. The premise is the same.)