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HALtheWise • yesterday at 7:31 PM • 2 replies • view on HN

As far as I can tell, the idea that rail is the safest form of transit is just false. At least looking at recent Europe-wide data, and even if you make the _very_ favorable decision to include only occupant fatalities, modern commercial aviation has meaningfully lower fatalities per passenger-km than modern rail.


Replies

gavinsyancey • yesterday at 8:36 PM

Aviation is generally used for longer journeys, and most of its risk is in the take-off / landing (so per-trip instead of per-mile). I wonder what happens if you compare fatalities-per-passenger-trip (or per-passenger-mile) on typical-length trips where aviation and HSR are competitive?

amanaplanacanal • yesterday at 8:10 PM

Safest for passengers, it seems so. Safest for everybody else? Who knows?