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Boat Safety - and thread arguments
AMPowers wrote:
Gary, I think an excellent book on this subject is "Deep Survival". It discusses "who lives, who dies, and why" in regards to "extreme sports. The arguments made in it are quite interesting and apply to this topic. It seems that generally what kills people, more often than not, is poor decision making, inadequate training/skill and improper preparation. All of those qualities are just as applicable to driving as to sports. I don't think the argument can be made "objectively" that driving is any more or less dangerous than anything else unless you are willing to theorize an individual who's training/skill, preparation and decision making skills are objectively equal for each endeavor. Then comparing that individual in each activity would make sense. The problem with this is that measuring such things is almost always impossible. Instead, people resort to statistics of entire populations. For instance, mortality rates of bowling are significantly higher than scuba. Why? Because more people who bowl are at greater risk of heart attack and stroke. The sport itself is not really more dangerous, just the population practicing it. When one tends to look at the statistical averages, one ignores the population's (and consequently the individual's) training/skill, preparation and decision making abilities I think this isn't really a "fair" comparison, but it does at least give you some relative sense of the danger in terms of the population, which is what insurance agencies (the folks who compile this information) really care about. While I do believe that any activity has some danger (including driving) I think more often than not the real level can not be truly, scientifically determined for the individual. So, while boating may be dangerous, whether it is more so than driving really comes down to who is doing it at the time. Robb Good point, well articulated. I'll look for the book. Gary |
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