Vampires with vehicle to grid charging capability.
If ambulances had blood on board that would help, but I’m not sure there’s enough blood to outfit ambulances like that.
I think that should be one thing they add before they leave, just in case. Now, how long does blood last and is there a way to keep it “fresh” in case it is not needed on a particular run?
The highest recommended comment (and its replies) pointed out that in the US has had a much bigger increase in SUVs than other countries. The SUVs have their headlights positioned higher and people that have driven both in Europe and the US find that in the US one is blinded more by the oncoming headlights.
I presume they could outfit an ambulance with a refrigerator if they haven’t already. But there’s still the supply issue. Most ambulances that respond to emergencies (as opposed to the ones that transport from one hospital to another where the hospital could maintain the supply) live at the fire station when not in use. There are over 52,000 fire stations in the US compared to 6,000 hospitals. And there’s often shortages of blood at hospitals. If we struggle to keep 6,000 hospitals stocked, how can we keep 52,000 fire stations stocked?
And how much would be wasted? In my sleepy suburb, there’s probably very few calls where someone is in danger of bleeding out. But in a major city of course there would be more. But there’s still a lot more fire stations than hospitals, even if we only consider cities with more than X residents.
And as a pedestrian, you’re much less likely to survive getting hit by an SUV than this thing:
Speeds & size of vehicle are going to be part of it, to be sure (but one needs to have explanation of night vs day, too.
One thing the U.S. has had going on over this period that really wasn’t going on in the other countries is the huge opioid issue (and other drugs).
As noted in the email that went out plugging the NYT piece:
The smartphone
Many of the potential explanations for the trend don’t seem to fit. Cars in this country are large, but they have become only slightly larger since the early 2000s. Drunken driving has not become more common, and roads have not become more dangerous.
But there has been one major change in driver behavior: the use of smartphones.
“Smartphones have become ubiquitous with remarkable speed, overlapping closely with the timeline of rising pedestrian deaths,” Emily, Ben and Josh write. “Apple’s iPhone was introduced in 2007. Within a few years, one-third of American adults said they owned a smartphone.”
Smartphones have also become ubiquitous in other countries, of course. But American drivers seem to be addicted to their phones in ways that drivers elsewhere are not. Surveys suggest Americans spend more time on their phones while driving than people do in other countries. In part, this phenomenon may reflect this country’s culture, which emphasizes professional success and immediate gratification.
It also partly reflects vehicle technology. Nearly all cars in the U.S. are automatic transmission, freeing drivers’ hands (or so they may think) to use phones. In Europe, almost 75 percent of cars still have gears that a driver must change manually.
“The adoption of smartphones for the past 15 years — where we are today, being addicted on social media and other apps — absolutely contributes to the increase in fatalities on our roads,” Matt Fiorentino, a vice president at Cambridge Mobile Telematics, which tracks dangerous driving for carmakers, insurers and regulators, told Emily.
Pot and sidewalks, too
Smartphones aren’t the only likely cause of the trend, Emily, Ben and Josh write. The spread of legal marijuana may also play a role, as may the rise in opioid addiction. In one recent federal study, half of the drivers involved in serious accidents tested positive for at least one active drug.
The continued growth of the population in the Sun Belt, where roads often lack sidewalks, crosswalks and bike lanes, may also be a factor, as may the recent increase in homelessness. People living on the streets are especially vulnerable to being hit by a car.
Some of these problems are difficult to solve. For others, however, there are promising solutions that state and local governments have simply chosen not to try. Building safe sidewalks, as Europe has done, is relatively cheap. Using traffic cameras to identify drivers who are texting — and imposing significant fines on them — would not be difficult, either.
Instead, the U.S. has chosen to accept a vehicle death rate that is almost three times higher than that of Canada, Australia or France, more than four times higher than that of Germany or Japan and more than five times higher than that of Scandinavia, Switzerland or Britain.
Among the recent victims of America’s uniquely high vehicle-death toll: A woman died after being hit by a vehicle while crossing a street in east Las Vegas on Friday and then being hit by a second car while she was on the ground. A person in Redmond, Wash., died on Wednesday night after being struck by a driver in a gray Nissan Pathfinder who then fled the scene. Another pedestrian died in a hit-and-run accident in Colorado Springs on Friday.
And on Thursday night, mourners gathered at a ShopRite parking lot in Stamford, Conn., to remember Marie Jean-Charles, a 74-year-old cashier who had worked at the supermarket for 25 years. She was killed by a speeding driver while she was crossing the street to go to work.
It’s probably not just smartphone use by the drivers, but also those walking.
That said, it would probably be a good idea to check where (as in – what cities, states, etc.) it’s coming from, or if it’s a countrywide phenomenon. I saw this with MVA deaths, too.
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Yeah. Also, it’s not just drunk driving that’s a problem… drunk (or high) walking, though legal, is dangerous for the walker too.
I see three wars.
Right. Very easy to see the Franco-Prussian War, WWI & WWII.
But can’t really see the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic nor COVID … though these are period life expectancies (as opposed to cohort).
There were various things that happened during 19th century other than wars – and those may be pandemics. Looks like that could be cholera:
OK, so I change my answer to “no.”
Guessing a little of the WWI blur (I’m not counting those little dots on the X-axis, which appear to be two-year spans) is also “Flu.”
History of cholera is interesting. No documented cases until the 1800’s?
Shirley, it must have been around before then?
Well it’s primarily spread via drinking water. My understanding is that it was when a city’s pump (or pumps) became contaminated it spread like hotcakes. While the bacteria may have existed before then the outbreaks may have been so limited as to escape notice.
Wasn’t Florence Nightingale’s famed service during a cholera outbreak? I thought she was one of the ones saying that if it was spread through the air she’d have caught it, so it has to be something different.
Cholera supposedly came to Europe from India… and I guess it needed fast enough ships for cholera to last to get to Europe.
Okay, maybe it is just that our records go back only so far:
wiki:
References to cholera appear in the European literature as early as 1642, from the Dutch physician Jakob de Bondt’s description in his De Medicina Indorum.
Guessing Indians figured out how to avoid cholera outbreaks before the Euros came. Or, Indians simply died in mass numbers and it was not recorded.
Maybe it just wasn’t so deadly up until that point.
Or everything else was too.
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Are these data credible?
40 doesn’t seem like a lot in the first place.
Credible in what way?
I mean, I believe the process that created them…
If you mean actuarial credibility to set insurance rates, well, there’s not much incentive for claiming it was a lightning strike death as opposed to cardiac arrest due to non-external causes. There are reasons that lightning strike deaths are a bit iffy - often the people who die this way are alone.