What a way to go

[Guest guest]

One Million Ways to Die

 

By Ryan Singel| Also by this reporter

02:00 AM Sep, 11, 2006

 

Sept. 11, 2001 was undoubtedly one of the darkest and

deadliest days in

United States history. Al-Qaida's attacks on the

Pentagon and the World

Trade Center killed 2,976 people, and the country

recoiled in horror as

we witnessed the death of thousands of Americans when

the towers fell.

 

In the five years since that shattering day, the

government has spent

billions on anti-terrorism projects, instituted a

color-coded alert

system that has never been green, banned fingernail

clippers and water

bottles from airplanes, launched a pre-emptive war on

false pretenses, and

advised citizens to stock up on duct tape and plastic

sheeting.

 

But despite the never-ending litany of warnings and

endless stories of

half-baked plots foiled, how likely are you,

statistically speaking, to

die from a terrorist attack?

 

Comparing official mortality data with the number of

Americans who have

been killed inside the United States by terrorism

since the 1995

bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in

Oklahoma reveals that

scores of threats are far more likely to kill an

American than any

terrorist -- at least, statistically speaking.

 

In fact, your appendix is more likely to kill you than

al-Qaida is.

 

With that in mind, here's a handy ranking of the

various dangers

confronting America, based on the number of

mortalities in each category

throughout the 11-year period spanning 1995 through

2005 (extrapolated from

best available data).

S E V E R E

Driving off the road: 254,419

Falling: 146,542

Accidental poisoning: 140,327

 

H I G H

Dying from work: 59,730

Walking down the street: 52,000.

Accidentally drowning: 38,302

 

E L E V A T E D

Killed by the flu: 19,415

Dying from a hernia: 16,742

 

G U A R D E D

Accidental firing of a gun: 8,536

Electrocution: 5,171

 

L O W

Being shot by law enforcement: 3,949

Terrorism: 3147

Carbon monoxide in products: 1,554

 

 

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Sources: National Highway and Safety Agency (.pdf),

National Vital

Statistics Reports, Vol. 50, No. 15 (09/16/2002)

(.pdf), US Consumer

Product Safety Commission, the Insurance Information

Institute.

 

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