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At 9:29 AM 11/20/98, David-M wrote:

>Question: Do you like high car insurance rates?

       Of course not...but given the accident experience of Vanagons our
       insurance rates should be MUCH lower than, say, those of Volvo
       owners.

>If you dont, then you should be in favour of safety regulation.
>The cost of death and injuries in vehicle collisions is astronomical.

        According to NHTSA, the safety NUTS (excerpted from
        http://www.healthandsafety.org/cars.html#LARGE)
<quote>
        CONCLUSION

        In conclusion, traffic safety has seen significant progress during
        the past 10 years. If the 1985 fatality rate had remained unchanged,
        an additional 18,275 people would have been killed in motor vehicle
        crashes in 1995. This safety progress is due to a variety of factors,
        such as:

        =>Increased safety belt and motorcycle helmet use.
        =>Anti-drunk driving efforts.
        =>A growing fleet of vehicles with air bags and other safety
        =>equipment.
        =>Stringent federal safety regulations.
<unquote>

        But of course NHTSA hasn't really offered any proof of this assertion
        and the fatality rates were declining in the decade prior to 1985-
        1995, as well.

        There are some interesting statistics in this particular report,
        such as:

TABLE 1

MOTOR VEHICLE CRASH FACT SHEET

I.Total Motor Vehicle Crashes 1990   1991   1992   1993   1994   1995

Number of Fatalities         44,599 41,508 39,252 40,150 40,716 41,798
Rate/100million VMT            2.1   1.9     1.8    1.7   1.7     1.7
Number injured (x1000)        3,231  3,097  3,070  3,125  3,215  3,386

II. Alcohol Involvement
Total fatalities             22,084 19,887 17,859 17,473 16,589 17,274
% of total fatalities         49.5   47.9   45.5   43.5   40.8   41.3
People killed, by
highest blood alcohol
concentration (BAC) in crash:
BAC of .01% to .09%           4,434  3,957  3,625  3,496  3,495  3,710
BAC of .10% or higher        17,650 15,930 14,234 13,977 13,094 13,564

III. Fatalities by Vehicle Type
Passenger Cars
Occupant Fatalities          24,092 22,385 21,387 21,566 21,997 22,358
Fatality rate/100mill VMT      1.7    1.6    1.5    1.5    N/A    N/A
Light Trucks and Vans(1)
Occupant Fatalities           8,601  8,391  8,098  8,511  8,904  9,539
Fatality rate/100mill VMT      1.6    1.4    1.3    1.3    N/A    N/A
Motorcycles
Motorcycle Fatalities         3,244  2,806  2,395  2,449  2,320  2,221
Fatality rate/100 mill VMT     33.9   30.6   25.1   24.8    N/A    N/A
Large Trucks(2)
Truck Occupant Fatalities       705    661    585    605    670    644
All Fatalities in Large Truck
Crashes                       5,272  4,821  4,462  4,856  5,119  4,903
Pedestrians
Pedestrian Fatalities         6,482  5,801  5,549  5,649  5,489  5,585
Bicyclists
Bicyclist Fatalities            859    843    723    816    802    830

(1) Vans, pickup trucks, and utility vehicles with a gross vehicle weight
rating of 10,000 pounds or less.
(2) 2 Single-unit trucks and truck tractors with a gross vehicle weight
rating of more than 10,000 pounds.

Source: Fatalities: Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS), National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation.
Injuries: General Estimate System (GES), National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation.

N/A: Data not available at publication.

      OLTECO                    Ari Ollikainen
      P.O. BOX 3688             Networking Technology and Architecture
      Stanford, CA              Ari@OLTECO.com
      94309-3688                415.517.3519