My apologies to the popular new TV show. I'm really referring to how strangely numbers reflect reality.
A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety came up with an interesting comparison: the driver's death rate for a Mercury Grand Marquis is about 57% higher than a Ford Crown Victoria. You auto buffs will immediately say, "that's b...s...!" Well, no, that's statistics. Virtually identical cars have wildly different risk rates for death. Must be the grilles... they're different.
Actually, the study doesn't really tell anyone how safe any vehicle is... it simply reports the death rates for the drivers (per million registered years... that's a neat metric). The problem is, the statistics infer that one vehicle is safer than another when countless other variables may come into play. Such as? Such as the driver demographics. Hot rodders and nearly blind old folks can turn perfectly acceptable and safe vehicles into death traps. But public perception is that one vehicle is less safe than the other... even if they are identical.
Kind of like reporting that murders increased by 100% in one town versus 1% in another. The first town is obviously the most dangerous... went from 1 to 2 murders... whereas the second town has crime under control... went from 1,000 to 1,010. Sometimes you just have to get behind the numb3ers.
