Both plane and train crashes in the U.S. generate a fair amount of publicity. This happens because these incidents often involve multiple victims and they have a high degree of rarity.
Getting a sense of the frequency of plane and train crashes takes some digging, but the following statistics can help.
Plane crashes
Information compiled by Security Flyers highlights the extreme rarity of commercial plane crashes in the U.S. In fact, commercial airlines rarely crash due to turbulence or because of mid-air collisions. Operator error accounts for the majority of large airline crashes.
Evidence shows that flying on small planes, which fall under the category of general aviation, represents a greater danger than flying on commercial airlines. Also, planes have a better safety record than motor vehicles, with the odds of dying in a car as a driver coming in at about 1 in 114, or about 100 times greater than dying in a plane crash.
Train crashes
An article in The Hill describes trains as one of the safest modes of transportation, but it also stresses that train derailments happen from time to time. in fact, since 1990 about 1704 train derailments occur each year, though many of these do not have any injuries to passengers. On average, about 174 people receive injuries from train accidents each year.
About four deaths occur as a result of train accidents in a given year. Statistics indicate that train travel ranks below a person’s chance of dying in a car, boat or even a commercial airline.
While both train and place crashes rarely happen, they do occur. Individuals involved in a crash should closely consider the causes of the accident.