Sad news out of London, where a deadly crash on New Year’s Eve killed three British Airways cabin crew members and seriously injured a fourth.
A Mercedes HGV big rig (or “lorry” in the UK) plowed into a Toyota Yaris shortly before midnight. The impact sent the big rig into the Longford River and killed three of the four vehicle occupants upon impact. The cabin crew members were all in their 20s, with two men, aged 23 and 25, and one woman, aged 20 dying. A second woman, aged 25, is in serious condition in a London hospital. The lorry driver was not injured.
The big rig was owned by dnata, which provides a host of services to airlines at London Heathrow. A dnata spokesperson said:
“We are fully assisting relevant authorities with their investigations. Our thoughts and condolences are with the families of those affected by this very sad incident.”
A British Airways spokesperson added:
“We’re deeply saddened to learn of the death of our colleagues involved in a road traffic collision last night.
“Our thoughts are with their family and friends, who we are supporting at this distressing time.”
It is not clear how the accident occurred. Police have asked for anyone with more information or CCTV footage to come forward.
“Please report any information via 101 and quote the reference number PR/P19303422.”
Flying Vs. Driving
With utmost respect to those who have died, I cover this story to point out an inconvenient truth to those who decry flying: it remains vastly safer than driving. Driving is a treacherous business, killing more than 3,000 people per day, on average (source). That statistic certainly does not make any air crash less significant, but it helps us understand how much safer, on average, it is to fly than to drive.
CONCLUSION
Earlier this week I traveled from Heathrow into Central London and then back. It’s a treacherous road around the airport, even for a resident. On the way back to the airport, we witnessed the scene of a deadly crash on M4 that snarled traffic for miles. My thoughts and prayers are also with the families of the deceased today. Stay safe on the roads…
image: British Airways
Very sad indeed.
Typo alert … “but it helps us understand how much safer, on average, it is to drive than to fly.” — that shoud read “…fly than to drive”.
How much safer it is to *Fly than to drive?
Fixed. Thanks.
Tell me about it, the Heathrow A4 perimeter road – ‘The Bath Road’, as it is known locally – is one of the hardest roads in the country to drive on, given the insane amount of airport-related big-rigs, drivers in rental cars (the Avis/Budget and Europcar rental centres are at the east end of the road, by the BA maintenance hangars) who forget that the UK drives on the left, its a nightmare…and the M4, at any point east of Chieveley Truck Stop, is also a nightmare, and the M25 between the M1 (for Leeds) and the M23 (for Gatwick Airport) isn’t much better at all.
Not owning a gun is much safer than owning a gun.
The world is much safer without republicans in it.
If we are being honest, blacks and non white latinos not having guns is safer as they commit a disproportionately high amount of violence amongst themselves and directed at whites and other groups. Whites having guns however gives them a means of self defense against the thugs whether with guns or knives (gun control doesn’t stop blacks from having guns and if they don’t get them they resort to knives… look at the London bridge incident all with a knife).
Bias in your data. I won’t argue that gun violence/murders are disproportionate to non-whites, BUT the majority of gun deaths will never be on the news.
“two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides.” (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/)
“whereas white men were 2.5 times more likely than black men to die by suicide” (https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2679556/comparison-rates-firearm-nonfirearm-homicide-suicide-black-white-non-hispanic)
When I see a semi (lorry), I think twice before merging into the lane in front of it. While the semis generally leave a lot of space in front of them, making it easy to merge, if they cannot stop in time, your car or SUV will be crushed. Their stopping distances are longer.
If I am in front of them, I try to gently brake so that they see the brake lights go on.