odds of dying in bike accident - 1 in 4919?

Question

national safety council says
your odds, in a lifetime, of dying in a bicycle
accident, are 1 in 4919

what does that really mean [don;t just
guess, find out]?

out of every 4919 deaths in the USA,
1 is a bike accident?

this probably includes children though
[but find that out too]

is there any real data for adult cyclists?

what about this statistic?
number of deaths per mile among
adult cyclists?

wle.

Answer 1

2003 Death rate: 816.7 deaths per 100,000 population (p/a)

About 2.5 million deaths per year at current population 308 Million

If you do a direct ratio that would give about 508 cycling deaths per year.

From a second source I found 900 deaths are attributed to cycling each year. 300 of these are alcohol related (cycling deaths.)

If you take out the drunks the numbers start looking good.

(You could say that riding a bike intoxicated increases your chances of dying by 50%.)

Another interesting sadistic Traumatic Brain Injury accounts for 62% of deaths. WEAR A HELMET

There are some good statistics taken around the world by government bureaus and cycling bodies. Most are usually a bit old though.

Answer 2

"The odds given below are statistical averages over the whole U.S. population and do not necessarily reflect the chances of death for a particular person from a particular external cause. Any individual's odds of dying from various external causes are affected by the activities in which they participate, where they live and drive, what kind of work they do, and other factors.

Source: National Safety Council estimates based on data from National Center for Health Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau. Deaths are classified on the basis of the Tenth Revision of the World Health Organization's "The International Classification of Diseases" (ICD). Numbers following titles refer to External Cause of Morbidity and Mortality classifications in ICD-10. One year odds are approximated by dividing the 2003 population (290,850,005) by the number of deaths. Lifetime odds are approximated by dividing the one-year odds by the life expectancy of a person born in 2003 (77.6 years)."

Not sure if that's where you got your number, but did you notice that your odds as a pedestrian increase to 1:626, while your odds of dying in a motor vehicle are a staggering 1:237!
I'd rather ride my bike!

Answer 3

it doesn`t matter how where or when, dead is just that , dead over finis, the end, roll the dice for snake eyes, pay attention to what is going on at all times and be careful, lest your family be coming together for your benefit, and you wont be there., if you dont die, serious injuries will make you wish that you were, and it dont take much to make this happen. think about it. choose wisely and dont rely on stats to get you out of a jamb.

Answer 4

It means that out of every 4919 times that you ride a bike, once you're gonna get in an accident and die. So every time you ride a bike, you have a 0.0002% chance that you'll die.