According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the year 2010, motor vehicle collisions caused an estimated 1.24 million deaths worldwide, down (slightly) from 1.26 million in 2000. (These totals are tallied a few years after the baseline year from the latest data available.) This generates an average fatality rate of 18 people per 100,000, which is down from 20.8 in 2000. And it means that on average, around the world, one person dies from a road crash every 25 seconds.

“America’s Top Killing Machine,” an article in the January 12, 2015 edition of The Atlantic magazine references data from the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) showing that the top five causes of death in America today are heart disease, followed by cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and stroke. Number five is ‘accidental’ death from all causes, and drilling down into these is, obviously, the focus.

Since 1989, the US-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has periodically published death rates— at first for cars only and later for all passenger vehicles— by make and model. These rates include only driver deaths because the passenger count is not recorded by IIHS. Recently IIHS has noted two remarkable developments. The first is that the chance of dying in a crash in a late-model car or light truck fell significantly in the three-year period 2009 through 2011.

The complex reasons for our current low gas prices relate directly to Canada’s economic health and to our national security. Recent events have prompted identification of three such reasons. Early last week (January 21, 2015), the West Texas Intermediate oil price benchmark dropped to US $46.39 per barrel, less than half the price WTI traded for six months ago. This development was duly noted at oil and gas conference underway at the same time in Calgary presented by the Conference Board of Canada.