Society
Buttigieg Says Roadway Deaths Fill a 737 Every Single Day While Aviation Has Zero Fatalities
The Checkup with Doctor Mike
Pitching Pete Buttigieg My New Healthcare Plan
"Today, enough people will die in car crashes to fill a 737, and that happened yesterday. And that'll happen tomorrow. During the time I was secretary, we had 4 billion enplanements, 4 billion times a passenger got on a plane. And out of those, the number of crash fatalities from commercial airliners was zero."
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg highlighted the stark safety contrast between aviation and roadways, noting that while commercial aviation achieved zero crash fatalities out of 4 billion passenger trips during his tenure, roadway deaths claim nearly 40,000 lives annually in the U.S.—equivalent to a 737 crashing every day. He explained that road design, vehicle technology, and automated vehicles offer potential solutions, but Americans have become strangely tolerant of preventable roadway deaths while remaining highly sensitive to any aviation incident.
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The Checkup with Doctor Mike