> Dog attacks and bites are…way more common than car accidents
This is nonsense.
There are on “average 337,103 ED visits each year for dog bites,” with an “annual incidence” of “1.1 per 1,000” [1]. This makes them “the 13th most common injury,” exceeding “those occurring on motorcycles (14th), to pedestrians (15th) and firearm gunshot injuries (16th).” These result, however, in just 30 to 50 deaths per year [2].
Motor vehicles killed over 40 thousand Americans in 2021 and 2022 [3]. They are the fourth most common injury in EDs, and by far the more fatal one.
There are over 3x more motor vehicles in America than dogs [1][2]. There are more households with cars than dogs. Our interaction frequency with vehicles is much greater. The threshold for damage, given a vehicle’s power, is much less. For any measure of “attack,” the frequency and damage from cars will always exceed that from dogs.
It’s a stupid aside that doesn’t make any actual arguments about why taking cell phones from kids is bad.
Not every attack results in damage. And not every bite is an attack.
Maybe have a look at this (cyclist chased by dogs). None of this stuff gets reported. This guy has hours and hours of similar attacks. It is pretty common.
> Our interaction frequency with vehicles is much greater.
Well I still wouldn't like to call it, because a dog will in many cases, perhaps the majority, escape the owner's control and run up to you and sniff you, which is very unusual for cars.
This is nonsense.
There are on “average 337,103 ED visits each year for dog bites,” with an “annual incidence” of “1.1 per 1,000” [1]. This makes them “the 13th most common injury,” exceeding “those occurring on motorcycles (14th), to pedestrians (15th) and firearm gunshot injuries (16th).” These result, however, in just 30 to 50 deaths per year [2].
Motor vehicles killed over 40 thousand Americans in 2021 and 2022 [3]. They are the fourth most common injury in EDs, and by far the more fatal one.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6431755/
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_Uni...
[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_...