What is the leading cause of death of children in Canada and the US?

It’s car accidents.⁽¹⁾

I lead off with that fact to impress the true cost of car accidents. I suspect that many would have guessed disease, unintended falls, parental abuse or other terrible possibilities. I doubt most would guess something as ordinary as traffic accidents being responsible for so many child deaths. I also suspect most would guess these fatal car accidents involve alcohol, when in actuality a minority of traffic deaths are alcohol related. One study showed 25% of car deaths are by drunk drivers.⁽²⁾ That means 75% were sober!

The reason I decided to start this website was to counter the widely held perceptions of the public, especially the car-driving public, towards car deaths. Perceptions that I believe are completely wrong and dangerously wrong. The perception that most car deaths are caused by drunk driving, or by the psychopathic hit-and-run driver. Or, the belief that pedestrian deaths are mostly the fault of the pedestrian.⁽³⁾ And worst of all, that car accidents are just “accidents” and not (everyday) bad driving.

As of today, August 2, I’ve only just started this website. I’m intending to use it to collect stories, data and ideas to present an alternative view of the cause of car deaths. That alternative view is this:

Most car accidents, and resulting death and injuries, are the result primarily of serious violations of road safety the type of which are too common to a significant portion of the driving public.

That’s the reason I named this website DWHOCK: Drivers WHO Could Kill. I felt there was a need to better identify the kind of driver who causes these deaths.

Douglas Blackwell
Dwhock Feedback

August 2, 2015

(1) 15 Accidents That Can Kill Kids
(2)THE EFFECT OF CANNABIS COMPARED WITH ALCOHOL ON DRIVING R. Andrew Sewell, MD, James Poling, PhD, and Mehmet Sofuoglu, MD, PhD
(3)Pedestrian Deaths Study New York