From the time we are born, the seconds have ticked by to bring us closer to death. This is a difficult concept to grasp but in the past few months I have come to accept this. I realize that I could drop dead in front of my computer, at this very moment. But, let's not get too dramatic :).
On average, North Americans spend about 2.5hrs a day commuting (by car, train or bus). That would mean 17.5 hours a week, 70 hours a week, 840 hours a year! So, the probability of us being in the car at any given time during the course of a year is 840/8760 = 0.095890 (approx. 0.10). This number is higher than the chances of you winning a lottery.
However, whenever there is news of people getting into car accidents, the general public has a crazy reaction. The news agencies will broadcast about all sorts of crashes and deaths. Hundreds of people will come on TV and "speak" about it.
Well, humans invented the car and spend 10% of their time in it. You can't expect to not die in it at some point. With more and more people spending more and more time on these man made "machines", its not a miracle that we are going to die on these vehicles.
Also, who said that death needs to come to you at the age of 80 or 90? Death is not avoidable, the earth will take you back where you belong when the times comes for you to go. You cannot choose your time to go.
Therefore, I don't think that people should react so outrageously when a train derails or a car goes off the road. I am not saying that you should not mourn for the dead. I know how devastating it is to lose someone (I lost my uncle recently). I am making the point that we should not splash people's death as entertainment on the news and that viewers should not be shocked by accidents. Also, the media should respect the wishes of families and not put up pictures of dead 5 year old girls every 20 seconds, as an example.
