On an average day nine people die and over 800 are injured in British road accidents. The 2005 London terrorist deaths represent about six days of normal traffic fatalities. The 191 people killed in 2004 by Madrid bombers were equivalent to about 12 days of normal Spanish traffic deaths. During the 25 worst years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, twice as many people died there in road accidents as were killed by terrorists. In Israel, the annual road traffic death toll has been two or three times higher than civilian terrorist deaths during the violent years of 2000 - 2003. The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks killed about the same number of people as a typical month of U.S. traffic accidents. According to official reports, terrorists killed 25 Americans worldwide in 2002, 23 in 2003, and none in 2004, while about 42,000 Americans died in traffic accidents each of these years. Wilson and Thomson (2005) calculated that in 29 OECD countries for which suitable data were available, the annual average death rate from road injuries was approximately 390 times that from international terrorism. In the three months after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, shifts from air to automobile travel caused several hundred additional roadway traffic fatalities (air travel is safer per mile than driving, particularly on rural roads). Had these trends continued for more than a year, the additional deaths would have exceeded the September 11 terrorist deaths. Similarly, there is evidence that London travelers' response to the 7 September 2005 terrorist attack caused a net increase in deaths. Researchers found a significant decrease in subway travel and a corresponding increase in cycle travel around London following the attacks. Compared to the 10 year period prior to the attacks, the second half of 2005 had an estimated 214 more cyclist casualties than would be expected from historical trends.
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