By the Numbers: Your statistical chance of dying in an unrepaired recalled Toyota

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Toyota has recalled and fixed over five million cars. The entire Toyota and Lexus lineup will feature the company’s new Smart-Stop brake override system for the 2011 model year. Yet the automaker still faces criticism that it builds unsafe vehicles. Will driving an unfixed Toyota lead to your death? Not likely.

According to The Detroit News, a panel of experts was recently dispatched to study the causes of sudden acceleration. In its research, the panel found that the current risk of dying in a traffic accident is rated at 1.05 deaths for every 100 million miles traveled. If you drive a Toyota that’s part of the sticking pedal recall and hasn’t been fixed, the rate rises modestly to 1.07 deaths. Statistically speaking, that’s one Toyota recall-related death for every five billion miles of driving. Toyota has fixed over 60 percent of the vehicles in the recall and they don’t appear to be slowing down.

We’ve heard many a borderline-hysterical comment from readers stating that they would rather walk than risk driving a vehicle made by Toyota. If you do that, statistics suggest you are 19 times more likely to die. Mile for mile, the risk of walking alongside the road is that much higher than driving on it. Just sayin’.

Photos by Drew Phillips/Copyright 2010 ©2010 Weblogs, Inc.

[Source: The Detroit News]

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