Fog causes more deaths than snow

desolate sun

I saw this on the factual quiz show QI (hosted by Stephen Fry, for those not aware of it). Stephen asked what type of weather causes the most deaths and of course the comedians all said snow then storms. So it's official - fog causes more deaths.
Please direct all the snow begudgers to this thread, when they start banging on about the miserable snow.

Speak Now

I'm sure fog causes more road deaths than snow but overall it's Weather extremes that kill people in general be it 20 below or plus 40c.

Tabnabs

Sadly QI can't always be relied upon to be correct

copacetic

a pensioner was found dead outside her home in Galway today after what looks like a slip and then freezing.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1208/tuam.html

According to the 6 o'clock news she is the fourth person to die so far in weather related incidents during the cold spell?

thetonynator

Dyflin wrote: »

Sadly QI can't always be relied upon to be correct

Sadly wikipedia can't either!!!

Although i'm sure it is most of the time, this time included.

desolate sun

I realise QI isn't always correct. I was hoping some weather peeps might provide actual figures.
It's just doubtful if we get really bad fog and ppl on the weather forum will get excited about it, will begrudgers be giving out about the fog next?

I'm not for one minute making light of any deaths caused by the weather. It's tragic and very sad. I'm just wondering would any of those deaths be reported if they had died and the weather wasn't bad?

Harps

Thats the thing, I'm sure it happens all year where elderly people have bad falls. Car crash deaths have also noticeably dropped over the past two weeks. I know two people died this morning but judging by the news report that incident wasnt solely weather related

Its a sensitive area so I dont want to go too far into it but for the most part snow is just an inconvenience. The ice obviously causes a lot of injuries and car crashes but most of these are minor.

I'd imagine heavy rain is actually more dangerous for driving as at least with snow people take precaution and drive slowly for the majority

civdef

In snow you have plenty of crashes but not as much speed. It's the speed (i.e. kinetic energy) that kills.
Cliche but it's true.

Mc Love

Was driving on N7 a week or so ago in deep freezing fog - Couldnt see very far in front and this loon comes right up behind me and overtakes me and is gone for dust. This person was a nutter

copacetic

Harps wrote: »

Thats the thing, I'm sure it happens all year where elderly people have bad falls. Car crash deaths have also noticeably dropped over the past two weeks. I know two people died this morning but judging by the news report that incident wasnt solely weather related

people have bad falls all the time, and many many more are having bad falls now, but very few die from falls.

People dying from exposure following falls due to ice will always make the news.

Why people want to deny (or exaggerate) the simple facts of the bad weather I just don't understand.

Its a sensitive area so I dont want to go too far into it but for the most part snow is just an inconvenience. The ice obviously causes a lot of injuries and car crashes but most of these are minor.

A fall on ice for an elderly person will often cause a hip or wrist break which they willnever properly recover from, it will affect their quality of life for the rest of their life. Impact injurys due to falling onto ice are 'major' as far as injury falls go. Certainly not minor.


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1206/1224284846644.html

Mr Maguire said people were presenting at hospitals with complex fractures due to the speed of fall and force of impact associated with slipping on ice.

“These fractures are not just breaks, in many cases they can be life-changing injuries,” he said.