What are the odds of someone from the US population being hit by a
freight train in their lifetime?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 29 Mar 2006 18:31 PST

Must it specifically be a freight train?

There might be general statistics on train accidents, but I doubt they
are broken out by freight trains vs other sorts of trains.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 31 Mar 2006 07:13 PST

According to the National Transportation Safety Bureau every 115
minutes, either a person or vehicle is hit by a train (of any kind).

IOWA RAILROAD TIES
http://www.iowarail.com/newsletter/RailroadTies.html

Let?s use this as a model and assume that all vehicles struck are
occupied by one person. This would mean that 12.5 people are struck by
a train somewhere in the US every day each day.

According to the CIA FACTBOOK there are roughly 295,734,134 in the United States.

CIA FACTBOOK
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html

This means that 0.004% of the population is hit by trains daily, and
roughly 0.0154% are hit annually. Assuming the factors presented in
this equation do not change from year-to-year (which they certainly
will in reality), by my calculations you currently stand roughly a
1:1,920,351,519 chance of being hit by a train (of any kind).

Does that work for you?

Tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by whitchings-ga on 11 Apr 2006 11:08 PDT

tut tut tut...thats perfect. :)

I think it depends on where they stand...

recently ms. deaf america was hit by a train

I'm betting she was standing on railroad tracks. It always happens that way.

http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm