Indeed, a survey of fatal-accident rates for U.S. airlines show a steady improvement over the past 20 years, when the rate in 1978 stood at 0.2 per 100 million miles flown, to last year's rate of 0.02. In the past five years, the improvement has been still more significant, with the rate falling 75% from 1994 to 1998.

In comparison, automobile accidents, which make up almost 95% of transportation fatalities, have plateaued at about 2.0 fatal accidents per 100 million vehicle-miles, according to the National Highway Traffic Saftey Administration.
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