Originally Posted by
Dahon.Steve
I think there is an addiction but it's a rather small number mainly those who are constantly purchasing new vehicles. I agree with John and that we are habituated to driving and not physically addicted like crack. Our minds can break free at will and only those who are addicted to shopping can be seen as suffering a medical condition. IMHO.
That's the "state of denial" from addiction. All addicted say they can "break free" without actually doing it by their own will.
Obviously, the visible and direct consequences are not as severe as crack, though largely speaking I'd say car addiction is much more severe than crack addiction.
One of such adverse consequences is traffic collisions.
Worldwide it was estimated that 1.2 million people were killed and 50 million more were injured in motor vehicle collisions in 2004. This makes motor vehicle collisions the leading cause of death among children 10 – 19 years of age (260,000 children die a year, 10 million are injured) and the sixth leading preventable cause of death in the United States (45,800 people died and 2.4 million were injured in 2005). It is estimated that motor vehicle collisions caused the death of around 60 million people during the 20th century around the same number of World War II casualties.