Safe Mining

Thank you to my father for alerting me to this story.

The Washington Post ran a fascinating article about the airline industry this past Sunday. The airlines have had an amazing safety record over the past few years. They attribute much of this success to a surprising source -- data mining. In one example cited in the story, analysts discovered an unknown bulge in a Vermont runway by mining takeoff angle records.

This success story is only possible because planes, air traffic control, and airports track an amazing amount of information. Commercial airplanes have been the safest form of transportation for a long time. Yet for some reason, we have not made similar investments into data collection for cars, the least safe major form of transportation. I suspect if we did we could make a major dent in car deaths.

Link: Washington Post Story