If hitchhiking is so "dangerous" then why are there so few hitchhiking related incidents?

Question

Its usually common thought that hitchhiking is a suicide mission. However, it seems that it is based on faulty logic and just plain ignorance. I have tried searching for hitchhiking tragedies, but i have yet to find enough if any at all, to conclude that hitchhiking is as dangerous as so many frightened people think it to be.

I admit, there is no denying that hitchiking has a risk factor, but i highly doubt is such a exaggerated death wish the sheeple see it as.

So, how exactly is hitchhiking a suicide mission? Especially with the lack of factual evidence?

Answer 1

32 yrs as a cop in Southern Oregon and I assure you that if you want to be raped or robbed or worse, and can't wait a minute longer for it to happen, go stand on the road side and stick your thumb out.



Not finding any entries reflects on your ability to use search engines, not on the amount of crime occurring.

Answer 2

I don't think hitchhiking is a suicide mission but it poses some serious risk.



Most hitchiking accidents are quite serious actually with most ending to death - yes, brutal murders. There might be a few of them but most if not all tells the public to be extremely careful of hitchikers and for hitchhiker to be extremely picky as to whom they hitchike.



However, this does not mean that we could stop you from hitchiking. So if you wish, why not go to hitchiking yourself :)



Also, searching the internet for records of crime will always yield lesser results. I've seen the police records and hitchiking accidents isn't so few really. Although compared to other crimes.. it is quite a minority.

Answer 3

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to ride in a car with some person I don't even know. And how many movies have you seen where people are running from something and stop a car and ask for a ride and the driver's the bad guy? A lot, I bet. Yes, that's a little far-fetched, but still. The chance is still there.

Plus, there's probably few hitchhiking accidents because very few people choose to do that.

Personally, I'd rather walk for miles than get stabbed by someone who's supposed to be "helping" me.

Answer 4

It's dangerous because people get picked up by strangers or perverts and end up in ditches or missing person posters. There are lots of missing people out there who could have been picked up by hitchhikers.



No matter how much you search for "hitchhiker accidents", you won't get any real information because not all of the criminal activities in the nation are listed as public. Not all of the bodies in the morgue are in newspaper articles. You get my point.



Better safe than sorry.

Answer 5

I hitched on my own through twenty-three European countries (and Bali) this year, took more than five-hundred rides (cars, busses, trucks, vans) and I never felt unsafe.



Attached are my routes through Europe. I hitched at night as well (center of Istanbul, Belgium, Holland, France,....), again: never had any problem.



So, I don't think hitchhiking is more dangerous than walking on the streets.

Answer 6

People will always assume the worst about other people. It is just natural instincts. They assume that the hitchhiker will kill them, steel their car, money, e.t.c. Like you said, there is an obvious risk to it, but there is an obvious risk to walking across the street as well.

Answer 7

1. less hitch hikers

2. most hitchhiking incidents aren't reported or are mislead and led you believe something else happened.

3. lots of people carry weapons especially when planning on hitch hiking.

Answer 8

My mum and dad have been airborne dirt and dirt undesirable immigrants to Canada who in no way owned a motor vehicle. I used to could walk for a one million/2 hour, each way, to get to the closest bus end, for no less than a three hundred and sixty 5 days; previously they ultimately prolonged the bus lines into our subdivision. i'm proud to assert that I even have in no way in my entire existence caught out my thumb for a experience, even on the worst wintry climate days!!! yet neighbours might generally pull as much as the component of the line the place i became into strolling and furnish me a experience. In Canada we've friendly neighbourhoods, and little or no concern of worry from figuring out on up a "hitchhiker". i became into the 1st in my family members to very own a motor vehicle, and that i show delight in figuring out on up hitch-hikers, particularly on lonely stretches of street, or undesirable climate days. yet i prefer to advise warning for you. i'm going to in no way forget using over the border, in rural Michigan, and seeing street signs and indicators to no longer %. up hitch-hikers. i assume there became right into a detention center close to by utilising. stable protection tip! i do no longer %. up hitch-hikers whilst travelling the close by u . s . a .. We get CNN up here!!!

Answer 9

I've had some bad,scary experiences hitchiking alone.I'll never do it again.

Answer 10

Point blank; COS IT NAWT DANGERUS.