For the past 25 years, the three leading causes of personal injury death in the United States have been automobile accidents; gun, firearm, or hunting accidents; and poisoning (which includes drug overdose).  In fact, overall, accidental injuries are the 5th leading cause of death in the United States.

Personal injury deaths related to automobile accidents have historically been about 25% higher than personal injury deaths from poisoning (including drug overdose) or firearms / guns.  Personal injury deaths from poisoning have been increasing and are now threatening to overtake personal injury deaths from firearms as the second leading cause of personal injury death in the United States.  This upward trend in personal injury deaths relating to poisoning are, at least in part, attributable to the higher incidence of drug overdose deaths seen over the past several decades.  In fact, in the period between 1999 and 2004, the personal injury death rate from poisoning increased by about 45% to a total of 30,308 poisoning related deaths (including drug overdose).  Conversely, the personal injury death rate for firearm and gun accidents decreased by about 3% over the same period of time. 

Of course, it is important to put personal injury statistics into perspective.  In 2006 there were almost 6 million non-fatal automobile accidents – and those are just the auto accidents that were reported.  There were likely many, many more auto accidents that went unreported.  Of the total auto accidents reported in 2006, 38,588 resulted in fatalities.  This represents just over one half of a percent of the total.  While this is certainly a very high number, the vast majority of traffic accidents do not result in personal injury fatalities.