# Americans Dying Abroad: US Government Statistics **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 27, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471 "2008-09-27T14:54:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/21 "2008-09-29T09:48:51Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > And stay out of Pattaya high-rises. Well, _of course_!, if you are going diving you must definitely take swimming lessons! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/22 "2008-09-29T11:04:47Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#): > > Looking at the report of Non-Natural Dealth Cases Abroad July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2008, of 20 deaths of Americans listed in Japan, 13 are suicides!:eek: Yeah, but if you take out the first-week JETs, you cut the total number of deaths in half. ---
**Author:** ![Shecky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/23 "2008-09-29T14:24:28Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > And the Deadly Beaver Ninjas. THAT’S what Canada has been working on for National Defense? All this time, I thought it was Celine Dion! Deadly Beaver Ninja is either going to be my band name or porn name. I can’t decide. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/24 "2008-09-29T14:28:26Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > Friendly advice for Americans going on holidays, take swimming lessons for goodness’ sake! I think I’d go with wear a seatbelt! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/25 "2008-09-29T16:13:47Z")
> [@Lucretia](#): > > I think I’d go with wear a seatbelt! And look BOTH ways before crossing the street in the lands of the former/current British Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/26 "2008-09-30T03:15:57Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#): > > Looking at the report of Non-Natural Dealth Cases Abroad July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2008, of 20 deaths of Americans listed in Japan, 13 are suicides!:eek: I can only hope they were culturally sensitive enough to do it properly, with a Samurai sword and a second to behead them afterward. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/27 "2008-09-30T03:17:08Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Yeah, but if you take out the first-week JETs, you cut the total number of deaths in half. And I know you’re only half-joking. I know at least three JETs who had some kind of nervous breakdown and had to be shipped back. One had made it through almost two years here, but started flipping out saying that she couldn’t stand people watching her all the time. Thing is, it’s not exactly paranoia when it happens to be true that people _are_ watching every single thing you do out in public, especially when you’re living in the countryside. I still get people following me around the supermarket to see what I buy, and I’ve been here for years. There have also been three or four pedestrian fatalities in my prefecture since about 2000 from being hit by a car. No sidewalks, few street lights, an endemic drinking culture, most of the prefecture is made up of rural areas where you need to drive to get practically anywhere, and sometimes people don’t bother to get a _daikô_ service to drive them home. Bam, splattered foreigner. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/28 "2008-09-30T10:01:48Z")
> [@Sleel](#): > > There have also been three or four pedestrian fatalities in my prefecture since about 2000 from being hit by a car. No sidewalks, few street lights, an endemic drinking culture, most of the prefecture is made up of rural areas where you need to drive to get practically anywhere, and sometimes people don’t bother to get a _daikô_ service to drive them home. Bam, splattered foreigner. Still looks like suicide is a much greater risk than drunk drivers. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/29 "2008-10-01T03:09:32Z")
A Peace Corps official in Bangkok – not a Volunteer, but rather an actual official stationed in the Bangkok office – once told me suicide was the largest cause of death among Peace Corps Volunteers worldwide. I would have though disease, but apparently they have access to good healthcare and so recover. But it seems, according to this person, that many PCVs have unrealistic expectations about getting out there and changing the world, and once they realize they can’t really do that, a black depression sometimes sets in. She told me motorcycle accidents used to be up there but that now PCVs weren’t allowed to ride motorbikes. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471/30 "2008-10-01T03:15:02Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > A Peace Corps official in Bangkok – not a Volunteer, but rather an actual official stationed in the Bangkok office – once told me suicide was the largest cause of death among Peace Corps Volunteers worldwide. I would have though disease, but apparently they have access to good healthcare and so recover. But it seems, according to this person, that many PCVs have unrealistic expectations about getting out there and changing the world, and once they realize they can’t really do that, a black depression sometimes sets in. She told me motorcycle accidents used to be up there but that now PCVs weren’t allowed to ride motorbikes. Maybe they’re committing suicide over not having access to motorbikes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-dying-abroad-us-government-statistics/465471.md?page=1)