I'm in the same boat with you on this, generally speaking. Are we dealing with another urban myth?

The closest I have come to any real statistics was a PBS show on perception of safety. They started with an account of a spectacular accident by Lynne Hill, where she fell 80 feet, landing in a tree and escaped with relatively minor injuries. They then gave a frequency rate for rock climbing accidents. Next was displayed the accident rate for driving - the frequencies were virtually identical. The point was that we typically underestimate the hazards of familiar tasks and overestimate the hazards of exotic events.

I did lose a climbing buddy to an auto accident, but I have also lost another to a climbing fall, as well.

Life is hazardous. Be careful out there.