If you want a definitive answer, read "The Killing Zone". The author analyses light aircraft incidents, and to cut a long story short his conclusion is: Flying light aircraft is roughly as safe as driving a car (this is all based on the states of course, and anyone who has driven the California highways knows that is highly dangerous
).
One interesting statistic is the number of fatalities that used to occour when the FAA had a requirement of 200hrs TT before you could take the instrument rating. Deaths were higher due to people burning holes in the sky, trying to build hours for Commercials / IRs etc. When the FAA lowered the requirement, fatalities dropped significantly, and when they got rid of any TT requirement, they dropped again....
Goes to show, get yourself some sort of instrument qualification, and your chances are probably better...
EA