Maybe it's a fatuous question, but it's a very important one all the same.
So are aeroplanes safer than cars? I opine that they are in general
Both are almost equally safe, when drained of petrol. I would agree that aircraft are much better maintained and in that sense are 'safer', but that's just as well because flying is inherently much more dangerous than driving. I think that's probably true for just about everybody.
I think that people like myself who get very hung up on safety like to feel that by knowing everything we possibly can, we wrest back control from fate. Obviously that's valid to some extent, but it's also a psychological crutch that perhaps lets us persevere where we otherwise might not. There are lots of 'gotchas' - Ernest K Gann's book 'Fate is the hunter' illustrates this fact very nicely. Eventually he comes to the realisation that however diligent he is, fate will sooner or later find a way to catch him out.
The test pilot's prayer says a lot about piloting: 'Dear Lord, I don't care whether I live or die. Just don't let me screw up'.