Okay... I give in:
airbags have little effect; neither do side impact beams.
Sometimes keybroads mangle what yo'ure trying to say.
There's a lot of truth in it, but I'm not sure that you can totally discount 'hidden' safety improvements. Part of the alleged thrill of fairground rides is that they feel dangerous but we know they're safe. It certainly is possible for cognition to guide our asssessments of risk.
(alleged because, since learning to fly, I haven't found much excitement in them.)