I am often surprised how poorly most people evaluate risk.
If you ask someone what is the greatest risk in their daily life, you will get all manner of poorly conceived answers about the risks we face daily. (The greatest and most persistent risk is eating and its concomitant risk of food-borne illness.)
If you ask someone what was the largest killer in the last century, you will get a bewildering array of answers. (Of course, the real answer is government tyranny.)
Now you know why mere inconveniences become disasters, and real risks are ignored.