Well, like Mark Twain said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
My main issue with it was the distinction between correlation and causation; given enough data to mine though, you can almost certainly find a random correlation between two unrelated sequences (say, violent crime rates and average age of men on bicycles) without there actually being any kind of link at all. True, they come up with experimental data that suggests there a genuine correlation and not just noise, but I have difficulty imagining it getting quite that far...
I too found it hard to imagine how that particular relationship would have a causal effect on reducing accidents. But - I can see it as a good way to get two people into a relationship. Stranger things have happened.
A friend once told me about how her sister used to drive a couple of hours to and from college every weekend, often with a couple of other passengers to help with gas. Her sister decided to get the other two, a girl and a guy, together. Mostly just to prove she could. She waited until she was alone with the girl and told her “He
really likes you!” and then waited till she was alone with the guy and told him, “She
really likes you!”.
That was all it took.
They were engaged within six months.
I guess if it can work for Beatrice and Benedick in
Much Ado About Nothing it can work in real life. And if you were persuaded to feel you were fated to be with someone, it might heavily influence you to be with them, too.
For someone like Samuel, who has been alone for most of his life, someone reaching old age, it would be very statistically unlikely that he would finally find his true love but maybe no more unlikely than that the proximity of two people would be statistically related to a reduction in accidents. Two unlikely set of events that worked out well, less accidents and love. Maybe less causality than magic.
Question: Near the end I kept hearing (I listened twice) “The pink sweater soiling his dashboard.” What did I mishear? (Like "Fork Display" = "Walk This Way")