Frequently Asked Questions

• Why does my lethal index not change even though I drive miles to try to get a new one?
  While we cover North America with information on over 330 distinct areas, there are some locations where the information about the dangers doesn’t change quickly. We will always be adding to those points, so location based information will become more granular over time.
• What does the percent dangerous mean under the crime, disease, and disaster ratings?
  It’s the percentile for that specific area. So the area with the highest gun death rate would be 100% dangerous.
• Why can't Lethal locate me?
  You may be out of range for location services. Or you may not have wifi enabled for your iPod touch.
• Does Lethal work on an iPod Touch?
  Yes, but it cannot use GPS technology. In order to use auto-location, iPod Touch must have wifi enabled. Some wifi areas are not able to get a location reading.
• My wife and I are traveling to Europe in the summer, will Lethal be able to pull up our location and give us the information we need to stay alive?
  No. Lethal’s auto-location only works for North America. If the demand is there, we may expand coverage to international locations in the future. However, people can still browse other locations’ information from anywhere in the world.
• How were the scores calculated?
  The scores are calculated based on equations which involve the amount and risk likelihood of dangers in the area. The specific equations are explained in detail within the application’s source of information section.
• Where did you get your data?
  We researched a wide variety of governmental and academic sources to compile a proprietary database. This is an on-going effort, and we are constantly working to improve the data and pull our information from the best, more reliable sources.
• What do I do if I have information that differs from Lethal’s?
  Let us know! We’re always working to improve our data, so we’d love to have as many sources as possible.
• Can I check a location that I am not currently in?
  Yes. Go crazy and have a good time.
• What's the difference between crocodiles and alligators?
  Spelled differently.
• What area has the highest Lethal Index?
  You’ll have to buy the application to find out.
• How do I understand the Lethal Index for an area?
  We take all the risk factors from an area and run them through equations so we can give you a sense of how dangerous an area is. Under 200 is generally not dangerous. Between 201 and 300 is moderately dangerous. Over 301 is extremely dangerous. The exact nature of the equations are detailed in the application’s sources section.
• Lethal just made me wet my pants, what should I do now?
  Change them and be more careful next time.
• Why does Lethal include non-Lethal wildlife?
  Because if you were a baby, a frail elderly person, or delirious with hunger, non-Lethal but still dangerous animals could indeed prove to be Lethal to you.
• Are dangerous creatures able to sense that you are using Lethal?
  Yes, but only if your iPhone or iPod Touch’s screen brightness level is set above 78%. You’ve been warned.
• I was just injured in a landslide in Trap Pond State Park in Delaware, why did Lethal not warn me of this danger? 
  Whatever injured you in Trap Pond State Park was most likely NOT a landslide, because according to the U.S. Geological Survey, Trap Pond State Park has NO RISK of landslides. Which is why we didn’t warn you about the chance of them.
• Lethal is telling me that my area IS at risk of Landslides, but there has NEVER been one here? What gives?
  For certain risks such as Wildfires, Landslides, or Earthquakes, there is research which indicates a risk of occurrence even if they haven’t been common in the past.
• You told me there are Copperheads in my area. There aren’t!
  According to our information, there are. Watch out!
• Nice idea for an app, but not worth anything if the areas covered are not places I live in or am going to. How about publishing the list of places covered on your website?
  For a starting point, we used the top 150 most populated cities in the US, all the National Parks, plus 3 State Parks per state to attempt to get wide coverage across the country. We just released an update which includes all 264 US cities and Canadian cities with a population over 100,000, plus at least 3 cities per state in addition to more coastal locations for all states which border an ocean. And eventually, we will also include smaller areas within specific cities. if you have a location request, please let us know! Also, take a look at this map of the current 650 points plotted out.
• How many of lethal indexes are you capable of creating say in Metro Detroit? It is definitely in our future plans to be more granular for major metro areas. I live in LA, and east LA will have very different crime stats than Malibu. It will be the same in Detriot, obviously. Theoretically there is no limit to how many indexes we'll create for an area.
• Is the limit of the amount of "lethal indexes" you are planning to add (relative to my area and areas like mine) just a matter of time and effort coding them to include /up to you, or is it limited by where you gather your data from (not available for cities surrounding major metropolitan centers)? The answer to this - what will be the obstacles to being more granular, time and effort or data - is "both." Why this particular undertaking is large is because it will take a lot of time to update our databases, and also because the information at such a granular level is difficult to track down. However, we are in the process of doing just that. If you have any suggestions for sources of granular data, we'd love any suggestions.