In article Bill D writes:

I'm positive that if it's done right, winch launch is far safer than aero t=
ow. Germans suffer one accident on average every 180,000 winch launches wh=
ile we suffer one every 24,000 aero tows. I know there are cultural differ=
ences but, presumably, we're pretty good at aero tow and they're at least a=
s good at winch launch so the comparison is probably valid.

But, what is the severity of these accidents? An article (referenced below)
lists 18 fatal+36 serious injury out of 380 winch launch accidents (14.2 percent).
Aerotow had 1 fatal+2 serious injury out of 103 launch accidents (2.9 percent).

See http://www.soaringsafety.org/ssf-06/articles.html - the articles from
November 2006 report a higher rate of winch accidents than aerotow, and a 7.2
times ratio of winch fatalities vs aerotow once adjusted for number of tows of
each type.

The Feb 2008 column revisits it with few additional numbers.

It's natural for familiar things like aero tow to seem safe and unfamiliar =
things like winch launch to look unsafe but the numbers tell a different st=
ory.

The numbers I found in the November 2006 article appear to favor
aerotow for safety, both in accidents per launch, and in severity of
the accident once it has happened.

Alan