The death rate is “only” 11.88% (USA is 11.10) but coming from Europe that is a very high number (in Europe it is for most countries below 5%).

I found those numbers alarming, particularly for the US, as it doesn't match my experience.

I went looking, found a US nonprofit (the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) that tracks it . Their 'fatality snapshot' from 1975-2021 is here. If you look at that annual table, the 'rate' (deaths per 100,000) in the US for 2021 was 12.9, up from 11.8 for 2020. A 'percent' is the number per 100 (per centum), literally a thousand times more than a 'rate' (as defined by the IIHS as per 100,000).

I'm less alarmed now... :-)