Hah, I had a similar conversation with a taxi driver in Bolivia. What is most important for road safety, IMO is predictability. Everyone sharing a common expectation of what will happen next. The crazy-chaotic driving in a lot of countries actually has a lot of patterns which emerge at the level that you experience from the driving seat. And a lot of accidents, sure, but fewer than someone used to highly regulated driving would expect.

And fewer than they would probably cause themselves if transplanted directly in to the other system because of their mismatched expectations!