Generally, yes. Is this just an argument against safety precautions?
"Who needs seat belts and airbags? A well-disciplined defensive driver simply won't crash."
Seat belts and airbags (and the legislation that enforced them) were introduced as carefully designed trade-offs based on accumulated research and knowledge as to their impact.
We didn't simply avoid inventing cars because we didn't know how to make crashes safe.
Reducing car use is the best way to avoid crashes. Practically any other means of transportation is safer. You can save lives simply by making it harder for the average person to get a car.