We talk a lot about the safest cars or the EV’s with the longest range, but there’s a whole world of automotive statistics with a decidedly darker theme.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently released its list of the vehicles with the highest death rates for the 2020 model year, finding that higher-horsepower cars and those on the smaller side of the spectrum were more likely to have fatalities in a crash.
The IIHS calculates death rates every three years and has done so since 1989. The latest study was the first to include calculations for the best and worst models.
Six of the 21 worst models for driver death rates were muscle cars, including the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger.
The highest rates of driver deaths came from the two Mitsubishi Mirage variants, while the lowest came from the BMW X3, Lexus ES 350 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
Interestingly, the IIHS pulled numbers for Hemi-powered Dodge Chargers separately from the rest of the Charger lineup. Charger sedans with V6 engines sit at 91.
The Chevy Camaro hardtop isn’t far from its drop top sibling with a rate of 110. The Ford Mustang rounds out the American muscle coupe list with 97 (specifically convertible Mustang models).
There’s an interesting disconnect in the data that IIHS presented. Small cars had more fatalities, and large cars had fewer, while larger vehicles tend to kill other drivers at higher rates than their smaller, lighter counterparts.
The Ram 3500, Dodge Charger, and Ford F-350 were the worst at killing other drivers.
The IIHS also pointed out that newer models are safer than their predecessors, so some of the imbalance in crash safety could come from collisions between new cars and older models.
At the same time, some of the numbers come from drivers’ aggressive behavior, as the IIHS points out that muscle cars’ place high on the list suggests owners are not the most responsible drivers on the roads.
Auto Blog / ABC Flash Point News 2023.
Speeding and senseless driving are the cause of accidents on the roads.
Big car drivers know they stand less chance of being killed due to large /solid body work and as the article implies don’t care so much if others die instead of them .
Even met drivers who told me they buy big cars so its not them that suffer injury .
One lorry driver told me others have to get out of his road .