A study crunches the numbers to try to determine the deadliest vehicles
It’s the type of list that’s best viewed through your fingers.
Car-shopping and research site iSeeCars.com analyzed U.S. fatality data for 25 million cars for model years 2013-2017 to find out which vehicles were most often involved in fatal crashes.
The No. 1 “deadliest” vehicle nationwide turned out to be the subcompact Mitsubishi Mirage, which had a fatal accident rate of 10.2, or about four times the 2.6 average for all vehicles. (The fatal accident rate is the number of cars involved in a fatal crash every billion vehicle miles.)
Just behind the Mirage was the Chevrolet Corvette sports car with a fatality rate of 9.8, followed by the subcompact Honda Fit at 7.7, the Kia Forte compact at 7.4 and the Chevy Spark subcompact at 7.2.
The website also calculated the fatal accident rate for vehicles in the Pittsburgh region.
The worst score went to the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport SUV, with a fatality rate well above the pack at 25.7. Next was the Toyota Highlander SUV at 14.4, followed by three compact cars: the Kia Soul at 12.0, Hyundai Elantra at 9.7 and Honda Civic at 8.9.
Motorists should keep in mind that deaths from car crashes in the U.S. have declined dramatically over the past 35 years as safety technology has improved. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the overall fatality rate for vehicles built before 1984 is more than double the rate for vehicles in the 2013 to 2017 model years: 55 percent vs. 26 percent.
The iSeeCars study seeks to point out that despite better safety
features, some cars still tend to perform better than others in a crash. The study found that car crash deaths occurred almost twice as often in subcompact cars and sports cars compared with the average vehicle.
“Despite recent advances in safety technology, our data suggest that small vehicles still aren’t as safe as larger vehicles when they are involved in serious accidents,” said Phong Ly, CEO at iSeeCars.com based in Worburn, Mass.
The segment with the highest fatal accident rate was the sports car category, which includes cars such as the Chevy Corvette and Camaro, Subaru BRZ, Nissan 370Z, Dodge Challenger and Hyundai Veloster Turbo.
The rate was 4.6 cars per billion vehicle miles, a notch higher than the rate for subcompacts at 4.5.
It should be noted that most of the so-called deadliest vehicles had high overall safety ratings from NHTSA.
For example, the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport — rated the most dangerous car in the Pittsburgh region by iSeeCars.com — earned four out of a possible five stars in each of the five model years reviewed.
The Toyota Highlander — which had the second worst fatality score locally — received five stars from the safety administration in four of the model years and four stars in the other.
The author of the iSeeCars.com study, Julie Blackley, said consumers should look beyond overall safety ratings when trying to find the safest possible car.
“Cars can still have 5-star safety ratings, but have below average performance on certain crash safety test categories,” Ms. Blackley said.
A number of vehicles that topped the iSeeCars.com list for fatalities had poor scores in certain crash tests, she said.
For example, the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport scored a “marginal” rating in the front passenger crash test by the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and “poor” ratings for passenger restraint and headlights.
Ms. Blackley also pointed out limitations of the fatalities report.
Although iSeeCars.com “normalized” the data to level the playing field between the most popular models and less common ones, the more popular cars are still more likely to appear on the list.
In addition, because there aren’t a large number of fatal accidents in any given metro area, even a handful of accidents in one particular vehicle can land that vehicle on the “most deadly” list.
She also noted there are other factors besides a car’s safety features — such as road conditions and the condition of the driver — that can influence whether an accident turns fatal.
“No matter how safe a vehicle is, there is no substitute for safe driving,” she said.
To check your car’s safety rating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration visit www.nhtsa.gov/ratings. To see how your vehicle did in crash safety tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety visit www.iihs.org.
For the full iSeeCars.com study on fatal accident rates visit www.iseecars.com/most-dangerous-cars-2019study.