Crash Tests Work: Safer Cars Equal Fewer Fatalities
According to a new study, cars with better safety ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are involved in fewer traffic fatalities.
Two professors took a look at 20 years of fatal crashes and compared, over time, models with low crash-test ratings in the past with their improved counterparts. Using NHTSA data, a car rated with one star had an 18% higher death rate than the same model once it achieved five stars. Two-star cars did even worse, with a 36% higher death rate than their five-star equivalents.
The more stringent IIHS ratings — which Cars.com prefers — saw cars that got the lowest score, Poor, with a 43% higher death rate than the improved models that received the highest award, Good.
Strangely enough, when the same study was applied to SUVs, there was no noticeable improvement in death rates.
From this study, it looks to us like anyone arguing that crash-test scores are meaningless might have to rethink their argument. Plus, we’re always reminded of the old saying, “better safe than sorry.”
[Do Five-Star Ratings Really Mean a Safer Ride?, Yahoo Finance Via Autoblog]
