Small Car Deaths Don't Add Up

I heard of a USA Today story about small cars being “deadlier” than large cars the other day while having lunch with a bunch of fellow automotive journalists. I looked up the story, which you can find here, and though it was entirely accurate, it missed one big factor when discussing road deaths.

For those who didn’t go to the link (the headline is totally misleading, as well), the gist of the story is that small cars make up 14% of all cars on the road but are involved in 24% of all traffic fatalities. They’re more likely to be involved in fatal accidents, and the overall number of deaths in small cars is higher than other segments. The story tries to explain the problem by linking the deaths with the type of car. There is quote after quote from authoritative sources, like IIHS, about the physics of cars and the importance of weight and size in protecting passengers during a collisions.

A natural instinct would be to think that all these small car deaths came in accidents with larger cars, like SUVs. In fact, only 9% of the deaths happened in accidents with SUVS. However, 53% of the deaths involved either another small car or no other car at all. To me, this speaks to the driver.

Drivers of small cars are often first-time owners because of the price of entry, and often that means teenage drivers. That spells inexperience and could easily explain more of the deaths than the cars themselves. While the story does a great job explaining that hot new cars like the Nissan Versa and the Honda Fit are in this class, it doesn’t say how many sports cars make up this segment, as defined by the study. Is a Mazda RX-8 included? I saw a story about four young adults here in Chicago dying after their RX-8 slammed into a median. How about speedy compacts like the Dodge Neon SRT4 (another car I’ve seen in multiple stories about teenage deaths).

The recent popularity of small cars due to high gas prices has more-experienced drivers downsizing to compacts, which might not lead to the forecast of exponentially more deaths, as the USA Today story reported. While I certainly think a larger car is inherently safer than a smaller one, it’s not a bad idea to move these other statistics to the forefront of the discussion instead of the last few paragraphs. As always, feel free to leave your own thoughts below.

People Buy Small Cars Even Though They Can Be Deadly (USA Today)