Big safety gains for small cars

[notacarguy]

As gas prices lead buyers to smaller vehicles, safety concerns arise again

Christine Tierney / The Detroit News

As soaring gas prices push consumers to consider buying smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles, questions about whether small cars offer enough protection on roads filled with large vehicles are cropping up once again.

But in the years since the last oil shock, automakers have worked to make small cars safer than ever. Their occupants still aren't as protected as those in many larger vehicles, but the latest statistics show small cars have made big gains in safety.

Automakers are equipping them with more protective features, such as side air bags. They are redesigning them to disperse energy generated by a crash away from the passenger compartment. And they are using more new materials, such as high-strength steel, to reinforce the sides.

As a result, the death rate for drivers of the smallest cars dropped to 106 per million registered vehicles in 2006 from 165 a decade earlier, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

That means the smallest cars are now safer than small pickups, a category with 116 fatalities per million vehicles. Death rates in the small car category are on par with fatalities among large pickup drivers.

Still, the driver death rate for very small cars is significantly higher than fatality rates for drivers of vehicles in the safest categories -- the largest sedans, with 41 deaths per million vehicles, and the biggest SUVs, with 33 deaths.

"There's an advantage to being larger and heavier," said Adrian Lund, president of Arlington, Va.-based Insurance Institute, an organization funded by auto insurers. "Those are the laws of physics, and they still hold."

While today's small cars are safer than earlier models, he said, "the risk of dying in the smallest car relative to the largest car is still 2-to-1."

Continued at: http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...TO01/806250374

[Ming]

Let me be the first to propose the inevitable in this thread:

MrBigRigF250: "Small cars ain't never gonna be safe enough! Trucks and big SUVs for me, my family, or nuthin!

...Now let me go polish up my Harley before I ride cross country...."

[LAMRONH]

Definitions would be useful, as in 1500 LB - 2500 LB, etc.

Given that we are free to create our own definitions, are you safer as a good driver in a small agile car or as a texting burger-chomping airhead in a large car?

[windvale]

Ming - is that you...or some other "bad ass" in the picture ?

[Ming]

Random "Harley Dude" image from Google.

I have my full size van, outback hat "bad ass" image somewhere - maybe I'll post it some day.

[osv_alero]

I would rather be in a modern day small car than a full-size car from the 80s or 90s in an accident.

Anyone got the money to crash a 90's Caprice against a Cobalt? After viewing crash tests of both vehicles I almost wonder if the person in the Cobalt stands a better chance.

[YupYupYup]

25 years of technological advancement and testing should make the Cobalt better than the Caprice. It is like any product; it should be better after that many years in every aspect.

[psece]

What is really amazing about this statistic is that the majority of small cars are driven by a younger demographic. This is a demographic that has less driving experience and are more likely to make bad decisions. In light of that, these are great statistics.

[appman]

I'll take my GTP for saftey reasons any day. My car is fast and agile enough to get me out of most situations. The only crash I fear is being rear ended, I can watch for crazy drivers ahead and to the side of me. No SMART car for me, no matter what the "crash ratings" say. Paying a little more in gas is a small price to pay for saftey.

[TruckMan]

Originally Posted by appman

I'll take my GTP for saftey reasons any day. My car is fast and agile enough to get me out of most situations. The only crash I fear is being rear ended, I can watch for crazy drivers ahead and to the side of me. No SMART car for me, no matter what the "crash ratings" say. Paying a little more in gas is a small price to pay for saftey.

I'll sencond that. The small cars of today may be safer than those of the past, but, especially when it comes to head-on and fast-speed collisions, there's no substitution for size and weight.

[logansowner]

Small cars are absolutely safer now, but you still can't change physics, heavy vs light +heavy wins.

Like when they crashed the Smart into the S600. They proclaimed the Smart car safe because it didn't crush....that's fantastic, it just means the person is the crumple zone instead of the car. A sudden stop now isn't any safer than it was in 1975.

[FISH]

Originally Posted by osv_alero

I would rather be in a modern day small car than a full-size car from the 80s or 90s in an accident.

Anyone got the money to crash a 90's Caprice against a Cobalt? After viewing crash tests of both vehicles I almost wonder if the person in the Cobalt stands a better chance.

Not quite Caprice VS Cobalt.

+ YouTube Video

[triadecho]

Pick-up fatalities are disproportionate in the western states.
Contributing factors include long distances traveled, speed, alcohol, people riding in the bed and not using seat belts

[01sunfire01]

last night i was comeing home and saw a crash. a saturn ion stoped and a subaru outback smashed into the back of the ion. the hood on the outback was smashed up and the bumper. the ion had scuff marks on the bumper. i wish i got a pic of it. gm small cars and take a hit very nice.

[O_Z]

As far as I can see from that data, large cars and SUV still much safer than smal cars