Small, fuel-efficient cars are in and big, thirsty vehicles are out. But as consumers try to save money on gas, their odds
of getting hurt increase, the Insurance Research Council warned today.
The Pennsylvania organization, which researches the property and casualty business, says its analysis of 9,140 claims involving personal injury show that people in big vehicles fare better in crashes.
People hurt in the lightest 25 percent of vehicles were hospitalized more often and lost more time at work than people riding in the heaviest 25 percent of vehicles. Lighter vehicles cost more to fix, too.
Whatâ??s light? The smallest 25 percent weighed 2,771 pounds or less. The big vehicles weighed at least 3,726 pounds.
And the council didnâ??t include people who died or suffered permanent total disabilities because the affect of those few claims would have distorted the averages.
So, how do you feel about driving small vehicles? Are they worth the risk?
The Pennsylvania organization, which researches the property and casualty business, says its analysis of 9,140 claims involving personal injury show that people in big vehicles fare better in crashes.
People hurt in the lightest 25 percent of vehicles were hospitalized more often and lost more time at work than people riding in the heaviest 25 percent of vehicles. Lighter vehicles cost more to fix, too.
Whatâ??s light? The smallest 25 percent weighed 2,771 pounds or less. The big vehicles weighed at least 3,726 pounds.
And the council didnâ??t include people who died or suffered permanent total disabilities because the affect of those few claims would have distorted the averages.
So, how do you feel about driving small vehicles? Are they worth the risk?
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http://www.ircweb.org/News/IRCGasPrices082608.pdf
There is a growing body of scientific evidence that vehicle safety is directly related to vehicle design. Take a read of a serious study:
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/mhross/files/physicstoday_jan2006.pdf
Light trucks cannot safely coexist with passenger cars under existing conditions.The problem becomes particularly urgent as more and more light trucks are used simply as car substitutes.
In response to the possibility that fuel-economy regulations might be strengthened, safety experts of major US manufacturers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, and a 2001 study at the National Research Council have concluded that light vehicles are fundamentally less safe
than heavy vehicles. The conclusion was based on statistical analyses in which mass was the primary vehicle characteristic considered. However, attributing the safety records of
today’s vehicles primarily to their masses is misleading.
Figure 6 shows how a driver’s risk of death in a typical passenger car depends on the type of vehicle whose front hits his left side. The risk doesn’t change much from subcompact cars to large cars, even though large cars are about 1.6 times
as heavy as subcompacts. But being hit by a sport utility vehicle (SUV) more than doubles the struck driver’s risk. Compact and full-size pickup trucks are even more deadly projectiles.
I wouldn't be surprised if the injury death statistics for those light weight vehicles aren't too far away from motorcycle statistics. People who own these small cars best be as careful as a motorcycle rider. I certainly won't be buying one of the SMART cars for this reason -- there's still going to be plenty of Hummers, SUVs, and, of course, big rigs all over the place.
Interesting how these small cars aren't labeled 'economy cars' anymore like they were back in the late 70s and 80s when the first big change-over occurred due to high fuel prices.
Bottom line: drive what's practical for you. You could make the argument that a semi is the safest vehicle on the road but its not practical. With $4+ gas prices the practicality of a large SUV falls off a cliff.
But on size vs. safety, it's physics and math. The smaller vehicle cannot be as safe because there is less crush distance--and no steel beam in the door is going to stop a 3500# or even 2500# car from denting the side of your vehicle past the door if you are T-boned at 30 mph or more.
These injuries are going to get worse over time, not better. The cost to repair will continue to rise as more technology is stuffed in cars. Just wait until your 10 year old car with those nice headlights includes a $1000 repair bill just for the headlights for that low speed accident, and the car is totaled, but you don't get paid full value. Where was the economy in that transaction?