Car Safety Improves: Examine Lists Those With Most, And Least, Driver Deaths: The Two-Way: NPR
Car Safety Improves: Explore Lists Those With Most, And Least, Driver Deaths
A two thousand eleven Subaru Legacy is among the nine vehicles that were found to have a driver fatality rate of zero in a fresh report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Daniel Acker/Landov hide caption
A two thousand eleven Subaru Legacy is among the nine vehicles that were found to have a driver fatality rate of zero in a fresh report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
A record nine car models recorded driver death rates of zero, in a periodic investigate by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The group’s concentrate on two thousand eleven models driven through two thousand twelve also found the overall death rate fell by more than a third from its previous examine.
The fresh explore found that when looking at two thousand eleven models through the two thousand twelve calendar year, driver deaths per million registered vehicle years fell to 28; just three years earlier, the driver death rate was 48.
Despite the gains, the institute found a broad gap inbetween cars, as three models were found to have driver death rates higher than 100.
We’ve re-created the IIHS data in charts of the cars that had the most and least deaths during the investigate, below. If your car (or prospective car) isn’t listed here, you can use the organization’s fancier chart that lets you sort by vehicle size and market segment.
Lowest Rates of Driver Deaths
Driver deaths per million registered vehicle years: two thousand eleven and equivalent earlier models, in the years 2009-12
Source: IIHS probe based on two thousand eleven model vehicles, as well as those that were recently updated. To be included, a vehicle must have had at least 100,000 registered vehicle years of exposure during 2009-12 or at least twenty deaths.
The “giant improvement” was due to the spread of crucial safety features such as electronic stability control and design improvements that made cars safer in front-end crashes, the institute says.
“We know from our vehicle ratings program that crash test spectacle has been getting steadily better,” says David Zuby, the institute’s executive vice president and chief research officer. “These latest death rates provide fresh confirmation that real-world outcomes are improving, too.”
It seems that the improvements haven’t stopped with the two thousand eleven models. As we reported last month, “the number of vehicles winning [the IIHS’s] two safety awards hopped from thirty nine to seventy one for the two thousand fifteen model year.”
The institute says that for its report, a “registered vehicle year” could be either one car that was registered for twelve months or several cars that total up to the same amount of time. Cars that are included must have at least 100,000 registered vehicle years during 2009-12 or at least twenty deaths.
If you’re wondering about how the institute calculates the driver death rate, here’s an explanation:
