U.S. consumers increasingly prefer larger vehicles. They want lots of space and an abundance of features, and larger vehicles are typically considered safer. But while larger vehicles tend to provide a high level of protection for their drivers, they are among the most dangerous vehicles on the road for drivers of other vehicles, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found in a study released Thursday.
In 30 years studying this topic, the IIHS has found that smaller vehicles always have higher death rates. “The reasoning was just the physics of a crash,” Chuck Farmer, IIHS vice president for research and statistical services, told Automotive News. “When a larger vehicle hits a smaller vehicle, the larger vehicle wins.”
Though larger vehicles are safer for their own drivers, they might be more dangerous for drivers of the vehicles they crash into. “If you’re in the larger vehicle, you’re more protected, but the physics would say the other guy is going to be worse off,” Farmer said.
Of the 20 models with the highest rates of death for drivers of other vehicles, IIHS found seven are large or very large pickups. The organization does not use passenger deaths in calculating rankings because some vehicles carry many passengers while others carry none.
