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Car crash death rates: size still matters
Death rates decline for all vehicle types but SUVs, in particular, are becoming safer.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer

POSTED: 9:32 a.m. EDT, April 19, 2007


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- New statistics released Thursday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show that, while cars of all types of all types have gotten considerably safer in the last 11 years, larger cars still offer better crash protection than smaller ones.

During the years 2002 to 2005, there were 79 driver deaths per million registered 2001-2004 model year vehicles, according to the Institute. By contrast, during the years 1990 to 1994, there were 110 deaths per million 1989 to 1993 model year vehicles on the road then. That represents a 30 percent reduction in the overall death rate.

Most of that difference can be attributed to safer vehicle designs and to the addition of Electronic Stability Control on more vehicles, especially SUVs, according to the Institute.

The vehicles with the lowest death rates were the General Motors' Chevrolet Astro van, the Infiniti G35 sedan, the BMW 7-series sedan and the Audi A4/S4 Quattro. The Astro, a full-sized van, had a death rate of 7 per million. The Audi A4/S4 had 14 deaths per million registered cars.

The vehicles with the highest fatality rates were 2-door, 2-wheel-drive versions of the Chevrolet Blazer small SUV, the Acura RSX small car, the Nissan 350Z sports car, the Kia Spectra compact car, the Pontiac Sunfire compact car and the Kia Rio subcompact car. Death rates for those cars ranged from 232 per million for the Blazer to 175 for the Rio.

Death rates are computed based on data from the Federal Government's Fatality Analysis Reporting System and vehicle registration data from The Polk Company.

Since men tend to die more often in traffic crashes than women, the Institute statistically adjusts the data to account for models with more male or female drivers .

Overall, midsize and large luxury cars have the lowest death rates, according to the Institute, while small 4-door cars have the highest death rates. Of the 15 vehicles with the lowest death rates, none were small cars.

Not that drivers have to get the largest vehicles to be safe, said Insurance Institute spokesman Russ Rader.

"You don't have to buy a tank to get safety," he said.

Midsized cars, especially those with smaller four and six cylinder engines, provide excellent fuel economy and have relatively low fatality rates, said Rader.

Differences in drivers, not just the vehicles themselves, can also influence death rates, according to the Insurance Institute. For example, expensive luxury cars may be safer than less expensive cars, but less expensive cars are also purchased by younger, less experienced drivers which may partly account for higher death rates.

Stability control shows its importance
All but three of the vehicles with the lowest death rates have Electronic Stability Control, usually as standard equipment. By contrast, ESC is available on only one of the 16 vehicles with the worst fatality rates. On the one that does have it, the Nissan 350Z, it's available only as an option.

6MT G-STYLE

Rob, all you had to do was ask...I used to investigate car accidents...by the way guey...do you have vdc in your model Z?

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