An IIHS study found that large cars are not safer during accidents
If you think that a huge SUV will make you invulnerable in an accident, we have news for you. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has analysed accident statistics and concluded that heavy vehicles do not really save their owners, but significantly increase the risk for other road users.
Here's What We Know
IIHS took the 2017-2022 cars as a basis and determined their average weight - 4,000 pounds (1,815 kg). It turns out that cars weighing over that figure only slightly reduce the risk of killing their occupants, but seriously increase fatalities in less heavy cars. For example, every additional 500 pounds (227 kg) in an SUV or pickup truck leads to seven additional deaths among passenger car drivers.
Researchers also found that cars weighing less than 4,000 pounds can benefit from adding weight - statistically, getting closer to the average weight reduces traffic fatalities. But here, the extra pounds beyond that level have little to no effect on the safety of the big car owner anymore.
Sam Monfort, lead author of the study, explained that there's nothing magical about 4,000 pounds, except that it's the average weight of 2017-2022 vehicles in the United States. Vehicles heavier than average are more likely to crash into vehicles that are lighter than themselves, while the opposite is true for vehicles that are lighter than average. "This analysis shows that choosing an extra-heavy vehicle does not make you safer, but it does make you more dangerous to other people," he added.
There is some positive news, though: the difference in deaths between drivers of passenger cars and large SUVs has narrowed significantly in recent years. While for 2011-2016 vehicles, a passenger car driver was 90 per cent more likely to die in a crash with an SUV weighing more than 5,000 pounds (2,268 kg), that difference has narrowed to 20 per cent for 2017-2022 vehicles. This is the result of improvements in the design of modern vehicles.
Source: IIHS
