Safest and Deadliest Cars on the Road Today

There’s a new report out from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that shows what vehicles are the safest on the highway. These nine used vehicles have zero highway deaths.

Now that’s an amazing statistic considering the millions upon millions of miles that are driven annually with each of these vehicles.

On the other side of the coin, IIHS also lists the vehicles with the most highways deaths per million miles.

Consult the list of both types of used cars below to see where your used car choice might fall.

Of course, just because a vehicle is on the unsafe list does not automatically make it an unsafe car to drive. You should read the IIHS report (see link below) to learn more about what makes a vehicle unsafe to drive. You would be surprised to also find out there is non-technological things that can be done to make any vehicle safer, regardless of its position on the list.

A CNBC.com story says, “The highway death toll has been plunging rapidly in recent years, and safety experts are crediting a number of factors, including improved roadways and a crackdown on drunk driving. But a new study puts the spotlight on vehicle design and improved technology for both preventing crashes and keeping motorists alive when they do occur.”

The nine vehicles are (in alphabetical order):

“The vehicle with the highest death rate among the 2011 models is the Kia Rio, a minicar, with 149 driver deaths per million registered vehicle years. It's one of only three vehicles with death rates above 100,” according to the IIHS. “Minicars and small cars dominate the worst list. That's not surprising, since these vehicles can't protect as well as larger ones. Death rates by vehicle type and size show that the smallest vehicles typically have the highest death rates, and, with some exceptions, death rates tend to go down as size goes up.”

Here are the 10 deadliest cars (in descending order from 1 to 10):

Kia Rio
Nissan Versa sedan
Hyundai Accent
Chevrolet Aveo
Hyundai Accent
Chevrolet Camaro coupe
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew 4WD
Honda Civic 2-door car
Nissan Versa hatchback
Ford Focus

According to the IIHS, “Improved vehicle designs and safety technology have a lot to do with the continuing decline in fatality risk. In a related study, Institute researchers estimated how much of the decline was due to changes in the vehicle fleet during 1985-2012.

“They found that vehicle changes — including improved structural designs, the addition of safety features and an evolving mix of vehicle types — were the main source of declining risk from 1993 through 2006. These changes continued to contribute to later declines as well, though other factors such as the weak economy also appear to have played a role.

The CNBC piece points out something I had forgotten about Volvo. Its goal is zero deaths in any of its new cars starting in 2020. “While that may be difficult to achieve across the industry, the new study shows that among 2011 models, there were 28 driver deaths per million registered vehicle miles, down from 48 in 2008 and 2009 models. A registered vehicle year means a vehicle that has been registered and in use for one year,” the article notes.

IIHS notes how things have changed in a short time for SUVs. “One striking thing about the group of zero-death vehicles — aside from the sheer number — is that two-thirds of them are SUVs,” the report says. “A decade ago, SUVs had some of the highest rates, due to their propensity to roll over. However, the spread of electronic stability control (ESC) through the fleet has dramatically lessened the risk of rollover crashes in these and all vehicles. The rollover death rate of 5 per million registered vehicle years for 2011 models is less than a quarter of what it was for 2004 models.”

As the IIHS notes, even older model cars can be safe when driven properly. “While the number of lives saved from vehicle improvements is good news, the flip side of the study is the missed opportunities for reducing fatality risk by other means. Lower speed limits, stronger safety belt laws and wider use of automated enforcement are just a few examples of policies that could have reduced the death toll even further,” the report says.