Car Buyers Told Safety Factors, But Not Overall Driver Death Rates

June 13, 2011 - PRLog -- The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety [IIHS] provides vehicle ratings based upon several different safety factors, and the federal government provides vehicle safety ratings based on other tests, but it's very difficult for potential car buyers to learn the one factor which might be more significant than any one of these, and most important in selecting a vehicle most likely to protect their lives and the lives of members of their families.

Unfortunately, in reporting on the latest IIHS report showing that SUVs have become safer because electronic stability control [ESC] systems reduce the risk of rollovers, most media outlets ignored what might be even more important: that drivers of some riskier vehicles are almost three times as likely to die in an accident than if driving in the average car, and that some vehicles are four to five times more likely to kill their driver than the average minivan or SUV.

Indeed, the difference between the most dangerous vehicles and the safest, in terms of driver death rates, can exceed a ratio of twenty to one - a startling fact many buyers might want to know before making a purchase. http://arlpub1.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4605.pdf

Those who watch the evening news, or read a daily newspaper, may now know that SUVs and minivans are somewhat safer than cars or pickups, but most don't know that some can increase the risk of driver death by as much as 2000%, depending upon their choice of vehicle," argues John Banzhaf, a public interest law professor who has successful brought legal actions related to vehicle safety, and is also an engineer, inventor, and statistician.  Unfortunately, buyers have no ready access to information about which vehicles are much more likely to kill them or members of their families.

Knowing generally about a somewhat increased risk often isn't very useful in making purchasing decisions without knowing something about the magnitude of the danger, he argues, pointing to the huge number of people who purchased Ford Explorers and other SUVs earlier in the decade.  They may have known generally that SUVs had a higher rollover rate than ordinary cars, but probably few knew that the risk of rollovers was 600% to even 1000% higher, he argues.

The driver of a typical minicar could have three times the chance of being killed in an accident as the driver of a minivan or SUV, something purchasers may want to carefully weigh against the small car's typically better gas mileage and lower exhaust emissions.  Otherwise, they may literally be dying - or risking the lives of loved ones - to save some money on gas, or to infinitesimally reduce global warming.   Indeed, Banzhaf notes, there are almost a dozen cars where the driver death rate is at least four times the driver death rate for a typical SUV, and at least six times higher than the death rate for large SUVs.

Unfortunately, notes Banzhaf, car buyers who try to get the best available information about the safety of their prospective purchases by going to the major web sites on automobile safety will find only generalized information based upon several different tests, but not the crucial information about actual driver death rates.

For example, the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) site provides frontal, side and rollover ratings, but only generalized information in the form of 1 to 5 stars. http://www.safercar.gov/

IIHS has on its web site information about frontal and side crash tests, roof strength tests and head restraint tests, but classifies them only as "poor," "marginal," "acceptable" and "good."  http://www.iihs.org/

Ironically, the IIHS's "Top Safety Picks for 2011," the advice it provides to prospective car purchasers, are based upon these four factors, but not upon actual driver death rates - which the organization now admits may be the most important single factor in assessing vehicle safety. http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx

"Buyers can readily obtain, often in the new-car window sticker, lots of information about the vehicle's miles per gallon, annual fuel costs, greenhouse gas rating, smog rating, its rating on several safety tests, and even the suggested retail price, but almost never are they told how likely the car is to kill them.  Perhaps it's time for automobile rating sites, and even the federal government, to provide this vital life-and-death information," argues Banzhaf.

He also suggests that the IIHS report recommending that parents consider purchasing an SUV for their teen drivers, based on findings that ESC systems now minimize rollovers, is incomplete and potentially misleading because it totally overlooked another important existing vehicle safety system which is far more important than ESC because it would slash deaths and injuries from high-speed crashes - which are much more common than rollovers for teen drivers.

He argues that IIHS should have told parents following its advice to purchase an SUV to protect teen drivers that they should reset the top-speed control in the vehicle's on-board computer from 120-140 mph, to which it is typically set, to a more realistic 65, 70, or 75 - or perhaps even only 55 for very young and inexperienced drivers - to slash the danger of a high-speed accident (a much greater risk than a rollover) and also to greatly reduce the severity of an accident should it occur. http://pressreleaser.org/suvs-still-not-teen-safe-despite-institute-report-expert/1351393

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Creator, Banzhaf Index of Voting Power
2000 H Street, NW, Suite S402
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/

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John F. Banzhaf III is a Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School [http://banzhaf.net/] where he is best known for his work regarding smoking [http://ash.org/], obesity [http://banzhaf.net/obesitylinks.html], etc.