Road accident statistics on a model-by-model basis
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Although various 'theoretical' crash testing scenarios are popular in assessing car safety in UK the Department of Transport publish the actual level of road deaths in each type of car. These statistics are available tabulated in the form of the "Cars: Make and Model: The Risk of Driver Injury in Great Britain: 1996 - 2000".
Overall these statistics show a ten to one ratio of in-vehicle accident deaths between the least safe and most safe models of car.
The statistics show that for popular, lightly built cars occupants have a 6%-8% chance of death in a two car accident. (e.g. BMW 3 series 6%, Subaru Impreza 8%, Honda Accord 6%). Traditional "safety cars" such as the Volvos halve that chance (Volvo 700 4% incidence of death, Volvo 900 3%).
Despite poor performance in theoretical tests and criticism from media pundits SUVs fare much better than 'safety cars' with the Jeep Cherokee and Toyota Land Cruiser giving 2% incidence of death in actual crashes.
Overall the four best vehicles to be in are the Jaguar XJ series 1%, Mercedes-Benz S-Class / SEC 1%, Land Rover Defender 1% and Land Rover Discovery 1%.
Motorcyclist deaths within the England and Wales stand at 65% of the annual road death statistics, however scooters/mopeds up to 50cc only account to 3% of those deaths. Scooter/moped deaths where also founded that 2% of the scooter deaths were 17-19 year olds who had not taken the CBT (Compulsory Basic Training)
These statistics taken alone are incomplete. They do not take into account the demographics of drivers. The BMW 3 series and Subaru Impreza were both marketed as “performance cars” and more likely to be driven by young males, who were more likely as drivers to be involved (high speed) collisions. In contrast the Volvos were marketed as “safe” vehicles, bought and defensively driven by drivers with families. Similarly, neither Land Rovers were designed to be driven fast; speed being a major contributing factor to the seriousness of collisions. Therefore these are not straightforward guidance on which cars are “safe”.
Similarly, the statistics are misleading, as they only record the fatalities within the vehicles, not the fatalities to pedestrians or the occupants of other vehicles hit by them. When a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) strikes a car in frontal impact, there are four driver fatalities in the car for every one driver fatality in the SUV. When SUVs strike passenger cars on the side, there are 22 passenger car driver fatalities for every SUV driver fatality. This is mainly due to differential in the mass of the vehicles and that those hit by SUV’s to be hit on the torsos, which contains vital organs, while passengers in SUV’s receive leg injuries. It can easily bee seen that for every life “saved” within the SUV many more are lost.
(Statistics taken from DSA road deaths of 2005)
