Subject: Latest IIHS safety data

From: [email-masked] (Ryan Rahim)
Date: 25 Oct 1995 06:33:46 GMT

The latest IIHS safety data has been released.  IIHS stands for the 
Insurance Institue for Highway safety, and rates the safety of cars based on 
federal statistics for amt of deaths per 10,000 vehicles.  This survey 
was carried out during the period (1989-93)

The governing body concluded that "airbags make a difference," but there 
is a problem with small cars.  Among the 10 vehicles with the highest 
driver death rates, nine were small cars and one was midsize.  All 10 
with the lowest driver death rates were either large or midsize cars.

Top Ten list with the lowest death rates per 10,000 vehicles:
All the cars (1989-93) with the top 10 rating comes with at least a 
driver-side airbag except for one.

1) Volvo 240 (no surprise, it has won for many years now.)
2) Saab 9000.  (Another Swedish machine)
3) Mercedes Benz 190
4) Volkswagen Passat. (Only one without airbags) YES!
5) Lexus ES 300
6) Lexus LS 400
7) Honda Accord station wagon
8) Jeep Grand Cherokee 4X4 utility Vehicle
9) Dodge Caravan passenger van
10) Plymouth Voyager passenger van.  (Champagne's on me, Lloyd)

Bottom 10:  Only the 2 "sports" cars in the 10 worst list came with airbags

Highest death rates:

1) Geo Tracker
2) Chevrolet Corvette (must be those leaf-springs :-)
3) Isuzu Amigo Utility
4) Hyundai Scoupe
5) Ford Mustang
6) Ford Festiva
7) Pontiac Lemans
8) Geo Metro
9) Ford Escort
10) Chevrolet S10 pickup truck.

Ryan

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From: [email-masked] (Ken Bell)
Date: 25 Oct 1995 10:20:18 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
>was carried out during the period (1989-93)

Where can the IIHS report be found?  Is it published, or does one
request it directly from IIHS?

BTW, as will all such data, there is a bias built in that has nothing
to do with the inherent safety of the cars themselves.  Certain cars
are purchased in large numbers by "safety oriented" drivers, i.e.,
people who won't normally take chances on the road.  In this case, the
low fatality rate in those cars may be due as much to safer driving as
to safer car design.  Such drivers might well have produced excellent
safety scores for a car that scored poorly, had they been driving it
(the Corvette is a good case in point, as it scored rather well on the
NHTSA crash test, indicating better than average survivability in a
crash, as well as being a fairly heavy car).

On the other hand, some cars, the Corvette for example, are typically
purchased by folks who like to race on the highway (and on the school
streets), and who might wrap even a Volvo 240 around a telephone pole
if that's what they were constrained to drive.  Still, as with the
NHTSA crash tests, some data is probably better than no data in making
a "safe car" purchase decision.

-- 
Ken Bell :: [email-masked]   :: (212) 475-4976 (voice)
======== :: [email-masked] :: (212) 678-5516 (voice), 678-5552 (fax)