Comment by Meekro | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Meekro | Hacker News Reader

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Large cars are safer. The IIHS publishes a stat they call "driver deaths per million registered vehicle years." Check it out: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/news/desktopnews/on-the-road-again-...

Notice a pattern? All of the safest cars (including the handful in which nobody died) are large. Mostly SUVs and pickups, with a few luxury sedans thrown in. All of the least safe cars are small. Many of them are tiny.

Incidentally, electric cars tend to be very safe for their size because the battery makes them weigh more. I'm all for that-- I'm just saying that Americans' love of large cars isn't entirely irrational. Some very unlucky Ford Fiesta drivers would still be alive if they'd been behind the wheel of a Jeep Cherokee.

Are larger cars increasing safety overall, or are they just "winning" in crashes v.s. smaller vehicles? Would the driver of the Ford Fiesta still be alive if he'd crashed into another Fiesta instead of a Jeep Cherokee?

Most likely they’re just killing people in smaller cars, deaths from car crashes are higher in the US compared to other developed countries after all. Americans seem to enjoy a good arms race.

Part of that is that in multi -vehicle accidents bigger cars do more damage to small ones because they have more mass. So the bigger car is definitely safer for its occupants, but not necessarily better overall.

Pedestrian vs SUV bull bars turned out to be so grim for the pedestrians that they've been banned in Europe. The occupant safety statistics only tell part of the story.

You need to look at the demographics of the drivers. Younger, inexperienced drivers drive smaller cars.

Aren't there a couple of feedback loops there?

Younger/inexperienced drivers buy affordable cars, which are affordable because they are [perceived as] less safe.

Older drivers, of people with the income to make a choice who care about perception, buy cars that are [perceived as] more safe.

They’re more affordable because they cost less to make.

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