The belief that people are better protected in bigger, heavier and more powerful cars is turning out to be something of a myth. But the fear that these powerful machines are a serious threat to other road users is turning out to be all too true.
The US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) ran the numbers on fatalities on its roads between 2018 and 2021. It looked into driver deaths and the deaths of others involved in the crashes.
Of the 20 vehicles with the highest other-vehicle death rates, more than half were pick-up trucks or SUVs.
Five out of the worst 10 were Dodge RAM variants.
In contrast, the vehicles that caused the fewest deaths of other drivers were luxury cars made by companies including Mercedes, Honda, Audi, Porsche, Volvo and Lexus. These brands also had low numbers of driver deaths.
In some of the big utes, SUVs and more powerful vehicles, both drivers and others in the collision were more at risk of death.
The models with high numbers of driver deaths included powerful “muscle cars” such as Chevrolet, Camaro, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger and Ford Mustang.
The IIHS found that some of the luxury vehicles that had low levels of driver and other-driver deaths were just as powerful as the “muscle cars“, but were driven differently.
The IIHS found that marketing for the Dodge Charger HEMI, for example, focused on its “ground-shaking” power, its acceleration “bolting off the line” and its “racing-inspired” high-performance brakes, while the Chevrolet Camaro promised buyers the ability to “dominate on the daily” with an “extreme track performance package” and the Ford Mustang offered “adrenaline chasers” the power to “keep ahead of the pack”.
“These two lists illustrate some of the intangibles of crash risk,” IIHS President David Harkey says. “We can measure horsepower and weight and test for crashworthiness. However, the deadly record of these muscle cars suggests that their history and marketing may be encouraging more aggressive driving.”
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