New SUVs no longer pose an outsize risk to car occupants in a crash, suggests new research.
A study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has shown in 2013-16, car occupants were only slightly more likely to die in collisions with one to four-year-old SUVs than with cars of the same age, relative to the number of each vehicle type on the road.
This is a shift since the 1990s, when occupants of cars and minivans were far more likely to die in crashes with SUVs than in crashes with other cars and minivans
“For a long time, the front ends of SUVs were so high that they bypassed the energy-absorbing structures of the fronts of cars,” said Joe Nolan, IIHS Senior Vice President for Vehicle Research and a co-author of the study. “The changes prompted by the voluntary commitment largely resolved that issue.”
In 2013-16, the rate that car drivers were killed in crashes with one to four-year-old SUVs was just 28 percent higher than the rate that car drivers were killed in crashes with other cars, also between one to four-years old. That compares with 132 percent in 1989-92 and 59 percent in 2009-12.
Nolan said car-SUV compatibility had continued to improve after the voluntary commitment which he said was probably a result of improved crashworthiness in the smallest vehicles.
“Small cars and minicars used to have the worst ratings in our crash tests but have made big strides in recent years,” he added.
However, despite the voluntary commitment resulting in more compatible pickup truck designs too, the study showed car occupants were two and a half times more likely to die in a crash with a pickup than with another car or minivan.
