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Small cars are still the most dangerous choice on the market, according to a new ranking of vehicles by fatality rate

Small cars are still the most dangerous choice on the market, according to a new ranking of vehicles by fatality rate

Tim Levin

Ford Focus.Ford

Drivers are significantly more likely to die in a small car than a large one, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests.
The IIHS, which is based in Virginia and crash tests cars for the US market, found that 15 of the 20 cars from the 2017 model year with the highest driver death rates were either small cars or minicars.
Some of the least safe models included the Ford Fiesta, Nissan Versa Note, and Fiat 500.
Most of the safest models, when it comes to driver death rate, were luxury SUVs and large SUVs.

Basic physics says that, generally speaking, large vehicles have an advantage over small ones when it comes to safety. A tiny sports car might be the safest tiny sports car in the world, but that doesn't mean it'll take on a semi very well.

And thanks to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, now we know just how much more dangerous driving a small car can be.

After studying driver fatalities that occurred from 2015 through 2018 in vehicles from the 2017 model year, as well as older vehicles with the same design, the IIHS found that 15 of the 20 models with the highest death rates were small cars and minicars. The safest models, in large part, were SUVs.

"Smaller vehicles offer less protection for the driver in crashes, and their lighter mass means that they take the brunt of collisions with larger vehicles," Joe Nolan, IIHS senior vice president of vehicle research, said in a press release.

Admittedly, the IIHS' fatality data is imperfect, as the organization doesn't take into account driving speed, road quality, or the distance one drives in a given day. However, when the IIHS ran the study again and accounted for mileage data, the results were similar — vehicle size remained a major factor, but death rates increased for sports cars and luxury cars, which aren't driven much.

It's important to note that when cars are crash tested and rated in a lab, the result is based on the weight of the vehicle being crashed — not the weight of crashing into a much larger one. Thus, IIHS said in 2018, those who buy smaller vehicles "are choosing a lower level of protection" even if that car has great safety ratings.

Listed below are the 20 least safe models, ranked by driver death rate per million registered vehicle years. For reference, a registered vehicle year refers to one vehicle registered for one year, and the average rate across all 2017 models was found to be 36 deaths.