The Most Dangerous Cars on the Road

When you think of dangerous cars, you may think of Ralph Nader’s decades old warnings that Corvairs were “unsafe at any speed”, because he claimed, they tended to flip over. Or you may remember the infamy of Ford Pintos which had their gas tanks in the rear. When Pinto’s were hit from behind in a rear-end collision, they had a tendency to explode. But according to people who should know, neither of these qualifies as the most dangerous car on the road.

Much of the peril in the most dangerous cars has nothing to do with construction. There are four cars commonly on today’s roads that are extremely dangerous because of their price, their power, and their appeal to young men. The cars that pack the added wallop are Camaro, Corvette, Mustang, and Firebird. David Champion, the director of Automotive Testing Division for consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports says that these aspects of these four cars add up to higher death rates.  

 

Beginning in 1984 the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) started tracking car occupant death rate and found that the rate for sports cars is nearly twice as high as for average cars.  

 

For 1984-1988 models, here are some statistics.  (At that time, the death rate was measured in deaths per ten thousand.)

It’s important to note that the death rate for 1984-1988 Corvette’s is 2.5 times the national average, of 1.9 per ten thousand. And it is nine times the rate of  the car deemed the safest car on the road, the Volvo 240 station wagon.

 

What is it about these cars that is so unsafe? The drivers. The cars themselves are not inherently unsafe. It’s the way people drive them. Kim Hazelbaker of the IIHS says that the vehicles encourage risk. Cars like these four attract young male drivers. It’s a combination of power, price, and style that draws young males who are already charged with testosterone.

 

Sports cars do handle differently so driving them requires extra care. Still, automakers don’t want to lay all the blame on drivers.  

 

The most recent data from the IIHS measured models from 1995-1998. For those models, Corvette was replaced on the list as the most dangerous car by Camaro, having a death rate of 308 deaths per million compared to the national average of 89 per million. Firebirds came in at second, with 267 per million. And 1994-1997 Mustangs are showing improvement, with a drop to 138 per million.  

 

One thing that these cars do have going for them is the fact that they are rear-wheel drive. Though front-wheel drive vehicles have their advantages, rear-wheel drive allows for more control when driving very fast. And, let’s face it.  The people who buy Corvettes, Camaros, Firebirds, and Mustangs likely intend to drive at high rates of speed. In slippery conditions, rear-wheel drive vehicles have less traction, but the drivers can gain traction by adding ballast  weight to the trunk, unlike front-wheel drive cars. 

 

If you’re wondering how your car rates for safety, go to this Web site and enter your car and year to see crash test results for models from 1984-2003.