Monday, January 30, 2006

Automobile fatality rates

People love compact cars as gas prices soar, but there's a sobering cost: The government says they have the highest fatality rate.

Compacts had a fatality rate of 17.76 per 100,000 vehicles in 2004, followed by compact pickup trucks with 16.87 and subcompact vehicles with 16.85, according to a report Monday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Large vans had the lowest rate, 9.34, while pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles had rates of about 15 deaths. (Associated Press)

OK, so we know how many people are killed while driving in certain sized cars. But how many people are killed by certain sized cars? I'd be interested in statistics that tell me how many people are killed when hit by, say, a large SUV versus a compact. I guess in our individualistic every-man-for-himself society that doesn't matter to the purchaser. Perhaps it should.

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