Driver death rates remain high for small cars, models with powerful engines (IIHS)

More than half of the model 2023 vehicles with the highest driver death rates are small cars, sports cars or muscle cars, a new report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows.

“Even the safest small cars don’t fare well in crashes with large pickups and heavy SUVs,” IIHS President David Harkey said.“Powerful engines and marketing that attracts aggressive drivers is the issue for sports cars and muscle cars. They're dangerous mainly because of how they’re driven.”

IIHS has been calculating driver death rates approximately every three years since 1989. This year marks the second time IIHS also calculated the "other-driver death rate" — the number of drivers in other vehicles killed in crashes with each model.

Size and power define the worst models on that list too, but it’s the biggest vehicles that are most dangerous to others. Ten of the top 20 are large or very large pickups, including several heavy-duty variants with more powerful engines.

Across all makes and models, the average driver death rate was 37 drivers per million registration years. The average other-driver death rate was 53. The other-driver death rate was most likely higher than the driver death rate because many of the crash partner vehicles were of older vintage and offered occupants less protection.

Read the full article about small cars with powerful engines to learn more.