Since the most common cause of death is by cardiovascular disease, then taking care of your heart health would give you a far greater chance at longevity. In a similar vein, if the highest number of traffic death occurs in a particular car, then you would avoid driving/being driven in that car to lower your chances of dying in a car crash.
A recent study by iSeeCars.com, a car search engine, looked at traffic fatality data in the USA, comparing vehicles of 2013 to 2017 model years to determine which is the deadliest. That’s about 25 million cars in total. And the vehicle that tops that very undesirable list is…the Mitsubishi Mirage.
The average rate of fatality for all the vehicles in the study is 2.6; the fatal accident rate of the Mirage is a 10.2, which means you are four times more likely to die in one.
And there is a reason for that. Despite having overall high safety ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), like most of the other vehicles that top the “deadliest” list, it was rated poorly in certain categories.
The 2017 model, for instance, was rated ‘poor’ in the side-pole crash test by the NHTSA and ‘marginal’ for its structure and safety cage by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Goes to show that no matter how many ‘stars’ a car has earned, it is important to dig into details when it comes to vehicle safety.
The Mirage is also a subcompact, and the study found that small cars are still not as safe as bigger vehicles in major accidents. It’s simple physics, folks. The larger cars are heavier and will push a lighter one in a collision, resulting in lower force on the former. The bigger cars also have longer hoods and, thus, longer crash zones, which also reduces force experienced by the occupants in a frontal collision. So, although SUVs are not the most economical nor environmentally friendly vehicle, they are safer to ferry your precious brood around.
Of course, it’s not just how safe the car is that matters. It’s also how you drive it and the conditions of the road that determine whether you reach your destination in one piece.
Read the full report here.