Funmurphys: the Blog

Case Closed?

I saw Malcom Gladwell's take on SUVs the other day and was impressed. And I'm not the only one. But there is one glaring problem with it - the table that purports to show that SUVs aren't safe has some problems. I'm reproducing it here:

Looks pretty authoritative, doesn't it?

First off, the other deaths and therefore total death column is meaningless. What it measures is how often somebody besides the driver is riding. Automobiles are not made safe only for the driver, and what with the steering wheel like a blunt spear pointed right at the driver, you could argue that the driver sits in the most dangerous seat in any vehicle. So you should ignore that other death column, and concentrate only on driver deaths. It's the only way to get an apples to apples comparison. Now the SUVs don't look as bad.

Secondly, this table doesn't take into account the driver. Young and old drivers are bad drivers. The Pontiac Sunfire may have such a poor record in part because it's mainly driven by young hot rodders. The Lincoln Towncar may be less safe than the Ford Explorer in part because the drivers tend to be doddering oldsters who shouldn't be on the road any more, not because the car is less crashworthy - and it might deliberately have lousy handling so as to give grandpa the feeling he hasn't left his living room, which could affect its safety. And anyone only casually acquainted with America realizes that a different car models have different demographics - even with similar age ranges. It's not only that a different age group drives mini-vans that drive subcompacts, but youths who want sporty (and thus drive more daringly) on a budget may prefer Sunfires to Sentras.

Thirdly, the chart is per million cars, not million car-miles. So it doesn't cover milage or how cars are driven (which sort of goes along with demographics). When I take my son to one of his activities, I'm often the only car in a sea of mini-vans and SUVs. Somehow, I don't think there are all that many mini-vans on the road after the bars close on a Saturday night, the most dangerous time to be on the road.

Lastly, it lumps different models together, even though newer models may be much safer (or even less safe) than older ones.

Now I don't think my objections mean SUVs are as safe as mini-vans (I own a mini-van and a subcompact), but I don't think that the chart is conclusive, at best it's suggestive.

I think you're much better off looking at crash test results to get a handle on relative safety between vehicles.