Are Smaller Cars as Safe as Large Cars?

The cold hard facts show that smaller, lighter cars are generally less safe than larger, heavier cars. However, there is still a lot you can do to choose the safest small car. But first, let's start with a little background.

Assuming you're a safe driver, your chances of getting in an accident are really in "the other guy's" hands. You are driving across an intersection and get broadsided by someone running a red light. Your odds of survival, or avoiding injury, are up to the design of the car and the safety equipment you've chosen. At that instant you will hope you have made a good decision and chosen a safe car.

Still, you can't protect yourself against every danger. And life is full of trade-offs. You want to save oil and reduce emissions, but you also want to be safe. What do you do? You choose the safest car you can afford that also provides good gas mileage. Here are a few factors to help guide your decision.

The keys to a car's ability to keep you alive during a crash involve safety equipment, the vehicle's weight and its resistance to rollover. While small cars don't roll over easily, they lack weight and are less likely to have advanced safety features like stability control or full side curtain airbags.

Furthermore, the numbers don't bode well for small cars. Below is a chart from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) showing the latest fatality rates for the different vehicle sizes. (The mini car category wasn't included because the sample size of registered vehicles was too small.)

Driver deaths per million registered passenger vehicles 1-3 years old, 2007. Source: IIHS
Vehicle Size	Rate
Car — Small	96
Car — Midsize	62
Car — Large	64
Car — Very Large	35
Pickup — Small	104
Pickup — Large	90
Pickup — Very Large	86
SUV — Small	48
SUV — Midsize	41
SUV — Large	43
SUV — Very Large	47

According to the IIHS figures, there were 96 fatalities per million registered vehicles for the small car category. That figure drops to 62 fatalities for the midsize class of cars and 64 per million for large sedans.

In the SUV category, the numbers drop substantially across all size levels. Although there has been an increase in the fatality rate of passengers in very large SUVs over the past three years, it still ranks as one of the lowest among other vehicle types. Interestingly, the size of the SUV driven didn't make much difference; the death rate for a small SUV (48 per million) was only a point higher than that of a very large SUV.

The deaths in pickups are higher than any other category, even for the smallest pickups. This is because of their tendency to roll over.

Meanwhile, the lowest death rate among all vehicle types, 35 per million, belongs to very large sedans, which are both heavier and better equipped. So as a general rule, larger cars do tend to have fewer fatalities (with the exception of pickups). But remember to put these figures into perspective. These figures are comparing the differences per million registered vehicles.

"Crash rates for all vehicle sizes are dropping from year to year," said Russ Rader, director of media relations for the IIHS.

Doesn't Five Stars Mean Five Stars?
You may be asking, "But what about my crash test rating? Doesn't my five-star rating equal the five-star rating of a truck?"

The answer is no.

The first place most people go for safety information is the famous government crash test "star" ratings available at Safercar.gov or via the IIHS, which rates crash tests from "Good" to "Poor" based on the driver's ability to survive a crash. (Ratings for individual vehicle models can also be found on here at Edmunds.)

But these ratings are only useful when comparing cars within the same size class. If a small car is rated five stars, that doesn't mean it will protect you as well as large sedan with the same rating. The same holds true for an IIHS "Good" rating.

"The ratings are meant to be used to compare crashes with vehicles of similar size," said Adrian Lund, chief operating officer of the IIHS. "You can't really go between the segments with these ratings."

The numbers show that you are far more likely to survive an accident if your car is highly rated, no matter the size. This is good news for the small car buyer who is looking for good fuel mileage.

For example: According to the IIHS, if you were to be traveling in a car that was rated "Poor" and got hit by a car rated "Good," you would be three times more likely to be killed in the accident (if there was a fatality) than the other driver. Similar numbers from NHTSA bear out the same outcome, meaning the lower the crash test rating, the more likely you are to be seriously injured in an accident.

And the government requires that NHTSA's star safety rating information be displayed on part of the window sticker on new cars (model-year 2008 and beyond). Consumers will be able to measure the safety information by the number of stars on the sticker, hence the nickname "Stars on Cars." The new vehicle price stickers will show the results of front and side crash tests and non-destructive rollover tests.

So if you want a smaller car (for its fuel economy or lower cost), how can you get acceptable safety beyond reviewing the government and IIHS ratings? We recommend investing in as many advanced safety features as you can afford. At the top of your shopping list should be stability control and side-impact airbags. These features are fairly common and not particularly expensive. It's also advisable to buy a car that can easily accelerate from zero to 60 in under 11 or 12 seconds, so you can manage tricky merging situations in high traffic areas. For more, see our Top 10 Safety Features/Tips.

Regardless of what you drive, though, all experts agree that how you drive is the most important safety factor. For information on safe driving, see the Edmunds Car Safety Guide.