Last week I got nerd-sniped by a Hacker News link to an IIHS post on death rates by vehicle model. The IIHS report, from 2023, featured a table rankin

When is a Minicar as Dangerous as a 3-Ton Truck?

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2024-09-16 20:30:03

Last week I got nerd-sniped by a Hacker News link to an IIHS post on death rates by vehicle model. The IIHS report, from 2023, featured a table ranking cars by their rate of ‘other-driver deaths’, or how often a specific model kills the driver of a vehicle they crash into.

The size difference between these cars is massive – a Kia Rio is less than half the unladen weight of a Ram 2500 Crew Cab, nearly 2 tons lighter! How are these compact cars killing others at a similar rate to our largest trucks?

Deaths per million registered vehicle years, 2020 & equivalent earlier models, 2018-21. Bubble size represents curb weight.

The issue here isn’t the structural safety of the car. The 2020 Kia Optima has a 5-star crash rating for every metric measured by the NHTSA, matching the similarly classed Honda Accord and Camry.

No, the issue here is how easy it is to steal Kias, thanks to the company’s omission of immobilizers in models manufactured between 2011 and 2021.