Many passenger vehicle drivers died during 2000-2003, but the risk of death isn’t the same in one vehicle compared with another. Car, minivan, SUV, and pickup truck models vary widely in the likelihood of dying in a crash. The average driver death rate in 1999-2002 passenger vehicle models during 2000-2003 was 87 per million registered vehicle years. But the death rates in some models were two or even three times as high (see tables), while the rates in other vehicles were much lower. Large cars and minivans dominate among vehicle models with very low death rates. The models with the highest rates are mostly small cars and small and midsize SUVs, many of which also have high rates of death in single-vehicle rollover crashes. The model with the highest death rate of all — the two-door, two-wheel-drive Chevrolet Blazer with 308 driver deaths per million registered years — also had the highest rollover death rate (251 per million). (Author/publisher)
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