The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has routinely published (NHTSA, 2005) passenger vehicle occupant fatality rates, both overall and in vehicles that rolled over, by the type of the vehicle, such as passenger cars, SUVs, pickup trucks or vans. These categories of vehicles are broad and may mask differences in rates that might exist between vehicles of different sizes within a type. This Research Note examines the occupant fatality rates by vehicle type and size and found that in all fatal crashes, when broken down by size, Compact Cars have the highest occupant fatality rate while the “large vans” category has the lowest occupant fatality rate. Among vehicles that rolled over, midsize SUVs have the highest occupant fatality rate while large passenger cars had the lowest occupant fatality rate. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting