We definitely feel safer in bigger cars, but is it just a false sense of security? We’ve bumped into data that says it’s not!
Bigger cars are safer
It's 2022, and cars (big and small) are safer than ever. But not all safety is created equal. It's all in the physics! Well, the part pertaining to Newton's Laws of Motion. When it comes to the risky experiment of navigating the streets, oversized-and-heavy is safer than small-and-light. Larger vehicles weigh more and have more extended bonnets. But what is under that bonnet that you can't find in a smaller car? A bigger crumple zone! This standard feature in all bigger vehicles gives them an advantage in a head-on collision with a smaller car.
Bigger, heavier mechanical babies may be higher maintenance, consume more fuel, and cost more. Still, they provide better crash protection than the smaller, lighter, and less fussy four-wheeled babies. The explanation for this doesn't even require a crash test. The part of the vehicle between the windscreen and the front bumper absorbs the crash's impact by crumpling. Bigger cars generally have a bigger crumple zone and offer better protection in head-on collisions.
Bigger cars are the safest cars on the road.
Heavier vehicles tend to continue moving forward in crashes with their lighter counterparts (it’s like pitting any lightweight division boxer against a 1980s Mike Tyson). This means that the people inside the bigger car feel less force. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) confirmed this in a study. They stated: “Both size and weight affect the forces people inside a vehicle experience during a crash. The magnitude of those forces is directly related to the risk of injury”.
In another 2019 crash test, IIHS paired a midsize SUV, a small car made by Kia, and a large car and a Toyota minicar. The smaller vehicles performed poorly in collisions with the bigger car, even though they both received good ratings in the five IIHS tests relevant to driver protection.
What car is the safest in a crash?
Advances in car crash protection have made all vehicle sizes much safer. However, bigger vehicles are still the undefeated heavyweight champions of safety in frontal crashes with lightweight vehicles. Crash deaths decline as vehicle size increases!
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