Study Proves Large Cars Don't Guarantee Safety

JAKARTA - The safety agency in the United States (US), Insurance Institute Highway Safety (IIHS) reported a study proving that larger and heavier vehicles do not make users have high security when an accident occurs.

Not only that, large cars have a greater chance of being more deadly for other road users. It all depends on whether the vehicle is heavier or lighter than the car in general.

Launching Motor1, Saturday, February 8, the researchers calculated the average weight of the 2017-2022 vehicle sample, which was 4,000 pounds, equivalent to 1.8 tons.

For each additional 500 pounds of curb weight and above, collisions between SUVs or trucks and cars result in a reduction of one death per million vehicles registered annually on models heavier or almost no change. Meanwhile, extra weight causes seven additional deaths in the car.

Thus, vehicles weighing more than 1.8 tons have almost no reduced risk for passengers.

The study also found that cars and SUVs weighing less than 1.8 tonnes would benefit from an additional pound weight. Approaching perhaps with an average weight could reduce 17 deaths from car-to-car accidents and 13 fewer deaths in SUV-to-car accidents.

"Vehicles that are heavier than the average are more likely to hit a vehicle that is lighter than them, while the opposite applies to vehicles that are lighter than the average," said the study's lead author, Sam Monfort.

However, the death gap between cars, trucks and SUVs is decreasing. In 2011-2016, car passengers had a 90 percent greater chance of dying in an SUV weighing more than 5,000 pounds or 2.2 tons.

This figure fell to 20 percent in 2017-2022 after IIHS and car manufacturers worked together to harmonize the structure of accidents in large trucks, SUVs, and coupe and small sedans.