Latest IIHS Study Shows Deadliest, Least Deadly Cars and Trucks

• Data shows which vehicles are most likely to see driver deaths

• Also shows most likely to kill driver of other vehicle

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is best known for telling us which cars are the safest based on their crash and safety testing. Today it is doing the opposite, using real-life accident data to tell us which vehicles are the most deadly.

There are two ways to calculate this statistic, the IIHS says. The first is a list of which vehicles are most likely to kill their driver. The second is the list of which vehicles are most likely to kill the driver of the other vehicle involved.

Six of the 21 vehicles with the highest driver death rates for model year 2020 are muscle cars. The Camaro, Challenger, Charger, and Mustang.

Why?

“We typically find that smaller vehicles have high driver death rates because they don’t provide as much protection, especially in crashes with larger, heavier SUVs and pickups,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “The muscle cars on this list highlight that a vehicle’s image and how it is marketed can also contribute to crash risk.”

Seven of the 20 vehicles with the highest rate of other-driver deaths are big pickups. Though there are some cars in that list as well. The IIHS used only driver data because while every vehicle has a driver, not all have passengers.

The data comes from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System and registration data from IHS Markit. This time around, it covers model years 2018-2021.

Highest rates of driver deaths (per million registered vehicle years):

Lowest rates of driver deaths (per million registered vehicle years):

Highest rates of other driver deaths (per million registered vehicle years):

Lowest rates of other driver deaths (per million registered vehicle years):