Personal Injury Law

20 Most Dangerous Autos

By Eddie Farah

No doubt sometime in your future you might consider buying a car. Whether new or used there is important information to help make you an informed consumer and therefore safer on the roads.

Forbes.com has put together a compilation of the 20 Most  Dangerous Vehicles on the road by considering side-impact protection, stability control and rollover risk.  

#1 on the list is a car that Tiger Woods represents as a spokesman.  The Buick Rendezvous is the least safe vehicle largely because it lacks side impact protection which can lead to deadly head injuries. 

The Ford Ranger, Mazda B Series, Nissan Frontier, Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner and the Toyota Yaris are at the top of the list.

By far what makes a car unsafe is a lack of side impact airbags and curtains. They greatly improve your chance of surviving if you are struck in a "T-bone" side impact 90 degree hit.

Something to consider - a car that has a bad record for safety may not be due to the car. Top on the list of unsafe cars is the Nissan 350z. It has a death rate about double of other sports cars because when it is involved in an accident they are usually pretty serious according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). But that may be as much due to the fact that inexperienced and young drivers gravitate toward them.

And while larger vehicles are generally considered safer in and impact with a small vehicle, the smaller car has more maneuverability. The larger SUV is much more likely to roll-over, about double the chance if you swerve to miss a tree or a dog.

Pickups are the worst because of their high center of gravity, among them the Ford Ranger, Nissan Frontier and Dodge Dakota.  

This review covered models from 2001 to 2004 and admittedly there have been a few improvements since then.   You might want to wait until the 2009 model year to make your purchase as they will be required to have side-curtain airbags. That alone could save 1,000 lives a year from fatal side-impact crashes and the head injuries they cause.

Electronic stability control systems, which take hold when the brakes are applied keep a vehicle steady and prevent roll-overs. It's been available in luxury models for years.

NHTSA has mandated electronic stability control in the 2012 model year. That should save close to 10,000 lives a year and 238,000 injuries at a cost of just over $100 per vehicle.  The cost is certainly worth the benefit.

Check out the ratings of any model before you buy.  #

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on April 12, 2008 (boomark / email).