The average of passenger vehicles on U.S. roads is 20 miles per gallon vs. 14 mpg in 1975. But the cost has been roughly 7,700 deaths for every mile per gallon gained, the analysis shows. We have a small-car problem. If you want to solve the safety puzzle, get rid of small cars,'' says Brian O'Neill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The institute, supported by auto insurers, crash-tests more vehicles, more violently, than all but the federal government.
Little cars have big disadvantages in crashes.
They have less space to absorb crash forces. The less the car absorbs, the more the people inside have to. And small cars don't have the weight to protect themselves in crashes with other vehicles. But the little one slams to a stop, then instantly and violently accelerates backward as the heavier car's momentum powers into it. People inside the lighter car experience body-smashing levels of force in two directions, first as their car stops moving forward, then as it reverses.