A new report from the Institute for Highway Safety found the Mercedes E-Class had the lowest fatality rate, at 10 deaths per million registered vehicles, while luxury cars taken as a category had 37. Those numbers were considerably lower than those in other categories, including midsize SUVs — among which Chevrolet's Blazer SUV had the highest death rate of all vehicles, at 308 per million. As a group, small vehicles, including pickups (124) and two-door cars (130) faired poorly, as did small SUVs, at 102.
As the New York Times's Danny Hakim points out, such figures could reflect differences in driving habits among older buyers of luxury cars, compared to younger SUV drivers. Still wide variations among cars within a class — the Pathfinder's 40 compared to the Blazer's triple-digit death rate is just one example — may have serious competitive implications for carmakers that found themselves above their category averages.
Is the Car Unsafe, or the Driver [The New York Times]
Chevy Blazer model had highest death rate, study finds [The Detroit News]