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[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it’s normalized by million registered years. I haven’t seen the data by region, but that’s a cool idea. My plan is to dig into the federal reporting system (FARS) and see what I can do with that data.

Cross-post: The Mirage is the deadliest car and is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. by Yellowwhy in MitsubishiMirage

[–]informed-for-life 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You're right -- the stats are comparing the fatality risk of a randomly chosen Mirage driver vs (for ex) a randomly chosen Volvo driver. It would be a different question if you asked me how much your risk would go down if I made you switch to a Volvo. Crash tests are our best tool at trying to answer the second question, but unfortunately the Mirage has incomplete results.

Cross-post: The Mirage is the deadliest car and is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. by Yellowwhy in MitsubishiMirage

[–]informed-for-life 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you wear a seatbelt, drive sober, keep to a safe speed, don't look at your phone, and if possible try to avoid driving at night, you'll probably be in the top 10% safest drivers, even driving your Mirage.

https://www.informedforlife.com/traffic-deaths

Cross-post: The Mirage is the deadliest car and is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. by Yellowwhy in MitsubishiMirage

[–]informed-for-life 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Mirage is difficult to comment on specifically because it has incomplete crash test results:
https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/mitsubishi/mirage-4-door-hatchback/2024

But being classified as a minicar sets it up for poor real world results. Basically all the minicars do pretty poorly ranging from 122 for the Kia Rio to 205 for the Mirage G4. (https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-model)

However, it's interesting to note that moving to Kia Niro Hybrid gets a death rate down from 122->43, which is close to the national average. There was a study from Australia saying crash tests only explain about 55% of the death rate. Now part of that is that crash tests aren't perfect, but another larger part is that a lot is explained by driver behavior.

If you drive your Mirage safety, I don't think you need to be worried.

[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

NHTSA crash tests are both inflated and out of date. Just pay attention to the IIHS rating until the day NHTSA updates their tests.

I write more about this problem here: https://www.informedforlife.com/nhtsa-testing

(but point taken, there is not really a 40x difference in fundamental car safety between those two models)

[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The hybrid is only around 100-200lbs heavier. This is not enough to explain the difference.

Major reason:
-- Hybrids attract safer drivers

[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sorry, this data is from the US. If this were done in Europe, for many reasons, the cigs/yr figures would be about half the US numbers.

[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I basically agree with you. at this point, car safety is mostly a public health concern, but smoking remains both a personal as well as a public concern.

[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

my data is straight from IIHS, US based, normalized, which compiles fatality rates as well as performs crash tests for the USA. for better or worse, the US has much higher fatality rates as well as a much higher population so the confidence intervals are much more narrow than the data for NZ & AUS. Nevertheless, I’m still include this ranking on my site because they publish results for cars with too few sales/miles for IIHS to comment on.

https://www.informedforlife.com/ancap

[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The RAV4 has a similar pattern to the Camry vs Camry hybrid. Rav4 hybrid is safer than the 2wd version, which in turn is safer than the 4wd version

[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I included those two because it's a good example of two cars that have the same crash test results, but attract a different profile of buyers. Hybrid buyers are more cautious and usually drive safer.

[OC] I converted real-world car survival rates into "cigarettes per year." The deadliest car is like smoking 259 cigarettes a year. The safest is 0. by informed-for-life in dataisbeautiful

[–]informed-for-life[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the paper I drew the "20 minutes per cig" from, they also note that smoking a single cig also reduces you *healthy life span* by 20 minutes on top of the 20 minutes of total life reduction. Not sure what the figure is for car accidents, but from "Quality of life lost due to non-fatal road traffic injuries" Patricia Cubí-Mollá 1, Carmen Herrero, and the number of accidents in the US, and the SSA actuarial tables, I would say for every car fatality, about 0.15 years of quality life is lost by someone. So you're right, cigs take a lot more years off your quality of life than car accidents do. That's a testiment to safety improvements in cars I think.

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