WASHINGTON — Vehicles that perform well in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's driver-side small-overlap front crash test were shown to reduce a driver's risk of dying in a real-world crash, according to a study released Thursday.
The IIHS study found that a driver in a "good"-rated vehicle was 12 percent less likely than a driver in a "poor"-rated vehicle to be killed in a frontal crash.
Vehicles with an "acceptable" rating were associated with an 11 percent lower risk of fatality, while a "marginal" rating was associated with a 5 percent lower risk, compared with vehicles that received a "poor" rating.
IIHS said its researchers used frontal crash data from 2012 to 2020 and cross-referenced it with its driver-side small-overlap front crash ratings. They then calculated the number of driver deaths per total police-reported frontal crash involvements for each of its crash test ratings and adjusted the results by vehicle type, curb weight and driver demographics, the institute said.