The Car You Drive Can Increase Your Risk of Dying

When we get a new vehicle, we never think it's going to increase our risk of dying.  But holy cow, there are a couple of cars that we see on the roads around East Texas that are pretty dangerous to drive.

It's something you can probably guess.  Smaller cars are more dangerous than larger SUVs when it comes to how they'll fare in an accident.  Our odds of surviving a really bad accident in an SUV are a lot better than they are in a tiny smart car because there's more metal to protect us.

The New York Post ran a story recently that said the car that's the most dangerous is the Mitsubishi Mirage.  It's not a death sentence, but the odds of dying in an accident do go up with smaller vehicles.  In the case of the Mirage, there are 10.8 fatalities per billion miles of driving.  The Chevrolet Corvette, Honda Fit, Kia Forte, and Chevrolet Spark also made the dangerous list.

I see lots of pickup trucks and SUVs on the road, and those tend to be safer, according to the NY Post report.  Pickups tend to have 2.3 fatalities per billion miles driven, and SUVs had the overall lowest average fatality rate with 1.7.

If not your own behind, does this make you worry about your family at all?  I've got three daughters, and I'm always thinking about ways to get them to eat healthy foods and exercise, and I've got hand sanitizer and sunscreen in my purse in case they need to be lathered up pronto.  But parents, if we make all the healthy moves in the world and then turn around and put them in a ride that tops the dangerous vehicle list, we're canceling out some of our good work.

Here's the good news using my own casual, non-scientific and unofficial observations from the road.  Drivers of smaller cars tend to be more patient and sometimes a whole lot more careful than those darn tailgating pickup drivers.  Generalizing here, but drivers of smaller vehicles can be safe if they try and this is not meant to be a knock on those little cars.  It's a case-by-case basis.  And pickup drivers, I know you can be nice too.  Thanks for letting me merge the other day.

Memorial Day Weekend is coming up, and AAA expects 43 million Americans to travel for the holiday between Thursday, May 23rd, and Monday, May 27th.  If might feel like all of them are in front of you between Longview and Shreveport, and patience will probably be a good thing.  No matter what kind of car you drive.