A new study of traffic collisions by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has concluded that drivers of the Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger and Ford Mustang have some of the highest fatality rates in the event of an accident.
IIHS examined 2020 model year data, comparing death rates against each other and concluded that sports car drivers are at the highest risk. Drivers of minivans and SUVs have the lowest death rate as the result of a traffic collision.
IIHS conducts this type of study, with different model years, every three years. This is the first time that IIHS has calculated the best and worst models using data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and IHS Markit. To be included in the study, a vehicle must have had at least 100,000 registered vehicle years of exposure from 2018 to 2021, or at least 20 deaths.
"We typically find that smaller vehicles have high driver death rates because they don't provide as much protection, especially in crashes with larger, heavier SUVs and pickups," said IIHS President David Harkey. "The muscle cars on this list highlight that a vehicle's image and how it is marketed can also contribute to crash risk."
Just focusing on driver deaths isn't the full story.
Dodge muscle cars not only have among the highest rates of driver death, they are also among the worst performers when it comes to other-driver deaths as the result of an accident. IIHS says that this suggests that these vehicles are being driven in an "aggressive manner".
The inexpensive Mitsubishi Mirage subcompact car has the highest driver death rate of all models (around 200 per 100,000 registrations, depending on trim level). It is followed by the two-wheel drive version of the Dodge Challenger (154), Hyundai Accent (152), Chevrolet Spark (151) and Kia Rio (122).
The two-wheel drive Charger with a HEMI engine (115), Nissan Altima (113), Chevrolet Camaro convertible (113), Kia Forte (111) and Chevrolet Camaro coupe (110) round out the top ten spots.
Dodge's two-wheel drive Charger and the Ford Mustang sit in the 14th and 15th positions on the list behind the Chrysler 300, Chevrolet Sonic and Hyundai Elantra.
Model year 2020 Dodge cars came with more than 70 available safety and security features when new, including forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control and rear cross path detection. They were not available with the types of safety technology the most modern SUVs on the market have, like forward collision avoidance and automatic emergency braking.
When it was new, the 2020 Ford Mustang was available with forward collision warning, forward automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning among other safety and driver assistance features.
The 2020 Chevrolet Camaro was available with a list of safety and driver assist features similar to the Dodge cars, with buyers able to get a vehicle with rear cross traffic alert and forward collision warning technology.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash-tested all the American muscle cars in the report when they were new. Ford's 2020 Mustang earned five-star crash test ratings from the NHTSA at the time it came to market.
The Chevy Camaro and the Dodge Charger did not score as well as Ford in NHTSA ratings, earning all five-star marks except in the frontal collision category where they got four out of five. The Challenger did worse, earning four-star marks in frontal and rollover crash tests but fives elsewhere.
Since the 2020 model year, numerous vehicles on this list have been discontinued in the U.S. including the Accent, 300 and Sonic. The Charger and Challenger are wrapping up their model run as Dodge turns its attention toward electrified models and Chevy has announced that the Camaro as we know it is headed toward the graveyard.
The new generation of the Ford Mustang comes to market this summer.
A number of models had zero deaths per 100,000 including the BMW X3 with four-wheel drive, Lexus ES 350, Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan with four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive Nissan Pathfinder.
The automotive industry continues to evolve its safety technology and driver assistance feature availability, making more of them standard and available across model lineups than ever before.
