Modern cars feature considerably more features (both in the bodyshell and in terms of active safety systems) which protect both passengers and pedestrians.
It's simply untrue to say we reached peak safety 20 years ago and everything else has just been pointless window dressing.
I buy and sell cars as a side gig, and newer cars (last 10 years or so) are far better equipped to deal with accidents - they have higher waistlines, better active safety features (airbags, stability systems, seatbelt pre-tensioners, lane assist, better-performing ABS systems), and the bodyshells have features such as side impact bars and larger crumple zones.
I recently bought a Fiat Seicento as a stop-gap. It was really old-school - light, small, nippy (even with a 55 bhp engine) and great fun to drive. But it was tragically weak and definitely not safe if you had an accident - as backed up by Euro NCAP's assessment of the seicento. Cars like that and the original mini are not something I'd like to have an accident in. (For reference, I did 10 years of gravel rally driving, so I've had a few knocks).
Great points. I'm not sure how baybal2 arrived at their conclusion. To add to your list, newer cars have NHTSA/IIHS-advised brake assist and obstacle detection, more and better airbags, seat belt load limiters, better use of high-grade structural steel and adhesives in critical joints, and wider tires for better traction.
Most of the safety improvements are only very mildly correlated with the weight increases. Of course the safety features add weight, but comparable cars and compact SUVs have grown by at most 10-20% in weight over the past two decades. Most of the weight increase on the road is from pickup trucks (which don't satisfy many of these safety criteria and are bought mostly by people who don't care as much about safety) or people insisting on buying bigger vehicles.
While accident rates fell all across the world significantly with advance of road safety science, and active safety, no question there, but the lethality of car to car collisions has been rising, with most of rise happening in developed countries
The increase in average car weight is the biggest contributor to lethality of vehicle to vehicle collision.
> being hit by a vehicle that is 1,000 pounds heavier results in a 47% increase in the baseline fatality probability.
In three decades, the weight of a family car went from under 1 tonne to close to 1.6, with big thanks to SUV overtaking sedan as a default "family car."
And increase in car resistance to mechanical deformation no longer plays a big role when G forces overtake blunt and compression trauma. And there is nothing one can do about them when crumple zones and the "deceleration track" are already maxed out.
The last few car fatalities I saw were all about that: 2 cars seemingly intact besides the front, but both flung violently 10m meters off the road, and people dead without much signs of external trauma. The energy absorption capacity of crumple zones did not save them.
Your position seems to have changed - you were initially saying that safety wasn't improving, and cars of 20 years ago were safe enough. Which is patently untrue.
Now you're saying that the issue is that car weights have increased.
That's a different argument - and the links that you cite aren't making the exact point that you are - the 1000lbs/47% figure may well be true, but that's a difference over 30 years, and both papers are actually talking about inequality between colliding vehicles.
The tendency to drive SUVs is an issue, for sure, and if you're in a little car then you don't want to have an accident with a large one where there is a physical incompatibility, but like all things it has become an arms race - I wouldn't want to be in a small car of yesteryear on the roads today because everything modern is bigger - so it's no wonder that people are driving them, as no-one wants to be in the small vehicle that will come off worst in an accident.
Your last few fatalities you witnessed are tragic, but anecdotal. I've seen many situations where people have walked away from accidents that would have killed them 20 years ago - indeed a couple of weeks ago I witnessed a car get T-boned by a good vehicle on an A-road in the UK, and everyone got out and walked away - that certainly wouldn't have happened 20 or more years ago. The statistics for fatalities in the UK (the only country I have checked) don't align with your statement that lethality is rising - it isn't in the UK.
Modern cars feature considerably more features (both in the bodyshell and in terms of active safety systems) which protect both passengers and pedestrians.
It's simply untrue to say we reached peak safety 20 years ago and everything else has just been pointless window dressing.
I buy and sell cars as a side gig, and newer cars (last 10 years or so) are far better equipped to deal with accidents - they have higher waistlines, better active safety features (airbags, stability systems, seatbelt pre-tensioners, lane assist, better-performing ABS systems), and the bodyshells have features such as side impact bars and larger crumple zones.
I recently bought a Fiat Seicento as a stop-gap. It was really old-school - light, small, nippy (even with a 55 bhp engine) and great fun to drive. But it was tragically weak and definitely not safe if you had an accident - as backed up by Euro NCAP's assessment of the seicento. Cars like that and the original mini are not something I'd like to have an accident in. (For reference, I did 10 years of gravel rally driving, so I've had a few knocks).