The annoying thing about this article is that it will also convince a lot of people to buy an SUV. Because those clumsy things appear to be quite safe for the occupants. In fact: the heavier the car, the safer it apparently is. Up to a point. But as expected, this has a nasty and completely logical downside: the heavier the SUV, the more dangerous it is for the rest of the traffic.
The Economist analyzed numerous two-vehicle crashes in the US and came up with a graph of fatalities per 10,000 crashes. The results are predictable, but still quite shocking. You can see the graph below in a tweet. For reference, 1,000 pounds is 1,000 pounds, and the tipping point is around 3,700 pounds. A Volkswagen Golf, by the way, weighs about 3,000 pounds.
The Economist just published this incredible and tragic chart.
Given how many people are killed each year by big cars, it’s worth understanding how we got here.
Story time 🧵 pic.twitter.com/LcUjFXfzIT
— Michael Thomas (@curious_founder) September 2, 2024
It makes sense that you are less safe in an old Suzuki Esteem (known here as the Baleno) weighing 900 kilos than in a modern Golf. So the fact that you are more at risk in a lighter car is not the fault of the SUV. Part of the extra weight is for safety. But after a certain point, cars do not become safer for their occupants as they get heavier, they only become less safe for the rest of the traffic. So these are empty and dangerous kilos.
We don’t have such heavy cars in the Netherlands, do we?
The graph of The Economist goes up to over 3,000 kilos. In the Netherlands, there are hardly any passenger cars that reach that, also because they are then hardly allowed to carry any weight. At least, that is what you would think, but of course that number is increasing now that more and more large electric cars are being added. The electric Mercedes G-class weighs 3,085 kilos and the new Volvo EX90, for example, weighs over 2,800 kilos. The electric Rolls-Royce Spectre weighs just under 3,000 kilos.
Can a nuance be imagined?
The fact remains that you can head a football better than a bowling ball, there is little we can do about that. It is true that cars in the US have been obese for years, and that the first super heavy EVs are only just starting to arrive in the Netherlands. In America you will have heavy cars without active safety systems. If the driver is not paying attention, you will flatten the car in front of you with such a car.
Here the heavy cars will in most cases be a lot more modern and therefore automatically brake for a possible accident. New heavy SUVs will therefore be better at preventing an accident. But if it goes wrong, it goes wrong really badly.
