Large and Small Car Accident Performance: A Large Scale Accident Data Base Analysis

New York State's development of a system for examining the relationship between vehicle design and traffic crash incidence and injury severity made possible a study of the relationship between small car and large car accident performance. Accident involved vehicles were studied using such variables as make, model year, shipping weight, horsepower, and accident data such as impact area, road conditions, and seat belt use. Considering these and other variables, occupants of the smaller cars experienced higher rates of injury severity in crashes than occupants of larger cars.