Muscle cars, trucks among deadliest vehicles on roads: IIHS

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This year, for the first time, the non-profit organization also looked at the people killed in vehicles around those directly involved in the crash—that is, how frequently a particular model of vehicle was in a collision that killed other drivers, and not necessarily its own. It included fatalities from 2018 to 2021 for vehicles from the 2020 model year, or as old as 2017 in some cases where no major changes to the vehicle were made. 

As is typically the trend, drivers of smaller vehicles faced a bigger mortality risk in crashes, but this year IIHS also called out muscle cars for their presence on the same list. Of the 21 vehicles with the highest death rates for the 2020 model year, six of them are derivatives of the Ford Mustang, Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger, and Chevrolet Camaro. Inversely, 18 of the 23 vehicles with the lowest driver death rates are SUVs or minivans.

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“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 in a prepared statement. “The muscle cars on this list highlight that a vehicle’s image and how it is marketed can also contribute to crash risk.”

The new data added this year also points to muscle cars, particularly two-wheel-drive models, as being among the most dangerous to those around them — three Dodge muscle car nameplates were named as among the most potentially lethal to fellow drivers, indicating they’re being driven in a reckless manner. (The list of the top deadliest-to-other-drivers cars is above.) The other vehicles most often involved in crashes where other drivers are killed are larger SUVs and pickups, particularly heavy-duty Ram and Ford trucks.

Overall, there were also more deaths on U.S. roads over this study period, increasing to 38 deaths per million registered vehicle years, up from 36 for 2017 models.