The
Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety (IIHS) has just released its study of driver
fatality numbers in accidents involving 2001 to 2004 model year cars
and trucks that occurred between calendar years 2002 and 2005.
In the report,
the redesigned 2004 Ford F-150 saw driver deaths per million registered
vehicle years drop from 118 to 58, or 51%, versus 2001-2003 model year
F-150 pickups, if the driver was in a 4x4. Driver death rates dropped
even further if the accident involved a 2004 F-150 4x2, from 119 to
40, a 66% improvement. This was the lowest fatality rate of any pickup.
It's also substantially under the average car and truck death rate
of 79 during the same period, and beats overall vehicle death rate
declines of 30% since the mid-1990s.
The pickups
with the highest rates of driver death were the 2001 to 2004 model
year Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series pickups. Both small trucks share
a common architecture and saw near identical fatality stats
of 150 for Ranger 2-wheel drive and 147 for B-Series 4-wheel drive
versions.
More information
about the report, including how it was compiled and scored, can be
found on the IIHS
web site.
