Simple logic says cars should be safer now than before the extra safety features were added, airbags, abs, radar, tire pressure monitoring, and the like. Are they, according to measured data? What do the stats say, comparing car-accident deaths/injuries per mile, 1985 to now ?
1985: 2.47 deaths/100 million miles
1995: 1.73 deaths/100 million miles
2022: 1.35 deaths/100 million miles
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Do you have the 1985 data?
2.47 in 1985 to 1.35 in 2022, that is indeed a pretty good measure of the extra safety. Are there any measured data counter to this?
Toyota and Lexus have one million vehicles recalled for this problem, Honda and Toyota used the same supplier for the passenger seat weight sensors.
Lexus announced their recall in December 2023, the remedy is expected in the third quarter of 2024.
Deaths per mile have been going down over the last several decades, but they have been going up again since 2020 though.
It is important to consider that the creation of the interstate highway system, increased seat belt use, and airbags to protect non belted occupants has had a significant effect. None of those things have to do with the safety the car itself provides for properly belted occupants.
If the interstate highway system and seat belt use varables were corrected for in the statistics, I believe the actual reduction in deaths per miles traveled would be significantly less.
1985 to 2022 safety improvement stat is pretty impressive, and seems unlikely related to the interstate or seat belt use. Like you, I do notice a worrying increase in the last 3 or 4 years. I wonder what’s causing that?
There were massive seat belt use campaigns and click it or ticket advertisements since the mid 80s.
I believe the death increase in the last 3 years is mostly due to increasing highway speed limits by 5 MPH across the nation which happened just before the pandemic, and reduced law enforcement during the pandemic and continuing afterward.
From viewing dashcam crashes, I’ve noticed a lot of highway spin outs. This can happen when installing new tires on the front resulting in less traction in the rear. I’ve seen Walmart do this. It seems to be a more recent thing.
Increased repair costs and longer wait times probably contributed to more vehicles in disrepair being operated.
I believe those statistics include pedestrian deaths. The increase in truck and SUV use has significantly increased pedestrian fatalities.
I had to go to work during the COVID-19 shutdown when traffic was light. It was common for others to pass me on the highway at what seemed like 100+ mph. I was going about 70 at the time. Maybe those doubling the speed limit didn’t slow down.
My guess for the cause of the increase in car-safety deaths over the past 3-4 years, we’ve reached the point of diminishing returns. The unreliability of the safety gadgets are now outweighing the potential safety improvements. If a car is equipped w/air bags that don’t work, that’s less safe than a car w/no airbags.
I don’t think the safety devices are unreliable, I think driver distraction from cell phones and apps is causing this, along with the avalanche of distracting tech in many new cars.
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Sometimes (OK, often) I want to read the name of the band playing the song on the radio. On my Model 3, the letters are too small for me to read and I have to pull over or wait for a stop to read it. There is a software change to increase the size of the text and I’m about ready to try that. It requires a system reset and I’m not doing a reset when I’m leaving the garage. Minor nit and I’ll get around to it soon.
There was a radio-news topic the other day about a Tesla recall that was being addressed by increasing a the font size of text on their display. Maybe the same thing.
Nope. I installed the software recall fix last night and the tiny music text is the same. The parking brake font changed after the software installation. Well, not really. A large red “P” with a couple of parentheses on either side was replaced by smaller text “PARK”. I’m sure that’s an improvement. Yup, yup, no doubt.
Just curious, how many years were those cars manufactured w/the wrong size font for the brake warning system?
Being this is talking about a Honda recall. this happened to my son the other day with basically no previous warning on his 2023 Honda civic SI. he thought he felt a little something with the steering 2 days before but was so slight he could not really tell. then it hit out of nowhere. The steering went tight on him, and he had to muscle it to turn the wheel. then it acted normal again. he went right to the dealer. they took it immediately and gave him a loaner car. it is not a recall yet but probably will be soon. thought I would mention it.
Honda Sticky Steering Investigation Upgraded | CarComplaints.com
Definitely good info for Honda owners to be aware, thanks for the update!
The airbags do work. In this case, the flaw is that the passenger airbag fails to disable itself when a light weight child seat or passenger sits in it, just like all cars were pre 2008 or there about when regulations were added to protect people who put rear facing child seats in the front.
With road fatalities increasing 30% from 2019 to 2020 in Colorado, and law enforcement ordered to not pull cars over for traffic violations, it’s quite obvious what caused this. Law enforcement still hasn’t fully recovered.