GM's Camaro and Corvette Cited for High Death Rates

10/07/96

Reuters reports that the insurance industry-supported Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has cited two General Motors cars--the Camaro and the Chevrolet Corvette--as having extremely high death rates. The institute rated the Camaro as the passenger vehicle with the most driver deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles.

The Institute partially ascribed the high death rates in the cars to their involvement in many single car crashes: "the high rates in these two vehicles are in part because of their over-involvement in high-speed, single-vehicle accidents."

In addition to the Camaro and Corvette, high death rates plague the Geo Tracker (a sport utility vehicle that Suzuki Motor Corporation makes for GM). and the Hyundai Scoupe (a small two-door made by Hyundai Motor Company).

The institute rated 153 passenger vehicles in all, and its study reveals that larger cars are generally safer than smaller ones. The Insurance Institute's President, Brian O'Neill, said that the study serves to "reinforce the conclusion that bigger is better when it comes to protecting people in passenger vehicles from crash deaths and injuries."

He issued a statement that said, "there's a clear problem with small passenger vehicles as a group."

O'Neill said, "The vehicles with the highest, or worst, driver death rates are small two-door cars, small pickups, small utility vehicles, and sports cars. The ones with the lowest, or best, death rates tend to be the large passenger vans, large station wagons, large and midsize luxury cars, and large utility vehicles."

The institute's rating scale was based on 100 as an average for all passenger vehicles. On that scale, the Camaro scored 297--very nearly three times the average. The Corvette scored 250, the Tracker 271, and the Scoupe 245. Averages for entire categories of vehicles ranged from 45 to 191.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel