Most of us think that S.U.V.s are much safer than sports cars.   If you asked the young parents of America whether they would rather strap their infant child in the back seat of the TrailBlazer or the passenger seat of the Boxster, they would choose the TrailBlazer.   We feel that way because in the TrailBlazer our chances of surviving a collision with a hypothetical tractor-trailer in the other lane are greater than they are in the Porsche.   What we forget, though, is that in the TrailBlazer you're also much more likely to hit the tractor-trailer because you can't get out of the way in time.   In the parlance of the automobile world, the TrailBlazer is better at "passive safety.  " The Boxster is better when it comes to "active safety," which is every bit as important.  

Consider the set of safety statistics compiled by Tom Wenzel, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, and Marc Ross, a physicist at the University of Michigan.   The numbers are expressed in fatalities per million cars, both for drivers of particular models and for the drivers of the cars they hit.   (For example, in the first case, for every million Toyota Avalons on the road, forty Avalon drivers die in car accidents every year, and twenty people die in accidents involving Toyota Avalons.  ) The numbers below have been rounded:

Make/Model Type Driver
Deaths Other
Deaths Total
Toyota Avalon
 large 40 20 60
Chrysler Town & Country
 minivan 31 36 67
Toyota Camry
 mid-size 41 29 70
Volkswagen Jetta
 subcompact 47 23 70
Ford Windstar
 minivan 37 35 72
Nissan Maxima
 mid-size 53 26 79
Honda Accord
 mid-size 54 27 82
Chevrolet Venture
 minivan 51
 34
 85

Buick Century
 mid-size 70 23 93
Subaru Legacy/Outback
 compact
 74 24 98
Mazda 626
 compact 70 29 99
Chevrolet Malibu
 mid-size 71 34 105
Chevrolet Suburban
 S.U.V. 46 59 105
Jeep Grand Cherokee
 S.U.V. 61 44 106
Honda Civic
 subcompact 84 25 109
Toyota Corolla
 subcompact 81 29 110
Ford Expedition
 S.U.V. 55 57 112
GMC Jimmy
 S.U.V. 76 39 114
Ford Taurus
 mid-size 78 39 117
Nissan Altima
 compact 72 49 121
Mercury Marquis
 large 80 43 123
Nissan Sentra
 subcompact 95 34 129
Toyota 4Runner
 S.U.V. 94 43 137
Chevrolet Tahoe
 S.U.V. 68 74 141
Dodge Stratus
 mid-size 103 40 143
Lincoln Town Car
 large 100 47 147
Ford Explorer
 S.U.V. 88 60 148
Pontiac Grand Am
 compact 118 39 157
Toyota Tacoma
 pickup 111 59 171
Chevrolet Cavalier
 subcompact 146 41 186
Dodge Neon
 subcompact 161 39 199
Pontiac Sunfire
 subcompact 158 44 202
Ford F-Series
 pickup 110 128 238

Are the best performers the biggest and heaviest vehicles on the road? Not at all.   Among the safest cars are the midsize imports, like the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord.   Or consider the extraordinary performance of some subcompacts, like the Volkswagen Jetta.   Drivers of the tiny Jetta die at a rate of just forty-seven per million, which is in the same range as drivers of the five-thousand-pound Chevrolet Suburban and almost half that of popular S.U.V. models like the Ford Explorer or the GMC Jimmy.   In a head-on crash, an Explorer or a Suburban would crush a Jetta or a Camry.   But, clearly, the drivers of Camrys and Jettas are finding a way to avoid head-on crashes with Explorers and Suburbans.   The benefits of being nimble--of being in an automobile that's capable of staying out of trouble--are in many cases greater than the benefits of being big.