Safety is one of the most important attributes shoppers consider when purchasing a car, and crash-test results have become a crucial part of the shopping process. But crash ratings from lab tests may not tell the whole story. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently compiled statistics about driver deaths in late-model vehicles. With new safety technology and better car designs, the number of fatal crashes has dropped by more than one-third in the last three years. The goal, of course, is the elimination of driver fatalities, and for 2011 vehicles there were nine vehicles that achieved this mark. Perhaps no surprise — two-thirds of those were SUVs.
IIHS study reveals cars least likely to prove fatal to drivers in a crash.