2004 Prius FARS data

FARS is the federal agency system that keeps track of motor vehicle accidents. The IIHS is a car insurance consortium that collate FARS data and puts out interesting annual reports, including car model mortality normalized for prevalence.

The latest data available from FARS is 2004, reporting on the 2003 experience, that includes the most recent three MY of 2001 - 2003. It is a bit difficult to come by how many Prius were on the roads at the beginning of 2004, but Toyota reports selling 66K Prius outside of Japan during that period. I seem to remember that the US buys about 90% of that number, or about 60k cars. A fraction of those cars are off the road due to totaled accidents, but I doubt it numbers more than a couple hundred at most.

There was ONE fatality, or a normalized incidence of under 20 per million car-years. That places the Prius in a very select group of car models: there are only six models in the 10 - 20 range (average of all passenger vehicles is 87, high is about 300 for the Chevy trailblazer). One should not read *too* much into this number, because the relatively small number of Prii on the road during those years leads to a wide confidence interval.

Still, the Prius shines, as do Prius drivers

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hdrygas @ Jun 11 2006, 01:11 AM) [snapback]269417[/snapback]</div>

Yep.

Match a Prius with a driver who is not drunk, yapping on the cell phone or speeding, and you end up with an extremely safe driving experience.

I have to admit that I was a bit worried that the MFD energy display would lead to enough driver inattention to the road that safety would suffer. I'm glad this does not seem to be the case, at least insofar as mortality data goes.

 

If I am not mistaken, side airbags are standard on all 2006 Honda Fits -- and that model starts at about $US 12K. Kudos to Honda.

I expect almost all new cars in short order will have them. The crash ratings without them are so bad, I don't think the manufacturers have much choice. They will just have to come up with something else to define the 'luxury' trim.

It did occur to me that part of the Prius' stellar results have to do with the high proportion of people buying the expensive packages that have included the side airbags. The Prius community is an informed group.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 11 2006, 08:04 PM) [snapback]269717[/snapback]</div>

I like Honda too. They did however make mistakes with the HV battery setup in the Insight by allowing deep discharges leading to early battery degradation, and their response has not been up to my expectations: if the battery is not *dead*, they deny warranty repair. At least in the hybrid arena, I think Toyota has been above and beyond stellar in customer support. It probably reflects Toyota's stronger commitment to the technology.

 

Thanks for the update on packages Jack.
My MY2004 Prius required one of the expensive packages to get side airbags. I'm glad to hear Toyota is not using this safety feature to sell high-end packages anymore.

 

DAS: yes, thanks for the exact number. This amounts to less than 15/million car-years. I think that puts the Prius at #3; although as I mentioned, the CI is large.

gordonr: I think your point regarding the Prius demographic being a safer driver overall is spot on. IIHS is trying to separate out the car from the driver by computing incidences for women aged 26 - 64 (or so) involved in accidents for comparison purposes; but even so, a large uncontrolled component is present. For instance, the Chevy Prizm (GM branded Corolla) has about 50% more mortality than the Toyota Corolla. The NUUMI plant in Cali may have a bit poorer quality control than the other Toyota factories producing Corollas for N. America, but I am very skeptical it covers even 10% of the mortality difference. I just don't believe Toyota capable of tolerating a large difference in quality between factories in N. America.

Even if you restrict your comparisons to cars tyically bought by stodgy folks though, the Prius beats them handedly.

<soapbox>
People who think a safe/huge car will allow them to drive with impunity while speeding, or talking on the phone etc are sorely mistaken. </end>