Surprising numbers: These car brands are the most involved in and least exposed to accidents | Sentences

“The question of whether a car brand affects your safety is a very accurate answer,” says Steve Willems of the VIAS Traffic Institute. “First of all, of course, the driver himself has a huge influence. If you are racing in the streets like crazy, you are more likely to get into an accident anyway. This applies to budget cars as well as luxury cars. Moreover, all the cars that come in Our market meets safety standards. Of course there are differences, but in principle you can drive safely with every car sold in our country without the increased risk of an accident. “

“It’s not quite right,” Steve says. “We see in the statistics that some brands are involved in accidents more than others. This relates to the SEAT and Smart brands. In 2020, there were 6.7 accidents for every 1,000 smart cars roving. For Seat, this is 6.2 accidents for every 1,000 cars.”

How can this be explained? This is because these types of cars are often used by young drivers, and are often their first car. Young people are increasingly vulnerable to accidents. They’re still a bit rowdy and don’t have much experience.”

“There is a somewhat surprising answer to that: it is a Porsche. For every 1,000 Porsche cars driven in 2020, there were 2.3 accidents. Volvo comes in second with a rate of 3.7 accidents per 1,000 vehicles. How is that? Perhaps because these cars have All kinds of systems to avoid accidents. Consider, for example, a gadget that automatically detects pedestrians. Although someone who normally drives with caution may be more inclined to buy a “safer” brand like Volvo.

So the brand of the car can have little effect on the risk of an accident. Does color also play a role? For example, are red cars more dangerous? “A lot of people have that impression,” Steve says. “It will be difficult to distinguish red cars from the background, and drivers will be more alarmed if they are in a traffic jam in front of a red car.”

However, we cannot substantiate these claims in any way. In fact, if we look at the numbers, the number of deaths per 1,000 accidents with injuries is the lowest for red cars. There are 13.4 deaths for every 1,000 accidents involving injuries. This number is about the same for white cars. A black car has 14.4 deaths, and a blue case has 15 deaths. In addition, red cars are becoming less popular. Only 6 percent of cars are red. But it can of course be that when someone in a red car does something wrong in traffic, it stands out even more and perpetuates that myth.”

conclusion? Above all, you have to abide by the traffic rules. Then there is not much difference between car brands. “And if you still want to race? Cool, they invented something for that. It’s called the circuit.”

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