Every Vehicle Class Has a Kill Rate. These Cars Blew Past It.

I ran a calculation nobody asked for, because the best calculations are the ones that ruin your afternoon. Group every vehicle in the FARS database by class and compute the average percentage of crashes that kill the occupant: 64.5% for sedans, 52.4% for SUVs, 48.9% for pickups. Multiply each vehicle’s crash count by its class average and you get expected deaths, the toll you would see if that vehicle were exactly as survivable as a typical member of its segment. Compare expected to actual, and the gap reveals what I’m calling excess lethality: how many people died because of the specific vehicle they were sitting in, benchmarked against the class average across identical crash counts.^[1]

Between 2014 and 2023, the Ford Ranger logged 4,476 fatal crashes, and an average pickup appearing in that many would have killed roughly 2,187 occupants, but the Ranger killed 3,089, leaving 902 families with a death that an average truck would have prevented. That is a 41.2% excess above the class benchmark, and yet the Ranger is not even the worst offender by percentage.^[1] Another discontinued compact truck, the GMC Sonoma, ran 62.9% above its class benchmark across 475 crashes, and the Chevy S-10 exceeded it by 54.5% across nearly 1,900 fatal incidents. Compact pickups form a structural kill zone relative to full-size trucks, a grim irony since their lighter frames were marketed as the practical alternative to the trucks that would have actually saved their drivers.

On the protective side, the Ram 2500 sits 58.1% below expected pickup lethality, having saved 212 lives against the class benchmark across 748 crashes. Meanwhile the Ford Fiesta, a subcompact sedan tipping the scales at roughly 2,500 pounds, is 26.6% more survivable per crash than the average sedan, which contradicts the assumption that mass is the only variable that matters in a crash.^[1]

Critics will correctly note that these compact trucks are old designs, discontinued between 2003 and 2012, lacking modern crumple zone geometry, side curtain airbags, and the electronic stability control that IIHS estimates reduces fatal single-vehicle SUV crashes by 56%.^[2] But fleet age is not a confounding variable to adjust away, because fleet age is the variable. These trucks remain on American roads, still crashing at rates the industry eliminated a decade ago, and the Ranger’s 902 excess deaths are people who would be alive if their truck met the standards the pickup class now takes for granted.

What you should do with this: If you are shopping for a used pickup, the model matters more than the class label. The F-150 runs 6.2% below class lethality while the Ranger runs 41.2% above it, and the word “pickup” on both titles disguises a survivability gap spanning from 58% safer than average to 63% deadlier, so check your vehicle at nhtsa.gov/recalls and understand that same class does not mean same odds.