Oftentimes, when people ponder the question of "what is the most dangerous vehicle of all time?", they typically come to the the conclusion that is either the Ford Pinto or the Chevrolet Corvair. If you're not famliar with these cars, just know that the former could burst into flames if it was rear-ended and the latter suffered from an extremely dangerous amount of oversteer. Clearly, these weren't minor issues that one could just simply ignore.
Though these cars may have been terribly dangerous, we must acknowledge that it's cars like these that have allowed us to recognize the importance of vehicle safety. As a result of this, you would be correct in thinking that cars of today are significantly more safe than that of their ancestors. However, this does not mean that people still don't die in car accidents anymore (obviously).
So, if cars like that of the Pinto and Corvair aren't around, then what is the most hazardous vehicle on the road today? Well, you might actually be surprised to hear that it's a vehicle that has a 5 star safety rating and is something that you've likely ridden (or driven) around in. We are in fact, talking about the Ford F-150.
Let's discuss how a vehicle with a 5-star safety rating is involved in more deadly car crashes than any other on the road today.
A Quick Overview Of The F-150's Safety Rating
Now, it may surprise you that for a vehicle involved in so many car crashes, the F-150, has a five-star safety rating from the NHTSA. Indeed, this rugged pick-up is built with a plethora of modern safety features such as daytime running lights, a stability control system, emergency braking assistance, traction control, dual front-side mounting airbags, tire pressure monitoring, and dusk sensing headlamps.
Not only that but higher trims come with more safety components like a forward collision mitigation system and lane keeping assist. Buyers can also avail of adaptive cruise control and a 360-degree camera system. Given all these features, then why on Earth is the F-150 involved in so many accidents? Well, there are two key reasons.
Pickup Trucks Are Significantly More Likely To Be Involved In a Fatal Crash
The first key factor in explaining why so many people die in F-150s is that pickup trucks is that pickups in general, are more likely to be involved in accidents. While pickup trucks make up around 21% of all vehicles on American roads, they are disproportionately involved in car crashes, as is the case with light trucks in general.
Due to the design of trucks in general, the forward-heavy weight of these rides makes them more prone to rollovers, spinning, and other crashes that involve just the one car. However, statistics also show that the risk of a frontal collision proving lethal is higher for truck drivers/passengers. But, with that said, there's a more important consideration that also challenges the notion of the F-150 being 'so dangerous'.
Why Else Are F-150s 'So Dangerous'?
According to a Value Penguin piece from 2020, over a five year study period, there were 10,845 fatal crashes involving the Ford F-Series. This topped the list of twenty most lethal vehicles in the country with the Chevrolet Silverado being involved in 7,718 deaths over the study period and the Honda Accord seeing 5,079 lethal crashes.
However, these figures can be a little misleading (at least in the case of the F-Series) because the F-150 is also the highest-selling vehicle in the United States. In 2020 alone, Ford sold a whopping 787,442 F-Series trucks. Ford sells close to 2,500 F-150s a day, on average. As of April this year, Ford reported that, in total, there were 16 million Ford F-150s on American roads. So, you can see why you shouldn't be too alarmed and why the F-150 is still well-deserving of it's five star safety rating.