New model year vehicles are the safest ones on U.S. roads, according to a recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report.
NHTSA studied fatal crash data from its Fatality Analysis and Reporting System from 2012 to 2016 and discovered a greater proportion of deaths occurred among older model year vehicles. The data contained information from every state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The crashes occurred on public roads and the deaths occurred within 30 days of the crash.
Vehicles were organized into seven categories based on model year, with representation organized into three graphs: vehicle age, vehicle model year, and vehicle age by model year.
In the vehicle-age graph, 50 percent of occupants were killed in vehicles more than 18 years old. More than half the occupants also died in model years 1992 and older.
The highest percentage of deaths was in vehicles 18 years and older, model years 1984 and earlier. Injuries also were higher in older model vehicles.
This trend will continue was safety improvements become more commonplace, NHTSA said.
“We encourage car buyers to select vehicles that meet their individual lifestyle, budget and transportation needs with the added assurance that they are making an investment in safety,” Heidi King, NHTSA deputy administrator, said.