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IIHS releases vehicle safety report

According to a report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there were 30 traffic fatalities for every million vehicles registered on average from 2011 to 2014. However, Oklahoma drivers should know that pickup trucks actually performed better than average with a rate of only 26 deaths per million registered vehicles. Passenger vehicles had an average of 39 deaths per million registrations. That was the most of all segments included in the report.

The IIHS did mention that deaths per million registered vehicles was not a perfect indication of vehicle safety. This is partially because the report focuses only on driver deaths instead of passenger deaths. Furthermore, to be included in the study, vehicles must have had at least 100,000 registered vehicle years. Therefore, vehicles such as the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Sierra 1500 were not a part of the report.

The Titan was given a median score of 73 as it barely crossed the 100,000 registered years threshold. Researchers said that a vehicle such as the Ford F-150 SuperCrew and its rating of 24 deaths per million vehicles registered could be trusted. This is because it had 2 million registered vehicles between the years of 2012 and 2015. While the IIHS found traffic fatalities increased 7 percent in 2015 to over 35,000, the number was still lower than it was between 1990 and 2007.

If a person dies in a vehicle crash, the victim\’s family may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit. However, this may only be true if the crash was caused by the negligence of another party. An attorney may use the police accident investigation report, eyewitness testimony and other evidence to demonstrate fault.