Korean automakers have expressed doubt over a US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) survey that ranked some of the Korean cars being sold in the United States low in terms of driver safety during accidents.
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The survey, released on the institute’s website on Tuesday, indicated drivers of Kia Motors’ compact Rio and sport utility vehicle Sportage and Hyundai Motor‘s compact Accent face a high risk of death in traffic accidents, the Korea Times said.
The IIHS said it collected data on traffic accidents involving passenger vehicles and small-sized trucks from 2000-2003 on US highways and calculated the death rates of drivers for each vehicle. If one million Sportage drivers were involved in deadly accidents on US highways, 197 would possibly die, according to the survey. It described the Rio as the most dangerous Korean car, with 200 per 1 million drivers being subject to death in accidents on the road.
The death rates for Rio and Sportage drivers were much higher than those for Mercedes-Benz’s E-class series, which were regarded as the safest of all vehicles on US roads. Ten per one million E-class drivers would die in accidents, the survey said.
The survey also said drivers of General Motor’s SUV Blazer are at the highest risk of death – about 308 Blazer drivers per one million would die if their cars were involved in accidents. The figures for Hyundai’s Accent drivers were 150 per million and Elantra 88 per million, while the average death rate for all vehicles was 87 per million.
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By GlobalDataAccording to the Korea Times, Hyundai and Kia claimed the survey lacks credibility because it only considers the number of accidents and the drivers who died.
“The IIHS survey supposes that owners of cars involved in more accidents are more liable to die,” a Kia official told the paper. “Let’s put it more clearly. There are 10 Rios in the US and one driver died after an accident. Then can we say 100,000 Rio drivers may die if there are 1 million Rios? That’s nonsense.’
“It would be right to say that some Rio drivers die in car accidents. But only a small number of Rios are being sold in the US and it is impossible to estimate how many Rio drivers per 1 million will die.”
Hyundai Motor officials reportedly said the IIHS should have been more careful in conducting the driver safety survey because accidents occur under many different situations. Owners of luxury sedans that have better safety features than small cars are less liable to die during crashes, but the IIHS didn’t take that matter into account.
After the IIHS released its survey, General Motors also released a statement questioning the credibility of the survey, the Korea Times noted.
