That's a U.S. number, but it's probably not too far off the Canadian reality as well, though we have always tended to buy greater numbers of smaller cars, so more people in this country might be at greater risk.
What's interesting for people across the continent is the IIHS's suggestion that "countermeasures that focus on making utility vehicles and pickups more crash compatible, however appropriate, can have only small effects on crash injuries and fatalities.
The IIHS suggests that the industry concentrate on "improvements in crashworthiness" in general, not only because they "reduce crash incompatabilities, but also because they "protect across a wider spectrum of crashes."
In looking over crash statistics involving death, the IIHS comes to the conclusion that the best thing we could do to reduce deaths would be to reduce the number of really light vehicles on the road. That would save considerably more lives, the IIHS study suggests -- about 700 a year.
Getting rid of the heaviest vehicles would not have anywhere near the same positive results (only about 150 lives a year would be saved) because they are a lot safer in other types of crashes besides the two-vehicle variety.
"Weight so strongly influences occupant death and injury risk that it is important to isolate the effect in assessments of other potential compatability factions," says the IIHS study.