Accident involvement and injury rates for small cars in Japan

A comparison of recent U.S. and Japanese small car accident and injury statistics indicates that the two countries have had dramatically differing experience with such cars. In Japan, for the years 1980, 1981, and 1982, while such cars are involved in more accidents per vehicle or per vehicle kilometer traveled than larger cars, there is a lower likelihood of a fatality if an accident occurs. The lower fatality conditional likelihood more than offsets the higher chance of an accident in 1981 and 1982, resulting in small cars having lower fatality rates per unit of exposure than larger vehicles in those years. The difference is tentatively attributed to the direct and indirect impact of the lower speed limits (80 vs 100 kmh) for such cars in Japan, as well as the greater caution drivers of such vehicles exhibit, as evidenced by the fact that small car drivers cause a significantly lower percent of the accidents they are involved in than larger cars.