Then why was this a focused discussion on the Insight on an Insight thread? Why wasn't it on a General thread and included pickup truck safety per the 2nd NHSTA graph? Maybe this is a condincince...


If safety was my paramount concern I'd be driving a Volvo. I said that three years ago on a thread at IC on this exact topic. The NHTSA still asserts that large passenger cars are the safest vehicles by a considerable margin.

If you care to look at this thread (http://www.insightcentral.net/forum/...c8bd1667b85fd0) it states average vehicle death per 10,000 cars is 1.9. So far not one have been recorded for the Insight (per http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/ About 13,500 Insights were built).

Like with fuel economy, safety is not only determined by what you drive, but who is driving it. In Racer Critical: Insight Driver He Struck Virtually Unharmed, the driver was ejected from his Thunderbird and may have died ( ), but the Insight driver was almost unharmed. This kind of reckless driving is not that uncommon. More common is what most of us see daily of people obviously distracted of otherwise not alert while driving.

I still suspect the rollover risk is being understated. Truck frames are not as safe as car frames. In huge vehicles, there is more chance for things to rattle in a lethal way.

One thing not mentioned is pedastrian death risk. If a 1985 Ford Tarsus hits a pedastrian from head-on, they will probably end up on the windshield and possibly get knee damage. Change that to a 2005 Ford Explorer and the chance of upper body tramua - including the head is much greater - not to mentions a greater chance of going under the vehicle instead. Personally, If anybody is serously hurt in an accident, I would not be at peace if in the slightest way if I had a part in doing it. Driving something a lot larger than my needs would not give me peace of mind after such an accident, plus the limited visibility and manuverablility factors.

If someone is serious about traffic safety, try these:

• Stricter car inspections and driver's license requirements as Germany does
• Many accidents are caused by drivers without insurance and/or license - track them closer. If someone pays insurance for only a month and let it lapse, the insurance company reports it to the state and they lose their license (or something to that effect)
• Put videocam speed traps like in Scottsdale, Arizona

 

I'm not on a mission. I just wanted to read up on the topic, which I did this morning, and post a comment. Your examples that you posted are possibly exceptions and not the norm. I'm sure these people consider themselves very lucky. Some people may interpret your posts as saying the Insight is abnormally safe.

The truth is, at only 13,500 Insights made, it is tough to get a good statistical number. (NHTSA reports deaths per million). In the case of a rare car like the Insight, it is tough to judge its safety based upon statistics. All I did was compare the crash ratings of the Insight to those of other cars in its class and then I compared some death statistics from the Insight's class versus other classes. Really, I did not even compare--I just presented the data. I did not mean to offend and made a point to keep the post as factual as possible.

The subject of the post is "How safe is the Insight?" I thought my posts have offered good information to help answer that question. Your posts on the two Insight crashes are anecdotal evidence. I really do not think anecdotal evidence can answer a question like "How Safe is the Insight?". However, I did not comment on those posts and just decided to try and post some other viewpoints as politely as possible.

BTW, I did notice the truck safety and found it quite interesting. I wasn't going to comment on it on this thread because it was off topic. However, I had thought about posting on the new thread "The Plot Against Small Cars"over on CleanMPG. I thought it was relevant to the original post and your comment about the popularity of pickup trucks.

If I had an Insight at my disposal, I would drive it whenever I could. However, this would not be very often because I almost always have at least one of my kids with me and neither of them are old enough to sit in the front seat. I have nothing against its safety.

 

Detroit and a large segment of the general public seems to think 6,000 pounds of steel is all it takes to be safe on the road - I think it's OK to dispel some myths on subcompacts...

This is a little tiring when I make a couple of links just to say the Insight is not a deathtrap, to get replies I alledgedly said the Insight is anything like bulletproof. Sorry you have a problem with a post suggesting the Insight is a little more than reasonably safe.

As anyone experiecing a brush with death.

Just a lot of posts on the the Insight that just happen to question it's safety, but not discussing safety in general as you claim.

I can honestly say as I have Googled "Insight" many times, I have not found an article other than those I've linked. The closest thing I can find to a negative Insight accident is at www.insightcentral.net five years ago with a driver in Mississippi being pulled out by the Jaws of Life after a hit-and-run. Possibly there might have been another Insight totaled mentioned there.

There are plenty of people that would be eager to report an Insight accident that put it in a bad light - just as there are many writers that do hybrid-bashing articles.

Did you read my previous post?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delta Flyer

If safety was my paramount concern I'd be driving a Volvo

Just wanted to make sure you did not miss it the 2nd time.

That should conclusively state other vehicles are more crashworthy than an Insight. The articles I linked earlier in the thread stated the Insights were totaled. So your are saying those statements would mislead others into thinks an Insight is "abnormally safe" - I think you meant "bulletproof". I never knew safety could be "abnormal".

Let me guide you to a sight that will have documentation of an Insight fatality if one has ever occured. If it's there it will be unrefutable, although it will take time.

Please go to http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/. Link any documented Insight fatalities here on your next post - I would prefer to avoid replying to your future posts "how many Insight deaths did you find at http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/ ?"

Until such time, please let this rest (as I already wanted to do after my 2nd post on this thread)

Thank you

 

I do not understand why you are being so sensitive. My posts were very factual and did not paint the Insight in a negative manner. I posted some links that I thought were useful. What is the problem? I really do not see what the issue is. It seems that you are the only one that has a problem with my posts. I think you are reading some evil intent into my posts that is not there. That is not the case. There is no need for you to start posting things in a large font. I read it fine the first time.

I think I will just start ignoring your posts because I do not feel that they add anything useful and they are a waste of my time and energy. This conversation is a joke.

 

I did not realize that pointing out the Insight is not a Yugo was flame-bait.

The font was larger in response to your apparnet attempt to overlook anything not insync with your pre-conceived opinion the Insight is unsafe while ignoring points that put a lot of doubt in your pre-conceived conviction it is. Repeating an opinion again and again is not proof but possibly just propaganda.

You lower yourself to personal attacks (like a few months ago) when asked to prove your point by going to http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/. You could also Google (and the News option) for:

• "Honda Insight death"
• "Honda Insight fatality"
• "Honda Insight crash", etc...

I guess you think I'm not entitled to an opinion or a defense

 

Very cute. Now you are using a small font.

Everyone of my posts was in line with the following comment by billy6:

I never said the Insight was unsafe. As a matter of fact, my posts all suggest that the Insight's safety is right in line with where it should be for its class. I do not recall personally attacking anybody. However, I do feel that you are continuing to misuderstand my posts. It really seems that you are reading posts different from the ones that I am posting.

Delta Flyer--you seem to think my posts are out of line, incorrect, attacking the Insight, etc. I would love to here one other person point out any problems with my posts. I seriously do not see any problems with them and I would appreciate if anybody else can point out what is wrong with them.

I also do not understand why you want to bring up the past. I thought we said we would put that behind us. I stand by most of the things that I have said in the past. The only thing I regret was that I was a bit of a smarta$$.

The reason this conversation is such a joke is that you keep accusing me of calling the Insight unsafe. This is just not true. I have kept my posts very factual and I would appreciate if you would stop the lies about me passing off an opinion about the Insight being unsafe. I never did this and I do not understand how you can read otherwise.

 

First of all, I accidently got into a large font. At that point I can't revert to a normal font - I was NOT trying to be cute with the font size. Any member can find this out composing a post (don't have to post it...)

My 1st post on this thread intended to say what you quoted billy6 on your previous post. Somehow it got misinterpertated as being "like a Volvo", then I saw replies that seemed to underestimate it's safety record. The two articles on my 1st post are not exactly Pollyanna since the cars get totaled.

I have not enjoyed this thread and would not mind at all if both of our posts on this thread were simply deleted. One mispercepton led to another and it got out of hand. Let's both consider that we mutally overshot each other's ill intent. I'm sorry about some of the more personal things said towards you.

Can we mend the fence on this? I'll be happy to talk privately if it's done in the spirit of getting past this.

 

I thought there was an article posted here about an Insight driver dying after an accident, I remember it being silver.
I tried to find it and found this post

 

I'm sure there have been fatalities in Insights, and also every single vehicle model ever produced by every MFG from pickup trucks to SUV's to Yugos.

I haven't seen any data at all which would support death/disability/injury rates are higher in the Insight, so I'll have to say it's a pretty safe car.

Given that I'd still like to be in a heavier vehicle vs a light one in a wreck.

With that said I think side to side bickering is pointless and hope we can move on.

 

I stand by the one I researched quite a while back. The one person. I wish I could find the article but it's long since disappeared.

If I stay gone for a while, it may be safe to say I may have ate it in my Insight. I don't drive it everyday though - knock on wood.

The Insight is one of the safest cars out there. I've heard of quite a few rollovers, lots of pretty bad crashs and most people who talked about it went out to buy another Insight to replace the dead one, not because of the mileage....but because they believed they weren't hurt as bad as they could of been had they been in another type of car. IMO, That says a lot.