Safer than the former version of itself perhaps but not safer than the version on the left. The car on the right did not have to share the road with two to 2.5 ton SUVs and pickup trucks lifted 6 in and sitting on 21-inch rims.
> 2.5 ton SUVs and pickup trucks lifted 6 in and sitting on 21-inch rims.
this such a weird red-herring - you can literally look up mortality statistics from the decades during which these cars were manufactured and they are very bad
Road travel as a whole has gotten safer; the entire integrated system of cars, roads, and laws have collectively reduced fatalities per vehicle mile traveled. But they specific example of the mini given in the picture, is invoking a type of vehicle (microcar) that no longer exists as a segment in the US (and was barely represented here when it did exist) - even the Smart cars are gone. You're actually arguing in favor of large cars by doing this because increasing the size of all vehicles is part of that collective Improvement to safety of the squishy occupants inside.
Many of the improvements made to vehicle safety have to do with things like enforcing seat belt laws, cracking down on drunk driving, better standards for nighttime road illumination, and requiring airbags and side impact structures and anti-lock brakes. None of which would have much of an improvement on the chances of survival in a high speed collision between a micro car and just about anything on the road today. You might as well be riding a motorcycle. Either overall size of vehicles has to be brought down collectively, which I would agree with if it were possible to do, or vehicles have to be of a such a size that they are not going to be crushed to the point of frame collapse under conditions of a normal highway impact. Nor severely disadvantaged (due to height) in terms of visibility and the situational awareness of road conditions.
I would argue that your stats are even more of a weird red herring because this refers to all cause fatality across the board vs. a specific comparison against a mini car that is no longer "Mini."
