The paper presents estimates of the relative risk of fatal injury to drivers of vehicles of different size. Vehicles are divided in seven size classes, with five classes pertaining to passenger cars.

The estimates are based on a selected set of fatal accidents for the years 1980, 1981, and 1983. The selection insures that the prevailing conditions are very similar for both drivers when involved in two vehicle collisions. The results should be readily accepted since they are not based on any major assumption.

Early results indicate that large differences are present in the risk of fatal injury to the two drivers in accidents involving vehicles of different size. In collisions between the smallest and the largest of the five classes of passenger cars the driver of the smaller vehicle is almost 14 times more likely to be killed than the driver of the larger vehicle.

The study is based on three years of data from the Fatal Accident Reporting System, which accounts for every fatal accident reported in the nation.