1 crossover ranked more dangerous than any sports car
A 200-mph Corvette or a street-legal race car like the Porsche 911? You’d think these would top the list of America’s riskiest rides. But the data says otherwise. The most dangerous vehicle on U.S. roads isn’t a performance monster—it’s the Hyundai Venue crossover. This subcompact SUV has the worst fatal accident rate in its class, proving that power isn’t the only risk factor.
The most dangerous cars and crossovers on the road
The Hyundai Venue tops the list, but it’s not alone. iSeeCars analyzed federal crash data and found 23 models with fatal accident rates at least twice the national average. The top 10 most dangerous vehicles:
- Hyundai Venue
- Chevrolet Corvette
- Mitsubishi Mirage
- Porsche 911
- Honda CR-V Hybrid
- Tesla Model Y
- Mitsubishi Mirage G4
- Buick Encore
- Kia Forte
- Buick Envision
Two Teslas—Model Y and Model S—made the 20-vehicle list despite their advanced driver-assist tech. Tesla also had the highest fatal accident rate of any brand, followed by Kia, Buick, Dodge, and Hyundai.
“New cars are safer than they’ve ever been,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars. “But these safety features are being countered by distracted driving and higher rates of speed, leading to rising accident and death rates in recent years.”
Why is the Hyundai Venue so deadly?
The Venue is a subcompact crossover, smaller than a Toyota RAV4 and closer in size to a hatchback. It weighs just 2,600 pounds, making it one of the lightest SUVs on the market. That’s a problem.
Crash tests show modern small cars are safer than ever, but physics is unforgiving. When a tiny SUV collides with a larger vehicle, the smaller one takes the brunt of the impact. The latest IIHS study confirms this: vehicles under 4,000 pounds see a big drop in crash deaths for every 500 pounds added.
Is bigger always better? Actually not. Beyond 4,000 pounds, extra weight barely improves occupant safety—and makes crashes deadlier for others. “For American drivers, the conventional wisdom is that if bigger is safer, even bigger must be safer still,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “These results show that isn’t true today.”
How did iSeeCars come up with these rankings? It analyzed the number of fatal accidents involving each vehicle. The Hyundai Venue suffered 13.9 fatal accidents per billion miles driven. That’s more than even the Chevrolet Corvette, which had 13.6. The Venue’s fatality rate is 4.9x that of the average vehicle.
SUVs aren’t always safer–crossovers can be more dangerous
Many people assume buying an SUV automatically means better crash protection. That’s not always true. The Venue has a higher fatal accident rate than the Mitsubishi Mirage, a car infamous for poor safety. SUVs sit higher off the ground, which can help in some crashes—but also increases the risk of rollovers.
Most of the vehicles on the iSeeCars list “received excellent safety ratings, performing well in crash tests at the IIHS and NHTSA, so it’s not a vehicle design issue,” Brauer noted. Instead, driver behavior and driving conditions likely play a bigger role.
Larger SUVs are also on the list of dangerous vehicles. The Ford Bronco and Mercedes-Benz G-Class both have fatal accident rates more than double the SUV average.
The takeaway on the most dangerous crossover
The Hyundai Venue’s high fatality rate proves that bigger isn’t always better—but smaller isn’t neccessarily safer, either. Subcompact crossovers like the Venue combine the worst of both worlds: lightweight frames, limited crash protection, and a higher rollover risk. The numbers don’t lie: in a crash, the most dangerous vehicle isn’t a sports car—it’s this tiny Hyundai crossover.
