In the midst of the so-called "energy crisis," a Democrat-controlled Congress and a Republican White House turned the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 into law. The act established federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which regulate the average fleet fuel economy of cars and light trucks (i.e., pickups, vans and sport utility vehicles). If a car manufacturer misses the CAFE standards, then it pays a big fine based on the number of cars or trucks it produced in that year.

Obviously, these federal mandates resulted in a move to smaller and lighter vehicles in order to gain fuel efficiency. Several studies have noted the dire fallout for vehicle owners-from families to businesses of all types and sizes. For example:

A July 2, 1999 analysis by "USA Today" found that "in the 24 years since a landmark law to conserve fuel, big cars have shrunk to less-safe sizes and small cars have poured onto roads. As a result, 46,000 people have died in crashes they would have survived in bigger, heavier cars." The article went on to note that while small cars account for 18% of all vehicles on the road, they accounted for 37% of all vehicle deaths in 1997. Also, this higher rate of car fatalities is not the result of small cars being hit by large SUVs, as just 1% of small-car deaths in 1997 involved collisions with midsize or large SUVs, while 46% resulted from single-car accidents and 10% from small cars colliding with each other.

In a June 1999 study, the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimated that CAFE standards are responsible for 2,600-4,500 car occupant deaths annually.

As cited on the Coalition for Vehicle Choice webpage (www.vehiclechoice.org), a 1997 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety laid out the following data:
Occupant Deaths Per Million Registered Vehicles One to Three Years Old, 1995
Size of Vehicles  Deaths Per Million
Registered Vehicles
Small Car
(less than 95-inch wheelbase) 250
Small Car
(95-99-inch wheelbase) 210
Midsize Car
(100-104-inch wheelbase) 180
Midsize Car
(105-109-inch wheelbase) 130
Large Car
(110-114-inch wheelbase) 106
Large Car
(greater than 114-inch wheelbase) 97
Small Pickup
(less than 3,500 pounds) 214
Large Pickup
(3,500 pounds or more) 149
Small SUV
(less than 100-inch wheelbase) 278
Midsize SUV
(100-120-inch wheelbase) 144
Large SUV
(greater than 120-inch wheelbase) 75

The bottom line is clear: CAFE kills.