Sparrow F T
Accid Anal Prev. 1985 Oct;17(5):409-18. doi: 10.1016/0001-4575(85)90095-8.
A comparison of recent U.S. and Japanese small car accident and injury statistics indicates that the two countries have had dramatically differing experience with such cars. In Japan, for the years 1980, 1981, and 1982, while such cars are involved in more accidents per vehicle or per vehicle kilometer traveled than larger cars, there is a lower likelihood of a fatality if an accident occurs. The lower fatality conditional likelihood more than offsets the higher chance of an accident in 1981 and 1982, resulting in small cars having lower fatality rates per unit of exposure than larger vehicles in those years. The difference is tentatively attributed to the direct and indirect impact of the lower speed limits (80 vs 100 kmh) for such cars in Japan, as well as the greater caution drivers of such vehicles exhibit, as evidenced by the fact that small car drivers cause a significantly lower percent of the accidents they are involved in than larger cars.
美国和日本近期小型汽车事故及伤亡统计数据的比较表明，两国在这类汽车方面有着截然不同的经历。在日本，1980年、1981年和1982年期间，虽然这类汽车每辆车或每行驶一公里所涉及的事故比大型汽车更多，但如果发生事故，死亡的可能性较低。较低的死亡条件可能性超过了1981年和1982年较高的事故发生率，导致这些年份里小型汽车每单位暴露量的死亡率低于大型车辆。这种差异初步归因于日本这类汽车较低的限速（80公里/小时对100公里/小时）的直接和间接影响，以及这类车辆驾驶员表现出的更高谨慎程度，小型汽车驾驶员所引发的他们所涉及事故的比例明显低于大型汽车这一事实就证明了这一点。
