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Comment by throwup238 | Hacker News Reader

What is going on with the Kias in the "Highest rates of other-driver deaths" list? Most of the rest of the cars on that list make sense like the huge pickups but the Kia Optima, Rio, and Forte are all on the list. Are they popular ricers for street racing or something?

Glad to see no Toyotas on the "Highest rates of driver deaths" list and the Corolla didn't place on any of the lists.

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Probably because of the viral trend of stealing them

https://www.theverge.com/23742425/kia-boys-car-theft-steal-t...

Of course! I forgot about the Kia boys

There's also the whole Kia challenge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Challenge

I was just about to ask the same question. My initial thought was that perhaps they all have small crumple zones, which would increase the overall force applied to everyone involved.

I looked up images of the vehicles you mentioned and they all seem to have a relatively aggressive slope on their front ends, which got me thinking that they may end up acting like a sort of ramp in a collision and cause the other vehicle to become airborne or roll over.

That's not really what happens with sloped front ends, which are a safety measure for pedestrians. Unlike when a Ferd F15000 hits you and the flat front grill knocks you flush at head height, sloped front ends tend to hit you in the legs and allow your torso to roll down on to the hood. In a head-to-head collision with another vehicle, the sloped front end is part of the crumple zone engineering, redirecting the forces upwards through a panel concertina and downwards through the engine block, which ideally should pop out and down towards the road.

They are popular cars to steal because they are easy to steal. Stolen cars are used "differently" than other cars

It's crazy that the "minicar" Kia Rio ranks in the top 10 among other-driver deaths. The Kia effect is real.

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