Are hybrid cars safe?
On One Hand: Most Are SafeAccording to HybridCars.com, most hybrid cars are not inherently any less safe than gasoline-powered vehicles. The safety of a motor vehicle depends on its structural integrity, not the type of engine it uses. The Toyota Prius, for example, earned high scores in nearly every category of crash-test ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.On the Other: They May Be Too QuietHybrid cars have such quiet engines that nearby pedestrians and cars may not notice the vehicle in their vicinity. According to Scientific American, in laboratory testing people did not notice a hybrid vehicle behind them until it was within 11 feet—and that wasn’t even accounting for normal background noise found in a real environment.Bottom LineNo statistics suggest that hybrid cars are more dangerous because of their low engine noise, nor have they been found to be structurally dangerous. In addition, most hybrids are passenger cars, which do not roll over as much
