All this talk about max weights, rv heights, tire ratings, Truck rating etc..

Got me wondering how many people actually have a issue, and get into accident. 

I understand safety is a big issue.. and maybe the numbers are so low because of the internet, and people get educated in RV safety ..

Anyways.. found A guy who did the reseach a few years ago.. taken from his post.. And seems so small a percentage.. it is hard to justify all the arguing and posting, lately..

Here it is.. make your own opinion about it.. but it far more research than I've seen anywhere..Maybe you seen it? maybe you havent..

"Here are some first pass results from the analysis. I apologize for the very long post.  If you are not interested in the methods, please skip to the "Preliminary Results" section below.

Before I get into the data, I want to explain my methods so anyone interested can understand what assumptions had to go into this information.  I will provide a detailed methods document sometime down the road once I am done with the review.

Objective:
To assess the statistical "safety" of motorized RV's driving in the United States relative to other forms of highway vehicles and assess any patterns or outliers with respect to crash injury, causation, or circumstances.  

Data:
The primary data utilized in this analysis was sourced from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting Statistics database or FARS.  This database is a consolidated listing of all traffic fatalities in the U.S. and is compiled annually from accident reports from field officers.  This database accounts for a variety of accident parameters including vehicle type, where the passengers were sitting, restraint usage, road conditions, impact points, alcohol use, etc.  This is the fundamental source of data for the analysis.

In order to normalize the FARS data against other vehicle types, I decided to use NHTSA's standard metric, which is fatalities per 100 Million Vehicle Miles Traveled.  This required knowing how many miles were driven my motorized RV's in the U.S. in any given year.  Unfortunately, that is not a standard statistic tracked by NHTSA, DOT, or the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.  However, I did find that BTS has performs a detailed survey of U.S. Household travel statistics once every 6-10 years and that survey does include motorized RV's.  The survey, known as the National Household Transportation Survey, was last conducted in 2001.  This survey provide me with a data point for the number of motorized RV's on U.S. highways, and the average annual mileage driven by these vehicles.  I cross referenced this to the 1995 NHTS survey to ensure the values where within an acceptable spread and they were within 5% for annual mileage, and tracked in parallel with overall vehicle ownership, so they were deemed useable.

Extrapolation Assumptions:
Because the NHTS data was for 2001 only, I needed to determine a way to extrapolate for 2000-2007.  The method I chose was to assume that motorized RV travel would track overall highway miles driven by "heavy, unit-body trucks with a minimum of 6 wheels", which is a statistic that the BTS tracks annually.  This category would include box trucks, heavy utility, and emergency vehicles, along with motorhome chassis, but NOT tractor cabs or linked trucks.

Potential Problems:
There are two potential data discrepancies that I must point out before I present the information.  I don't believe they have any significant impact on the results but I need to make you aware.  First, the FARS data puts Mothorhomes into three categories; light truck chassis (Class C) based motorhomes/campers; heavy-truck chassis (Class A) based motorhome/campers; and "unknown" chassis (Class A or C) based motorhome/chassis.  This leads to the problem of correlating motorhome mileage to heavy-truck mileage.  I don't believe that really should be of any significant impact considering that even if the correlation is using a skewed ratio, the overall rate of travel miles in the U.S. is relatively consistent across all vehicles (all categories tend to parallel each other therefore the general trend should hold).  The second problem is that RV/motorhome ownership has increased faster than the overall miles travelled in the U.S.  That means that they are likely a higher share of overall miles travelled than I am crediting them with for years 2002-2007.  This makes the motorhome look less safe because I have deflated the denominator of 100 Million Miles, so keep that in mind when reviewing the information

Preliminary Results:
The following constitutes preliminary findings based on the above assumptions.  A more detailed analysis of elemental factors will follow as time permits over the next several days."

And another post..

"Summary:
The revised FARS analysis shows that a total of 212 individuals perished in motorhome accidents in the years 2000-2007 for an average of just over 26 fatalities per year.  This represents an average rate of fatality of 0.44 per 100 Million Vehicle Miles vs. 1.48 for all vehicles in the United States, or roughly one third the average rate of all motor vehicles.  (See Chart "Fatality Mileage Normalization Chart")

Observations:
1) The "Initial Harmful Event" which is the event deemed to have caused the crash, was overwhelmingly due to striking another vehicle in "your" roadway (45%).  That can mean a vehicle traveling the same direction of a divided highway, or a vehicle traveling in either direction of an undivided road.  Vehicle Roll-over, Striking a Guard Rail, and Striking a Tree, each represented approximately 9% of total crashes respectively. (See Chart "Initial Harmful Event")
2) The majority of fatalities occurred in the front seats of the motorhome, with 80% being either the driver or passenger.  Of the 26 rear compartment fatalities, only 2 persons died while using a restraint (seat belt).  No children using child safety seats died during the analysis period. (See Chart "Fatalities by Seating Position and Restraint Usage).
3) Alcohol did not appear to be a significant contributor to motorhome fatalities. (Less than 1% reported drinking as a factor)
4) The majority of fatalities occurred on rural interstates and/or major rural highways (54%). (See Chart "Road Type")
5) Trailers of any type were only reported in 26 of 212 fatalities during the study period.  Of those, only 3 were reported as towed vehicles, however that statistic was only added to the database in 2005 and is therefore statistically irrelevant. (See Chart "Fatality by Reported Trailer Use")

Conclusion:
It is difficult to come to any supportable conclusions about accident causation, however, what it is clear that motorhomes are statistically very safe relative to the overall vehicular population.  What limited fatal crashes do occur appear to be largely caused by striking other vehicles and fixed objects near the roadway and the resulting fatalities seem to most often occur in the front seat.  Given that there were only 26 reported deaths of individuals in the rear area and only 2 of those were belted, one can draw their own conclusion about the merits of using a belt.  This author draws solace in the fact that not a single child in a child safety seat perished during the study period.

I will continue to review the information and attempt to draw out any possible nuance in the information that the readers here might find useful, but I am comfortable myself in the knowledge that the activity is statistically quite safe.  I am also pleased to conclude that some exaggerated media claims of motorhomes being "death traps" that I have read are simply and astoundingly false."

I thought is was interesting..And would like to see the full report.. looking.

Post can be found here..

http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=20505.0