Attributing the causes of observed vehicle incidents is a tough task. The Pinto clearly had a design flaw, but risk encompasses more causes than simply design.

Attributing the causes of observed vehicle incidents is a tough task. The Pinto clearly had a design flaw, but risk encompasses more causes than simply design. Vehicle models often target or appeal to certain subset of buyers and those buyers don't have evenly distributed driver risk. The market that these vehicles appeals to almost certainly skews towards riskier than average, which will also be a contributing component of the observed risk.