There is one more reason to love your hybrid cars. Besides providing fuel economy, these environment friendly models now offer you safety as well. A research by Highway Loss Data Institute, which studied 25 2003 to 2011 vehicles that featured both conventional and hybrid powertrains, concluded that the occupants in hybrid version are 27% less likely to be injured, in a crash, than those in the nonhybrid models.

Matt Moore, HLDI vice president, claims that the weight plays a critical role in this. Hybrid models on an average are10% heavier than their standard counter parts. This extra beef gives hybrid models an advantage in crashes as the heavier cars usually transfer force to the lighter vehicles.

This study would also be a relief to many of the green-minded drivers. Safety, which came as a trade off for saving fuel, was their major concern with the hybrid cars. However, it’s not a concern anymore.

This, also, is good news to the insurance companies as the green machines need only 25 percent less personal injury protection than their conventional counterparts.

On the flip side, this isn’t good news for pedestrians. The study claims that pedestrians might get involved in accidents as this car travels almost in a silent mode when in electric-only mode.

As the pedestrians can’t hear these cars approaching, when in electric only mode, HLDI suspects that people might step out into the roadway without checking what’s coming. They fear that the hybrid vehicles are 20 percent more likely to be involved in pedestrian crashes with injuries.

However, this can be solved by employing a sound alert system of some kind. Let’s hope that more and more hybrid vehicles would hit the road and contribute more to green environment.