HI and Welcome to Apple Discussions...
if Safari is actually crashing, not just freezing, open a Finder window. From the Menu Bar click Go/Go to Folder . Copy and paste this path in the Finder diaog:
~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ Click the Go button. When the folder opens with the crash log look for a crash file with a date field that looks like the *most recent* and copy/paste here in your reply.
There are several things you can try in the meantime.
From the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari / Empty Cache. When you are done with that...
From the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari / Reset Safari. Select the top 5 buttons and click Reset. Relaunch Safari. If you still have problems, Go here for trouble shooting 3rd party plugins or input managers which might be causing the problem.
Safari: Add-ons may cause Safari to unexpectedly quit or have performance issues
Since you are running Snow Leopard, try opening Safari in 32-bit mode, not 64. Right or control click the Safari icon in the Applications folder, then click: Get Info In the Get Info window click the black disclosure triangle next to General so it faces down. Select 32 bit mode. Also, (in that same window) make sure Safari is NOT running in Rosetta.
Web pages now include a small icon or 'favicon' which is visible in the address bar and next to bookmarks. These icons take up disk space and slow Safari down. It is possible to erase the icons from your computer and start fresh. *To delete Safari's icon cache using the Finder, open your user folder, navigate to ~/Library/Safari/ and move this file "webpageIcons.db to the Trash.*
Try logging in to another user account (System Preferences/Accounts) and see if Safari's behavior is the same there. If it is, then it's a system wide issue, not just isolated to your user Home Folder.
If you still have problems, go to the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari/Preferences. Make note of all the preferences under each tab. Quit Safari. Now go to ~/Library/Preferences and move this file
com.apple.safari.plist to the Desktop. Relaunch Safari. If it's a successful launch, then that .plist file needs to be moved to the Trash.
Carolyn 🙂