Shocker! Tiny Cars Do Poorly in Test Crashes

The SMART car and the Yaris are rolling deathtraps in a collision? The hell you say! And the company presidents are butthurt over the results, complaining that if everyone drove a golfball on wheels then everyone would be protected equally.

This “no duh!” article is from the AP here:

Micro cars can give motorists top-notch fuel efficiency at a competitive price, but the insurance industry says they don’t fare too well in collisions with larger vehicles.

In crash tests released Tuesday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that drivers of 2009 versions of the Smart “fortwo,” Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris could face significant leg and head injuries in severe front-end crashes with larger, mid-size vehicles.

The tests involved head-on crashes between the fortwo and a 2009 Mercedes C Class, the Fit and a 2009 Honda Accord and the Yaris and the 2009 Toyota Camry. The tests were conducted at 40 miles per hour, representing a severe crash.

In the fortwo collision, the institute said the Smart, which weighs 1,808 lbs, went airborne and turned around 450 degrees after striking the C Class, which weighs nearly twice as much. There was extensive damage to the fortwo’s interior and the Smart driver could have faced extensive injuries to the head and legs. There was little damage to the front seat area of the C Class.

In the Fit’s test, the dummy’s head struck the steering wheel through the air bag and showed a high risk of leg injuries. In the vehicle-to-vehicle test, the Fit was rated poor while the Accord’s structure held up well.

In the Yaris test, the institute said the mini car sustained damage to the door and front passenger area. The driver dummy showed signs of head injuries, a deep gash on the right knee and extensive forces to the neck and right leg.

The company presidents of these rolling deathtraps insist that the insurance companies are conspiring to keep these cars off the market and we may as well all drive tractor trailers.

“If you were to take that argument to the nth degree, we should all be driving 18-wheelers. And the trend in society today is just the opposite,” said Dave Schembri, president of Smart USA.

18 wheelers? How about going down in size Dave? Why not make us all drive ping-pong balls?

Toyota spokesman John Hanson said the car-to-car test had little relevance to consumers because of its severity. “It’s fairly obvious that they have an agenda here with regard to how smaller cars are going to be entering the North American market in larger numbers,” Hanson said.

Of course smaller cars will get you killed in an accident when the car hits anything larger than a goat. Its called “physics.” And a head-on crash at 40MPH is not an “extreme scenario” either. It seems like a common-sense real world test to me. These small car manufacturers may as well remove the airbags and instead allow the car to convert to a casket upon impact for easy burial of the driver.