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As an ER/Trauma nurse, one of the things I study is the science of kinematics- or in layman's terms, "mechanism of injury." But we don't just look at the impact itself, but also the kind of car a victim was driving.

You might be surprised (I know I was) to know that the Smartcar 4-2 actually did well in crash testing for both frontal and side impact. Not as well as a larger car might, but still surprising well.

But here's where it doesn't do so well: The body of the car has to be much stiffer to make up for lack of front end and door-to-driver distance, and the result is when it hits something, or is hit by something, it tends to bounce off the object and careen uncontrolled in a random direction until something else stops it- or it is hit by something else. That's more concerning, because then you are dealing with two (or more) collisions instead of just one.

So even if an occupant does fine with the first collision, the second one may very well do him in.

It's a really interesting science.

Plus, anything can be made to work well in the lab. Not everyone drives 30mph in a 30mph zone.