Posted on 07/11/2017 12:48:34 PM PDT by Conserv
Last night I passed a fatal accident involving a smart car.
The smart car was rear ended and then sent flying....
eventually ending up on its side. The driver of the smart car was killed.
http://wgxa.tv/news/local/warner-robins-police-investigating-deadly-two-car-accident
The first time I saw a Smart car was in Barcelona in 2002 and I tried to explain it to a friend when I got back to the States. I said, “It looked like two bucket seats and a windshield.”
Everyone should buy their liberal friends a “Smart Car” to save the earth, because your lib friends are smarted than you and they need a car that says
“I’m Smart, I’m Intelligent and gosh darnit I’m better than other people like you”
When they drive it down the road listening to NPR.
It is an investment in our future!
Looking at the pictures it looks like the passenger compartment in the Smart Car was fairly intact. I wonder if the driver had the seat belt on. An airbag doesn’t help much if the vehicle turns over or in a multiple collision(with a car then a pole).
That being said, both drivers are generally better of in a collision between two large cars than a collision between two small cars.
People who drive those things down California highways really bother me.
They travel as fast or faster than I do and weave in and out of traffic.
They are not very stable vehicles.
One data point: I was rear ended in my Ford Fiesta by an F-350 pulling a trailer. It totaled my car and barely marked the truck. The truck push me forward about 10 feet.
The driver, his passenger and I were all OK.
Fiesta curb weight: ~2500
Smart car curb weight: ~1650
Top Gear covered this (back when it was the real Top Gear, before the BBC ruined it) by crash testing a smart car into a concrete barrier. The results indicated that the car did amazingly well retaining the integrity of the passenger cabin. This is because they are designed to be extremely rigid and don't crumple. However, those crumple zones that are designed into larger vehicles are there for a reason: to absorb the energy of a crash, rather than transferring that energy to the occupants. Smart cars don't have that critical safety feature because they have no space to permit crumpling.
The conclusion was that while the car's structure will survive a crash pretty well, all of the force will be transferred to the occupants, and they will most assuredly be critically injured or killed as their brains smack into the front of their skulls, and other internal organs do likewise.
So, they're essentially "5-star crash rated" death traps.
Nothing new, it started when manufactures starting shrinking cars and making them out of plastic, a small car will always lose to a larger heavier vehicle.
Yes it is size does matter.
Dumb cars. Not smart. Not at all.
In a collision between a small car and a big vehicle, the small car loses. It’s simple physics. When an object collides with a much more massive object, the smaller object bounces.
This is why, when I shopped for a vehicle for my wife to transport our kids in, I got a big SUV.
Kinda like indy cars in the 50’s that seemed to remain fairly intact but the driver was hamburger?
Great post. The point is well made.
OUt of curiosity, have you seen the youtube video of the 1959 chevy crashing head on into a 2009 chevy? It’s an amazing testament to modern occupant protection.
If you haven’t, just search youtube. It’s easy to find.
I haven’t seen that, but I’ll look for it. Thanks!
I didn’t realize that about crash tests.
The opposing car should be the average weight of a car on the road.
Its not just the smart car, cars (and trucks) can do all sorts of acrobatics in accidents, its physics. Trucks can be a riot...
The Quantas?
Last ride in a Smart Car
The principle is called the conservation of energy. When the kinetic energy of the heavier object is translated to the lighter (smaller) object it accelerates to a high velocity.
“The short wheelbase makes them very twitchy”.
I don’t know if you are or were a drag racer but in the 60’s & 70s they had a class called AA/FA which was a very short wheelbase car with a blown nitro burning engine. They were all over the track and great fun for the spectators. They were very wild rides.
A coffin with four wheels.
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