Looking for SMART car information

rjstractor wrote:

Skid Row Joe wrote:
Life is too short to drive a car this short in the safety department. You might as well be on a motorcycle for all the safety it affords it's occupants.

Just today I responded to a 3 vehicle rear ender where a Smart was the sandwich filling and a Ford Explorer and a full size Ford van were the rear and front bread. The Smart received about the same amount of front and rear damage as the front of the Explorer and the rear of the van, the driver was uninjured and the Smart was driveable. This was the first accident I have seen involving a Smart and I was impressed with how it held up.

It wasn't hit that hard is why it wasn't damaged. Check out YouTube for the off-set collision test done that resulted in a certain fatality. Also, what you're possibly thinking is that just because the car looks undamaged to the extent of severe injuries of the occupants, is deceiving in that the G-forces of having almost NO crumple zone causes severe injuries because of the sudden stopping. It was reported many years ago that the most dangerous G-forces occur in a vehicle without crumple zones and low speed bumpers, like the Jeep Wranglers. They had almost zero crumple capabilities. Severe G-forces are what is the problem. Mercedes-Benz has an off-set collision on YouTube between a Smart Car and a full sized 4 door S-Class Mercedes sedan @ 45 mph. The Smart Car is sent back in the direction it came from, bouncing off the S-Class like a tennis ball. Very scary stuff.