IIHS Says, Economy Cars Maybe Green, but they’re also Deadly!
Crash Tests, originally uploaded by Current News Stories
The Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Smart Fortwo recently succumbed to a batch of crash tests organized by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Unfortunately, for the three economy cars and their dummy passengers, none of them came out of these in particularly great condition.
The economy vehicles were put up against a Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and Mercedes C-Class, being rammed together at combined speeds of up to 80 mph. Not particularly surprising, the smaller, economy class vehicles were often thrown up in the air, spun around in circles, and experienced significant damage to the crash test dummy.
Many of the crash test dummy drivers experienced head injury, despite use of a frontal airbag. It was found that their head went straight through the airbag and struck the steering wheel regardless of its use. This was found to be due to the increased intensity of the crash for the smaller and lighter of the vehicles.
This is what makes these reports interesting, as it shows once again, that size perhaps does matter (at least in this case). Even though the economy cars tested featured many of today’s top safety features, their sheer lack of size posed too great an obstacle to overcome and they were simply knocked down like a cocky 4th grader on a junior high playground.
It is simple physics really. If you take a larger object and ram it into a smaller one, the large object may slow down significantly upon impact, but the smaller object with the lease amount of mass will end up being knocked backwards and experiencing the most force from the crash.
Research indicates that these results are conclusive with other studies that have shown that passengers in a compact vehicle involved in a serious collision have twice the chance of becoming a fatality. With these results in mind, it is not difficult to understand why compact vehicles are often quite expensive to insure, despite their relatively low cost, low speed capability, and plethora of safety features.
The report concluded that consumers might be wise to choose a larger hybrid or small displacement engine rather than an economical subcompact when attempting to reduce their transportation carbon footprint. If saving the world means putting your own life at risk, that maybe a bit too much to ask of any “green” consumer…
