Crash Test: '59 Chevy vs. '09 Chevy (not pretty)
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Lexus Fanatic
Joined: May 2003
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From: Massachusetts
Improved safety of cars was a good thing, but a huge number of additional lives could be saved by better training of drivers. Still killing 37,000 people with the safe automobiles we have to day is a disgrace. Unfortunately our system puts little emphasis into proper education and training. A few hours behind the wheel and a joke of a licensing system puts ill trained, young drivers on the road. The combination if inexperience, drugs and alcohol is a deadly cocktail. And we never retest people, so bad habits just get reinforced. We should demand better, but we won't.
Americans remain very distracted while driving (cell phones, eating, distraction of passengers, ect..).
You can train a driver to be an expert but if they're not paying attention it doesn't do much good.
Don't forget, though.......we're talking about a difference here of 40 years in safety technology. All other things equal (in other words, with roughly the same amount of safety gear in both cars), the laws of physics and kinetic energy will prevail, and, in general, a larger, heavier car will be deformed less than a smaller, lighter car.
Case in point: The Smart-for-Two is very well-done, safety-wise, by modern standards, for a tiny car its size...but here is what happens when a Smart is run head-on into larger, heavier modern cars...in this case, a Mercedes C300:
Case in point: The Smart-for-Two is very well-done, safety-wise, by modern standards, for a tiny car its size...but here is what happens when a Smart is run head-on into larger, heavier modern cars...in this case, a Mercedes C300:
I think the biggest problem with the Smart is the whiplash effect of being launched by a bigger object. Analyzing the frame/cabin after the crash shows that there's barely any intrusion into the passenger space. (the pic above seems worse because the Benz's metal is wrapped around the Smart - it's not actually intruded that much).
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Oct 2003
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From: Virginia/D.C. suburbs
50 years.
I think the biggest problem with the Smart is the whiplash effect of being launched by a bigger object. Analyzing the frame/cabin after the crash shows that there's barely any intrusion into the passenger space. (the pic above seems worse because the Benz's metal is wrapped around the Smart - it's not actually intruded that much).
The Smart can be a real deathtrap, though, even with its (admittedly) rigid safety-roll cage, if it hits something the right way. There are some awful pictures on the Internet of completely crushed Smart cabins and decapitated occupants, but I didn't post them because I considered them too explicit for a public forum post.
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