Impressive, or is it a fluke?
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I would like to see a second test where it is t-boned on the driver’s side by a car running a red light, a much more likely scenario.
CBC As It Happens interviewed a guy a couple of years ago who walked from a freeway collision between his Smart car and a semi.
Good cage, not much mass.
It’s likely, or probable that the occupants in that would not survive. Above 55km/h (34mph) your chances in a collision with an imovable object drop exponentially. But the Smart, is fully washable and recyclable afterwards.
Have a look at the space where the drivers legs should be…about 1:23 into the video. The airbags will deploy, but the legs will be crushed under the steering wheel. Who would want to drive one of those that fast anyway?
Even if the cage can take it can the driver?
The cage looked like it did its job and that makes it about as safe as any car.
The problem with the ultra-compact is the lack of room for energy absorbing crumple zones. Even if you are belted in…your internal organs keep moving and your heart can virtually detach from the aorta.
If you want to get people in smart cars, then you have to put in good active crash avoidance systems that already exist AND take measure to keep big vehicles either off the road from AM rush until after PM rush OR give them much lower speed limits. You could also have barrier segregated micro car lanes on highways.
That being said, those cars have amazing engineering…which is why they are so damn expensive when compared to the other mainstream city cars by Honda, Toyota, and VW.
I actually have had a collision with the tractor-trailer in my Honda CRX that produced very similar results. Hard to estimate the speed at the actual impact but it started at hwy. speeds (truck lost control and I was left with no space to escape or time to break). I too was able to open the driver side door and exit uninjured, but the front of the CRX didn’t exist anymore, just as in this example…
@#1: You’d be surprised at what modern technology does for the T-bone impacts… Though I haven’t experienced it with as small car as CRX (or Smart), I was T-boned by fully grown Chevy’ Suburban in my Subaru Outback at about 30-35 mph of his speed. Result: I drove about 70 miles back home and passenger side door needed to be replaced, but everything else was fine and I ended driving that same car without issues for another 135000 miles. Big ol’ Suburban? Engine dropped out and front wheels splayed weirdly… Likely totaled (though no injuries to me or Suburban driver).
Did anyone notice that the concrete wall was at an angle. A significant amount of energy was dissapated first when the car lifted up in the air and second as it squirted to the right.
Higher fuel efficiency requirement have killed thousands of people in the US(search for ‘CAFE kills’.
I detached my heart in San Francisco.
I like the SmartCar but you probably wouldn’t survive an impact like this and if you did you’d probably feel well below average. I wouldn’t drive one here in Vegas since most of the drivers here drive like fucktards.
Small can win out with good design.
Take a look at the poor sap in the Ford F150 truck crash vs the MINI Cooper (both done at 40mph). Yeah, I know they are just dummies.
http://bit.ly/ri01
I always see a shopping cart behind these things. I’m weird that way.
Ok, now let’s see the test done with a test dummy wired up, just because the car door opens, doesn’t mean the people in the car would…
afterthought; I didn’t know they could actually go that fast…
Who paid for the car? The TV show? That’s fairly expensive episode, I assume. Maybe they made an insurance claim on the car.
If you are going to hate it pick a real reason like it’s craptastic manumatic transmission, high price for it’s size, or mediocre mileage for it’s weight. As far as crash safety it is an engineering marvel for it’s diminutive size.
#3 What’s your point? That they won’t survive or that this type of crash is unlikely. Is it that they won’t survive a crash that won’t happen?
#4 Exactly, who would want to drive that fast. That’s why they are designed and marketed as urban cars.
#5 Look up John Stapp to see what the human body can withstand.
#7 CRX- great car, but I’d never want to wreck one. Congrats on walking away.
#8 Great observation if only all accidents happened exactly perpendicular to immovable walls.
#15 The BBC payed for it on the show Fifth Gear. The cost is a pittance compared to the elaborate stunts on their sister show Top Gear, which has a habit of up blowing cars and caravans and racing exotic cars across continents.
Also, the car in the video is the previous generation, not the one on sale in the US.
#16 Not funded by the BBC (so not TV license fee funded). It is a commercial venture and thus not public money.
This show (5th Gear) was originally made to be broadcast in UK on Channel 5 (now called Five), hence the title “5th Gear”, and a dig at its intended competitor BBC’s “Top Gear” and interestingly poaching presenters from the original BBC show when they changed the format to the current jokey-bloaky ‘Stig’ and ‘airfield track’ one. Subsequently sold to other other countries too.
The idea in the Smart is to use the *other* car’s ripple zone to absorb energy. The really dangerous scenario is two Smarts crashing head on, not a Smart against a big car.
Wasn’t the Smart car was originally sold in Europe? There, the manufacturers are obliged to meet a certain standard, in crash tests, before they can even sell one. They don’t just build them, sell them, and wait to see what happens when someone crashes one. They don’t do that in the USA, either, thanks to (spit, spit) Ralph Nader.
The G forces in the collision would cause massive internal injuries. The brain, liver, and spleen are rather disagreeable to such forces. As other posters stated this is not a typical traffic collision. The crumple zone at the front did work rather well.
I would imagine the lower weight helped with less inertia transfer. Just look at Indy cars for example. They are hardly a tank and yet when they hit a wall except for the well protected cage for the driver the rest of the car absorbs the impact. As someone else mentioned that the wall appeared to be set at a angle. But not enough to significantly affect the out come.
Interesting. But I’m still hoping for fully automated cars. No steering wheels. Humans have no business pretending to know how to drive. I’d rather put my faith in a computer than a human any day. The statistics speak for themself.
Does anyone know the episode of fifth gear this was presented in? I like to have some more back story.
btw. I think too that any driver would have been very sorry. But as for the looks of the car after the crash. Impressive. Probably no sperated limbs or so. 🙂
A freind of mine recently saw one of these cars get picked up and moved over one lane by 50 MPH crosswind while crossing the American Legion Bridge near DC. Fortunately there was no resulting collision, but you will never get my freind to ride in one of these smart cars.
I’m not surprised. Do the same test with a bicycle.
Now, try a head on with an SUV, that’s a more likely scenario than a wall…
# 7 dusanmal – I loved my CRX. I was T-boned on the interstate after spinning out in standing water. A guy in a Expedition hit me at 60 mph +/- 5 mph. Took out the driver side door but did not break it’s window! When he was coming at me I had time to undo my seat belt and lean away from the driver side door and ponder the impending pain. I was not hurt in the least. The CRX body was bent so I ended up replacing the door and selling it.
As far as one of these ugly cars, I would have died of embarrassment way before hitting the wall.
Did they catch the teenager driving it, or did he run off like they always do?
The really important question is: will it blend?
(I’d like to see that one)
Now, seriously, I watched this TV show on the BBC, in normal TV def the ‘explosion’ was even more impressive. And they clearly stated nobody would survive such a crash, which was at 100 Km/h (around 60 Mpg).
Smarts are so solid Fire Departments have to use special tools to open them up in case of accident. Some people died because emergency workers only had the ‘standard’ car opener stuff…
As for people driving them fast, you’d be amazed at what we in Europe see Smarts doing on highways! They’re fast as hell (routinely overtaking me over legal speed limits, 120 Km/h), and their owners take advantage of it. Inside one doesn’t have a feel of insecurity, much the opposite, a nimble and stable car. Hence the danger.
I guess it’s kind of like riding a motorcycle. It’s fun, but with risks. If only people could be made more aware of those risks…
Miguel, they’re limited at 160KmH (not 100% sure on the figure…).
My boss has one with full extras: 1100cc turbocharged 97CV (Bhp ?) airbags, ABS, ASR auto windscreen wipers, the Works…
Still won’t go over 160…and drinks almost as much as my old 1400cc dual carb Civic (yes, no injection…)
Top Gear > Fifth Gear
And you can watch the most recent episodes of both off your favorite torrent.