These tests, despite being a little extreme, are actually more accurate representation of everyday collisions than the standard federal tests are. The federal tests are head-on offset collision against a stationary object. For the purposes of discussion the stationary object can be considered to have infinite mass, however it has zero momentum. In the real world you are colliding against other vehicles; if you are in a Smart car all the other vehicles are going to be 3, 4, or 5 times your mass. Conservation of momentum tells us that due to these differences in mass that the deceleration of the small car is going to be much more severe than the larger car which is going to conserve some of its momentum. The smart car literally bounced off the Mercedes as a result. The equivalent stationary collision to this 2 vehicle 40mph test would probably be closer to 80mph. So yes these tests have some validity, and they are not the 1% case like they say unless everyone was to start driving smart cars.
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