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IIHS Small Car Test: Three Gruesome Slow-Motion Crash Videos

This morning's IIHS report on the shocking finding that little cars don't take well to colliding, at speed, with bigger cars? Now we have the crash videos. Let's take a look at all three below.

The three tests we have are between the Honda Accord and the Honda Fit, the Toyota Camry and Toyota Yaris, and finally the Mercedes C300 and the Smart ForTwo. With each we get a full speed offset frontal crash with both cars traveling at 40 MPH, destruction and carnage ensue and rightly so, there's a lot of energy involved here. These are hardly scientific tests, and they represent the absolute most extreme crash scenario for these speeds, especially for the smaller cars. Ratings got from "Good" at the top of the scale through "Acceptable" and "Poor." Considering this is one car bashing into another, the evaluation is somewhat subjective, but it gives an idea of relative performance. Let's take a closer look at each.

Quote:

YouTube - IIHS Crash Test Of Mercedes C300 Versus Smart ForTwo

The Smart ForTwo is the poster child for Micro-Machine scale automobiles. With a tiny, tiny footprint and virtually zero front overhang, the 1808 lb ForTwo relies on a super-strong safety cage and airbags for protection. It's cold comfort against the much bigger Mercedes-Benz C300, tipping the scales at 3,560 lbs. Considering the circumstances, the little Smart held up pretty well, even though it bounced off the Benz like a pinball. The Benz scores a Good while the Smart gets a Poor, which is pretty harsh under these conditions. We like watching the three-pointed star float past the Smart in the slo-mo.

YouTube - IIHS Crash Test Of Honda Accord Versus Honda Fit

The Fit is one of our favorite little cars, with the new design maintaining the fun character of the original while giving it a little more room inside. The Fit uses traditional crumple zones for crash force dissipation but with such short overhangs there's not much room to slow absorb energy in a collision. When Accord meets Fit, we get an seriously mangled mess with the Fit. There's significant damage to the safety cage with the A-pillar crumpling and the wheel well smooshing up into the footwell. However, the front and side airbags kept the driver's head from bashing into hard parts. The 2489 lb Fit scored a Poor while the 3297 lb Accord was Good.

YouTube - IIHS Crash Test Of Toyota Camry Versus Toyota Yaris

The Yaris scores a Poor and the Camry gets an Acceptable, but this one seems like it needs another level of bad. In this crash the Yaris crumples up into a pretzel, with the A-pillar severely kinking, the wheel occupying the space where the driver's feet used to be and the door flying open. Yikes. The 2288 lbs Yaris is 200 lbs lighter than the Fit and the Camry is only 30 lbs less than the Accord, but the results seem more out of proportion than the differences in heft.

Source: Jalopnik - IIHS Small Car Test: Three Gruesome Slow-Motion Crash Videos - small car crash tests

Some dude at work bought one of those smart cars and we got into a debate about its safety. He was saying it did well in the crash tests, and my opinion was that he was probably confusing "doing well" and "doing well for what it is."
I could watch that thing get demolished all day.

Awesome videos! I don't know why I chuckle every time I see them. :D...Yes I do.

In all honesty these crash tests are absolutely stupid and a waste of 6 cars.

Lets see how the Z does against a Peterbuilt. Lets collide a Honda CBR1000RR into an excursion.

What do these prove? Other than the bigger bug can squash the smaller bug. :icon14:

Stupid?!?! They just entertained at least 4 people :D

Cars like the ForTwo and the Yaris shouldn't even be on the road. I don't know who they paid off to get that cheap **** approved in this country. There are a lot of people out there buying these for their combination of "cheap and eco-friendly" and not realizing how much they're putting their lives at risk.

Watch the slow-mo side view of the Yaris driver especially (last video). That guy is going to be screwed, bigtime.

What I really love seeing in these videos is the airbag deployments under slow motion. I'm a computer/electronics geek so I should know how easy it is in theory, but it still amazes me that we can build reliable systems that deploy so amazingly fast at the onset of crash-level g forces.

touché, that stuff is pretty stupid :D

my x-ray thread = didnt get as much play as it should have.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar (Post 57126)

Cars like the ForTwo and the Yaris shouldn't even be on the road. I don't know who they paid off to get that cheap **** approved in this country. There are a lot of people out there buying these for their combination of "cheap and eco-friendly" and not realizing how much they're putting their lives at risk.

Umm Hello! These were all built 20 years before the Yaris and smartfortwo AND they were built by U.S. manufacturers.

1988 Ford Fiesta.
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...ystes/1959.jpg

third Gen Geo Metro
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...s/GeoMetro.jpg

Fifth Gen Chevy Nova
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...atchback-1.jpg

2009 Smart fortwo - Smart USA Responds to IIHS Crash Test Results

Apparently they weren't to happy with the testing. :D

Quote:

2009 Smart fortwo - Smart USA Responds to IIHS Crash Test Results

You may have heard about a recent crash test that was conducted with our smart fortwo by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) along with two other small cars from other companies that were paired with larger vehicles from the same brand. A Honda Fit was paired with an Accord, and a Toyota Yaris with a Camry. In our case, since smart is a Daimler company, the smart fortwo was paired against a Mercedes C-Class. I would like to share our thoughts with you regarding the test and what it means.

We here at smart USA strongly disagree with this non-standard test that simulates a crash that is rare and extreme. In fact, the severity of the crash test accounts for less than 1% of all accidents of this type. It should also be noted that federal safety regulators do not recognize nor require this type of testing.

This may go without saying because so many of you here on smart USA (insider) already know this to be true, but I’ll say it anyway - the smart fortwo is safe. It meets or exceeds all federal government safety standards – this includes the smart fortwo earning a five-star side crash rating (the highest rating possible). It also earned the highest ratings for front and side crashes in the IIHS' barrier test.

Here's another fact most of you already know: all smart fortwo models are equipped with advanced crash avoidance and crash protection safety systems that come as standard on all models, such as:

• Electronic Stability Program (esp) - which reduces chances of being in a fatal accident with another vehicle by 20%; or in a fatal single-vehicle accident by 51%, according to the IIHS.
• The tridion safety cell - A reinforced steel safety cage that acts very much like a NASCAR roll cage.
• Brake Assist (BAS) - Avoiding accidents is often measured in inches, and this technology can be the difference in the reaction time you need to avoid an accident. BAS can sense when you have stepped on the brake quickly but have not applied it hard enough to activate the anti-lock brake system (ABS).

I’ve personally received emails and letters from smart fortwo owners who had been in crashes, crediting the vehicle and its many safety devices for helping keep them safe.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this recent test does not address the issue of where we are heading as a society. We see examples every day of how people want to conserve more and consume less. The car you choose is a lifestyle choice and, more and more, people are choosing small yet safe cars, including the smart fortwo, for many reasons. I’ve seen and heard from many of you who purchased your smart fortwo for everything from convenience in urban areas, to its small carbon footprint, to its low cost of ownership, to it simply being a joy to drive.

We don’t take crash tests lightly. But even federal regulators don’t consider such an extreme test when they evaluate a given vehicle’s safety. As always here on smart USA (insider), we want to know what you have to say. In fact, we’ve created a new website, safeandsmart.com, that specifically addresses safety issues of the smart fortwo and gives smart owners a place to tell their safety stories – whether it was an accident they walked away from, or one they avoided altogether. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks and, as always, stay safe and smart on the roads.

Smart
Stuttgart, Germany

^^despite what they say...once u see a video of that car crumpling....you will wish u werent so eco-friendly and went with the benz! i do have to give credit to smart tho, cuz they do seem to have good crash ratings, and ive seen some videos on youtube of smart car crashes.
on another note...i wish they woulda done one with a smart vs yaris (small to small) to see which one was better.

the funny thing is the 1% of accidents is really common here in the US! I see that all the time were one person tries to take a left and hits the other person head on or someone is texting and crosses into the other lane!

Another thing I saw was top gears crash of the smart car into a barrier... I wouldn't be caught dead in that car! Wait, I would be dead in that car!!!

^^lol texting and driving FTW

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.