Smaller Cars Earn Top Marks in Safety Tests

NY Times ^ | May 28, 2009 | James Kanter

[Tarpon]

No matter how many hoax stories are written, f=ma remains as the law of physics. If the car survives, if the driver compartment survives, it means nothing if your brains and guts are turned to mush by the deceleration forces. Modern autos are designed with crumple zones for this very reason, mitigate the forces before they reach the human. And to accomplish that goal, it takes area and distance, over which these forces are dissipated.

I would not be surprised if ignorants did not understand the part about your internal organs not surviving the deceleration. A simple calculation will show the human organs will not survive, but you would need to obtain the actually test readings to prove. And it's unlikely that those g-force numbers will be forth coming.

Even if you spend a million bucks on an Indy racing chassis, and put it on like a glove so your body cannot freely move, it still does not mean you will survive the crash, as many don't.

[EGPWS]

A study of car safety released on Wednesday shows that four of the top-scoring automobiles in tests of five new models were small cars or so-called super-minis — including the Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, Kia Soul and Peugeot 3008. . .

Put all of them at once against my Hummer head on and have your surviving families buy me a new one and I will prove you wrong.

[HamiltonJay]

Results are RELATIVE.. the safest subcompact is not remotely as safe as the safest large car... you can’t rewrite the rules of physics folks.

[rwfromkansas]

Could be that smaller cars are being made better now to where they aren’t a danger anymore, but I am not sure.

[P-Marlowe]

Being smaller with a shorter turning radius makes the nimble Fit and spry i20 great in an antipersonnel role.

And if it is an electrical hybrid, you can sneak up on 'em.

[mort56]

This is the resume of the "scientist" who will lead us to the green promised land.

James has been a staff correspondent for The International Herald Tribune in Paris and Brussels since 2005, covering European business affairs and the business of green. His previous experience includes four years in Southeast Asia, where he was the editor in chief of The Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh and oversaw coverage of environmental issues like uncontrolled logging. Intrigued by how business could help promote democracy and sustainability, he later studied corporate law and environmental regulation as a Knight Fellow at Yale Law School, where he earned a master's degree. James also has reported on antitrust law and market regulation from Brussels, where he was twice winner of Dow Jones awards for best market-moving story in Europe. Raised in England, California and Massachusetts, James has a history degree from Columbia University in New York and a journalism degree from City University in London.

[P-Marlowe]

I'm sure the truck driver walked away unscathed.

Small cars are much safer for those of us in big cars and trucks.

[dfwgator]

Reminds me of the crash that killed Dale Earnhardt. By most standards the crash didn’t look all that bad, in that you didn’t see the car tear apart. But that was precisely the problem, all of that force went to Earhardt’s body.

[NativeSon]

Mind your tongue son,

Beg pardon mee lowd, we musn't question the "record"...

[M203M4]

It said the Honda Jazz and Hyundai i20 racked up “impressive pedestrian scores”

I dunno, sounds to me like they hit a lot of pedestrians (or at least the faster ones, which are worth more points).

[HamiltonJay]

Exactly “The Smart Car” for instance can survive a highway speed to angled wall collision with little intrusion into the body compartment, however a person in that car will not, your brain slams against the front of your skull decelerating from 55 to 0 in 6 inches, your internal organs rupture.. You DIE... Yes there is no major intrusion into the passenger compartment but you are still dead.

[HamiltonJay]

Well the problem was his harness failed.. you can’t smack your body into something moving at 100MPH+ and live.

[wbill]

This is going to be a fun thread to read. Amazing how people deny the laws of physics.

"You can pry my small car out of my cold, dead...blah blah blah". Which is exactly what will happen when a Smartfor2 car rearends an F150.

[dfwgator]

"You can pry my small car out of my cold, dead...blah blah blah". Which is exactly what will happen when a Smartfor2 car rearends an F150.

"...and they drove with pride..."

[Wyatt's Torch]

the safest subcompact is not remotely as safe as the safest large car...

Safest subcompact = world's tallest midget

[wbill]

I saw something very much like this, a compact car rearended a Suburban, and ran up underneath it.

Suburban was fine, the occupants of the compact car won't be available for comment anytime soon.

Everyone was standing around, waiting for a tarp and or the coroner. There was a nice Cop on scene, kept my kids occupied on the side of the car opposite from the accident, kept them from getting an eyeful they didn't need.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Does that mean that if you crash into a pedestrial, you are less likely to injure them?

believe it or not, yes.(cars are evil , you know)

[jveritas]

James has a history degree from Columbia University in New York and a journalism degree from City University in London.

The man scientific and engineering credibility is unquestionable (extreme sarcasm).

[GeorgiaDawg32]

hey, don’t give them any ideas..

[dalereed]

“Does that mean that if you crash into a pedestrial, you are less likely to injure them?”

Hell no, you survive and the pedestrian doesn’t!