‘Offset’ crash tests find higher risk for smaller cars

There’s an old saying — you can’t repeal the laws of physics. That may be the discussion right now at several small-car manufacturers today.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, known for its slow-motion car crash videos, sent the Honda Fit crashing into a Honda Accord, the Smart ForTwo into a Mercedes C-Class and a Toyota Yaris into a Toyota Camry — each at 40 miles per hour. The results indicate what safety you may be trading for efficiency when your mode of transportation shrinks.

The tests are called “offset” crashes. The cars crash not quite head on, similar to what would result when a car strays over the center line, and the damage can easily intrude into the passenger compartment. Each of the small cars sustained damage the institute believes would lead to injuries for their occupants.

In a statement, Adrian Lund, president of the Arlington, Va.-based institute, said, “Though much safer than they were a few years ago, minicars as a group do a comparatively poor job of protecting people in crashes, simply because they’re smaller and lighter. In collisions with bigger vehicles, the forces acting on the smaller ones are higher, and there’s less distance from the front of a small car to the occupant compartment to ‘ride down’ the impact. These and other factors increase injury likelihood.”

The Smart ForTwo had “extensive” damage…

…into the area where the driver sits. The institute’s findings indicate a human would have a high likelihood of sustaining head and leg injuries. The Yaris rated poor in the area of head and leg injuries as well. A driver of the Fit in a similar accident would have hit the steering wheel through the airbag in addition to sustaining leg injuries.

What say the manufacturers? In a statement, Dave Schembri, president of Smart’s U.S. operations, called the test an example of a “rare and extreme” accident. “The Smart ForTwo meets or exceeds all U.S. government crash-test standards,” he said.

Toyota’s statement said the institute’s test was equal to an 80-mph collision, which was “a speed and energy higher than 99.1% of all real world crashes.”

Honda’s statement also said the tests were done at a higher speed than most real world crashes and that, for the company, “Safety is a top priority.”

Institute for Highway Safety spokesman Russ Rader said that the test was not done any differently than past front crash tests, but that the automakers use the combined speeds of 40 mph on each car to come up with the 80-mph complaint.

“This new test is no different than others they have done in the past — both vehicles are traveling at 40 miles per hour so the closing speed could be considered 80 miles per hour,” Rader said. He added that the test configuration is exactly the same as crash test results the automakers use in their safety advertising.

Sourced via latimes.com