Video of a Smart ForTwo crash test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety [IIHS] has leaked onto the internet (note -- the video has been taken down, so you'll have to take our word for it on what happens until the IIHS decides to release it themselves -- ed.), and the spectacular crash may have a lot to tell us about the safety prospects of the tiny, European-style city cars that many manufacturers may bring to U.S. roads over the next several years.
The Smart has been a sales triumph, and others are following its example. Toyota's similar iQ may be coming here, and Mitsubishi and Subaru are already testing similarly sized 2-seaters, both electric, in the U.S.
The automotive press is split on the safety of the little cars. Autoblog notes, "For everyone who points out the benefits of the Smart's miniscule size, there are a number of others who say they wouldn't want to go up against a normal American car in a Smart." In the IIHS test, however, the ForTwo "acquits itself quite well with no deformation of the A-pillar and not even a crack in the windshield." Smart prides itself on the ForTwo's "tridion safety shell," which the company says is the strongest ever built. Watching the video, they may well be right -- the thing barely changes shape at all, and the space around the crash test dummies is safely maintained.
The test, however, shows some very unique behavior that may be troubling.
Quite simply, the thing bounces around like a ping-pong ball. It's normal for a car to rebound somewhat in a crash test, but the ForTwo corkscrews off the crash sled to its right, performing a full spin and part of another, even at the relatively low speed of an IIHS test (35 mph).
In the controlled environment of the IIHS test lab, this is one accident. On the road, it's a series of them.
IIHS itself has not yet released its conclusions. The federal government recently tested the Smart, and was impressed enough to award it fairly solid scores, four stars (out of five) for protecting the driver and three for the front passenger, in a similar test. In side impact testing, however, the government raised a "safety concern" because the Smart's door opened -- which is very rare in such tests and could pose a risk. The government also gave the Smart a rollover rating usually reserved for SUVs.
Other tests have raised some concerns. Autoblog Green notes that a recent U.K. test concluded "City cars are not equipped to protect their occupants' necks when they have to absorb the crash energy from larger, heavier vehicles which combined with poor seat design makes whiplash far more likely." The ForTwo was rated only "acceptable" for whiplash protection in that test.
We don't have any idea what the IIHS will conclude from the test in the film. The lab is owned by a consortium of insurance companies who aren't beholden to the same interests as a government lab -- their only concern is keeping insurance costs down -- so IIHS is known for being harder on cars than the government. But again, the Smart's safety cage performed remarkably well in the test. If the films show us anything, it might simply be that conventional crash testing doesn't tell us enough about the safety of these little cars.
For crash test junkies (yes, we know you're out there), the Smart is a constant source of debate, and YouTube is where all the fun happens.
Daimler, (which owns both Smart and Mercedes) has released film of the ForTwo crashing into a heavier Mercedes-Benz, the S-Class, and handling itself quite well. Even when crashing head-on into the 4,465-lb S550, the 1,800-lb Smart keeps its shape to the point that the windshield doesn't crack and the Mercedes spokesperson giving us a tour of the aftermath can easily open both doors.
In another film of the same two cars, however, an S-Class knocks the Smart completely onto its side and leaves it spinning like a top on the asphalt -- again, safety cage unpenetrated.
Finally, the U.K.'s Fifth Gear produced a ForTwo crash test film that raises the ultimate question about Smart safety. Ramming a ForTwo into a wall at high speed, they again see the safety cage stay intact while the car ricochets dozens of feet from the accident. But the narrator tells us: "The cars may have stood up to the severity of the crash fairly well, but the humans inside wouldn't. No matter what you drive, rapidly decelerating from higher speeds is something you're internal organs simply cannot cope with. The chilling truth is, the people inside the cars would have been very unlikely to have survived."
Most cars try to prevent deceleration injuries through the use of crumple zones, which should deform to absorb some of the energy of the crash before it reaches occupants. Smarts don't have crumple zones. The risk of decelaration injuries is higher in the small cars than in just about anything else on the road.
Since deceleration injuries are at their worst in the highest-speed crashes, all of this may simply suggest that Smart cars are great for what they are designed for -- city driving -- but not the safest option on the highway.
Come back to see whether IIHS reaches a similar conclusion when it analyzes the film leaked yesterday. We'll have the report as soon as IIHS releases it.
See the safest affordable small cars with U.S. News' car rankings and reviews.
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