When a Smart Fortwo collided with a Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan, in new crash tests done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the little Smart car went airborne and did what amounted to a pirouette. The news was not much better when the institute crashed a Honda Fit into a Honda Accord, and a Toyota Yaris into a Toyota Camry.
Officials at the institute, which is financed by the insurance industry, said people pretty much know they aren’t going to fare well if a Fortwo tangles with a Hummer. That’s why the organization used midsize cars in these tests — to show that very small cars will be the losers in crashes, even with slightly bigger vehicles.
The small cars were 2009 models that had earlier received ratings of “good” on the institute’s standard frontal offset crash tests (the organization rates on a scale of good, acceptable, marginal and poor). The results from the latest tests, however, were far different — so different, in fact, that the Fit, Fortwo and Yaris got “poor” ratings.
Intrusion into the Fit’s occupant compartment was “extensive,” officials said, which meant a high risk of leg injury. Also, the dummy’s head struck the steering wheel through the airbag.
After it struck the front of the C-Class, the Smart became airborne and turned around 450 degrees. There was excessive movement of the dummy during rebound and extensive intrusion into the space around the dummy from head to foot. The instrument panel and the steering wheel were shoved up and toward the dummy in the Smart.
The door of the Yaris was largely torn away. The driver’s seats in both the Yaris and Camry tipped forward, but only in the Yaris did the steering wheel move excessively. The heads of the dummies in both cars struck the steering wheels through the airbags, but only in the Yaris did the head injury measure rate a “poor.”
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