Are Tiny, Gas-Saving Cars Unsafe? Today Mine Saved My Life
I rolled my Toyota Yaris three times this morning after hitting a six-foot-high dirt embankment at highway speed. I crawled out with no more than a bump on my head, seat belt burn, and a massively stiff neck. So, for all you small car safety-doubters out there, I’ve now got personal experience to say otherwise.
Inevitably, whenever we post about small electric cars, funky three-wheelers, or any other small fuel-efficient vehicle here at Gas 2.0, we get typical responses along the lines of “It may get 60 mpg, but that thing’s a death trap,” or “It’s nice to drive electric, but would you trust that car to your family?”
After this morning’s shenanigans, I can unequivocally say “Yes. Yes I would trust my family to a small fuel-efficient car, and I’m miraculously alive and mostly uninjured… so no, it’s not a death trap.”
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My Yaris got 40 mpg and weighed less than half (35%) of a Chevy Suburban. From the outside it may not have looked very substantial, but it sure saved me on fuel costs. And, until today, I would have grudgingly agreed that it may not be as safe as driving a behemoth like the Suburban.
But now that my life has stopped flashing before my eyes, and I’ve had a chance to think, it is simply amazing that I walked away from that crash barely bleeding. I mean, just look at the remnants of my car.
In fact, after today, I think I fared better in my Yaris than I would have in a Suburban land yacht. Imagine how many times I would have flipped in the Suburban and the force of impact that would have come along with crashing a 6,447 pound car?
So, for everybody out there that’s using safety as an excuse to not go green, I must ask you to please take a look at that picture of my car and the wonder of how I walked away well enough to write this post the same day. Then try turning around and telling me that these upcoming small alternative cars aren’t safe simply because they’re small.
It’s more a matter of engineering, and, at least in Toyota’s case, those engineers are miracle-workers.
Editor’s note: This post was updated on October 22, at 8:00 am PST, to correct the curb weight of the Chevy Suburban from 8,600 lbs to 6,447 lbs. 8,600 lbs was the gross vehicle weight rating. 6,447 lbs is the weight of the heaviest Suburban — the 3/4 ton model with four wheel drive. My thanks to Ben Wojdyla, Associate Editor at Jalopnik.com, and the commenters on this post who pointed out that discrepancy.
BTW that link posted in the very first comment lost all of its credibility when it referred to unibody construction as unit-body. When someone doesn’t know something as basic as that about cars, it’s very hard to take them seriously.
OK I should also make it clear that I’m not a callous asshole who doesn’t give two shits about people. I’m glad you’re okay, I don’t wish death on anyone that doesn’t deserve it.
It’s interesting to note how many people still think they’re safer in a SUV if they happen to collide with a small car like the Yaris.
Mass is the biggest factor to consider in collisions, and thus a smaller car will always lose its momentum faster than a larger car, thus more at the mercy of whatever it collides with. And let’s say you’re really insecure, so you buy the biggest, heaviest SUV you can find, because you’re pretty sure that its sheer mass will destroy anything in its path, keeping you safe.
The problem with that logic is that automobile collisions become increasingly more deadly as the vehicles get bigger, because bigger vehicles take much more time and force to slow down. On an open road, the smaller car has a pretty good chance of simply bouncing off your SUV rather than being crushed like a soda can, and without sufficient stopping force from the impact with the car, your SUV will likely lose control and keep on barreling through. And once you lose control, you’re not going to get it back as easily as if you had a smaller vehicle.
The only time where you’re going to be practically safe in a SUV vs. compact collision is if you’re in a head-on collision, and you’re lucky enough that your SUV doesn’t just drive over the small car and end up flipping over.
If sheer mass was what really made the difference between life and death in collisions, then the safest drivers would be driving big rigs. But since most of you safe drivers obviously aren’t truckers, then there’s probably some perfectly good explanation as to why a smaller vehicle is safer.
Reality speaks louder than words here . . . OPEC by consistently raising oil prices by cutting production, to cushion and save their own asses, are forcing freight back to the rails, Closing GM and its Humburbans and Escalades, and promoting Yaris, VW and Smart cars. Given built in planned obsolescence and the current rising oil price threat from OPEC and the Saudis, our highways will be transport truck-free and “Big vehicle” -free in about four or five years! I look forward to my three wheeler, carbon fiber bodied, polymer composite re-enforced for lighter weight, bio-turbo H2 boosted diesel/electric plug-in super commuter car. I expect to travel at 140 kph (80 mph) and get 100 mpg for a mortgage busting, life-style enhancing, boost to my budget - no Hummburbans in sight, no transport trucks left on the roads, and all big cars reduced to rusting piles of hardened rubber and glass! I will no longer be enslaved and over-taxed by big oil, or big steel - Make way for an Eco-happy 21st century! P.S> Glad you lived to continue the small car crusade, we need you now more than ever!
I was rear ended at a off ramp by a Ford F350, while driving a Horizon, by a driver who expected me to run a red light, so he could run the red light. The rear end of the Horizon was crushed in. The only injure I had was a bad bruise from the shoulder strap and a stiff neck. Seat belt with shoulder strap saved my life.
Years before, I was rear ended while riding a bicycle, by a teenager, driving a van, while on a joyride. I spent 4 weeks in a USAF hospital, air transported to a VA hospital for another year of spinal rehabilitation. I prefer a affordable small reliable car, like the Yaris. Far safer than riding a bicycle. Plus I will add a ton less CO2 into the air each year than the average person driving a SUV. Plus the manafacture will put less CO2 into the air while producing a small car. Less CO2 will be put into air shipping a small car to the dealer. Less CO2 will be put into the air recycling the car after it’s useful life. That way I reduce green house gases and help slow Global Warming. Plus for the cost of a Suburban, I can buy 2 small cars and save $60 a month on gasoline as well.
For those who think that their large box frame SUV is safer than a 4 door economy hatchback should watch Fifth Gear on You Tube. Fifth Gear pulled a large box frame vehicle at 35 mph into a 4 door economy hatchback moving 35 mph. The impact was head on just involving the driver’s side of the vehicle. One thing crashing a vehicle into a unmovable wall cannot tell is how two moving objects react when they hit each other. The lighter 4 door economy vehicle pivots around the larger box frame vehicle crushing in driver’s side of the SUV. The crash dummy’s legs were pinned in the SUV. The crash dummy in the 4 door economy hatchback was easy removed. In a real crash the driver of the box frame vehicle would have to be cut out of the vehicle and life flighted to the nearest hospital because of leg injuries. If this had been a real accident the driver of the 4 door economy hatchback would walk away from the accident with a badly bruised shoulder from the seat belt shoulder strap. The number of vehicles that hit head on off center are less than 1% of accidents. The head on off center crash are the cause of the majority of fatal accidents. I figure I have as much chance of surviving a head on off center accident in my Yaris as the driver of a box frame large vehicle has of surviving.