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.
The size of your car is irrelevant when you are bouncing off roadside objects. It is relevant when you interact with other vehicles on the road. The more massive you are relative to your fellow crashee, the less forces act on the passengers inside. Simple momentum and impulse physics.
You should check out all european small cars like renault. This video is part of an episode of fifth gear. It´s a volvo crashing against a renault modus. It´s about the size of a yaris
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3ygYUYia9I
So why did you ram your car into a 6-foot-high dirt embankment?
Why did you leave the highway and hit a dirt wall? We’re you texting?
Things about it in terms of energy, not size of car. To get a behemoth like a normal SUV rolling to 60mph, it takes a ton of energy. That’s why they’re fuel inefficient. Now a smaller car like yours takes only a fraction of the energy to get up to that speed, thus there’s less energy to be released in an impact. The only downside is, as andre above pointed out, you’d be a small metal cube in a head on collision with an SUV.
I meant to ask:
Why did you leave the highway and hit a dirt wall? Were you texting, or did you perhaps fall asleep?
Glad you’re okay. So sorry you went through that accident.
I do think these posts re: mass and force of a collision with a Suburban, Escalade or 18-wheeler are legitimate worries, which is why I’ve been saying for a while that auto manufacturers need to make green technology applicable to larger cars.
I am surprised. Ialways thought if you got hit in one of those tiny cars that you would history.
Jiff
http://www.privacy-center.be.tc
That’s a long way to go to prove a point!