A Big Debate Over Small Car Safety
So, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) decided to see what would happen when minicars (like the Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit and smart fortwo) crashed head-on into mid-sizers (like the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Mercedes C-Class), with both vehicles traveling at 40 mph. And to no one's surprise, the much lighter minicars didn't do very well.
It's always hard to figure out exactly what the IIHS is really up to '” remember, it's run by the insurance industry '” but, based on its press release, I'd say it's a bit of the ol' bait-and-switch.
Now, most people should realize that, at some point in the equation, fuel efficiency and safety become mutually incompatible. For any two cars, all else being similar, the heavier one will get less gas mileage but be safer, while the lighter one will fare worse in crashes but do better with the EPA. (And keep in mind that the same logic applies to electric and alternative-fuel vehicles. At this stage in the game, the primary way to increase the range of these vehicles is by cutting their weight.)
The IIHS report naturally comes to the same conclusion, making two basic points. The first is the obvious one: when two cars collide at a closing speed of 80 mph, the one that weighs about 2,000 lbs. is going to lose to the one that weighs about 3,500 lbs. No argument there.
Then, the IIHS goes on to imply that car companies should not be building smaller, lighter cars to boost fuel efficiency, because the safety tradeoffs are too high. But that's even though the only suggestion the institute can come up with for saving fuel without making lighter vehicles is lowering the speed limit back down to 55 mph. Which is a whole different container of annelids I'll save for another day.
Anyway, what the IIHS report truly showcases is exactly how difficult it is to get a public consensus on what automakers should be doing. Build smaller, more fuel-efficient cars? Build safer cars, even if they're heavier and use more gas or electricity? Keep building huge fuel-sucking SUVs for as long as people want to buy them?
Right now, trying to dig the economy out of a major meltdown, the Obama administration has put its own weight behind getting the U.S. automakers to focus on fuel efficiency and alternative fuels. The government is even willing to pay the automakers (with our money) to help them meet these goals. Which doesn't mean anyone's going to give up on safety: remember, the tested minicars did have airbags and other key safety technologies that weren't available just a few years ago.
I just hope no one's flinging ye olde monkey wrench into the mix only because they want to keep insurance rates high.