Battery Vehicle Society

People used to die in 10mph collisions, but car safety has come a long way since then. However, you have to look beyond simple crash testing.

Should safety be measured in injury rate per accident, per mile travelled, or per hour driven?

The safest type of vehicle to drive in Paris, a city notorious for the number of collisions every day, is a Micro-car. Defined in UK regulations as a 'Heavy Quadricycle', they simply don't seem to get involved in collisions in which they are in theory 'less safe'.

I agree completely with qdos and Paul. The original mini effictively did have the dagger pointing at your chest - the steering colomn being a solid shaft with no where to go but towards the driver!

A car that does well at the NCAP 40mph test will be a right mess at 60, for sure, there is simply too much energy to shift safely.

And yes, cars are as safe as you drive them. But things like collapsable steering columns and controlled pedal intrusion are not difficult to produce and can save a lot of lives and limbs.

Its all about public perception of what is safe or not; if a car manufacture made a car that got half a star at NCAP the press would tear it to shreads and it would just not sell in Europe. It'll be interesting to see how the Tata Nano gets on over here! Surely there is no need for it, as you'd hardly take it on open roads, so you might as well have and electric car...

People can drive what they like, as long as they are not endangering anyone but themselves, I suppose.

I think its great that these vehicles are becoming available to Jo Public, and it'll be nice to see more of them on the road.

favguy wrote:Well, Smart have just been facelifted and don't look like this anymore... Also, close up, they are quite different, so I think we'll be fine.

Also for reference a dealer has been selling a similar model in the US for some time with no issues from Smart as yet

If you have one in this country, you would be very welcome to bring it along this Saturday an be in our EV display - then we can see it 'in the flesh'

(See the events section of the forum for details about this Saturday's event in the North-West)

Mary.

Hi Mary,
We'd have loved to, but don't have one ashore just yet, next meeting for sure!

Regards

Paul