| David Williams 2007-06-30, 8:25 pm |
| -> I speak with some experience in the automotive body repair world along with
-> many years of driving experience. A car that contains so little mass and
-> physical room between ones body and the metalwork will offer very little
-> resistance to an impact of a much more substantial construction. While
-> trucks are getting bigger, faster and carry heavier loads, I cannot trust
-> small vehicles to share the highways where there are serious accidents on a
-> daily basis. These vehicles may be appropriate, and better than a bicycle,
-> in a city setting and on local, low speed streets, but not to compete on the
-> highway.
-> I drive a minivan, and have had problems with small Hondas, which are much
-> bigger than the "Smart" car, cutting from the right hand lane in front of
-> the van where I cannot see the driver trying to move into my lane and almost
-> hit the vehicle. I can see that "Smart" cars can end up in many blind spots
-> and appear to not be there and end up in a serious accident, with little
-> resistance to impact.
The Smart has been around for long enough for some real statistics to
have built up about its accident rate, as opposed to speculations. In
reality, it does not seem to be especially dangerous.
If your vehicle has blind spots in which *anything* could hide, then
it's *your* reponsibilty to get rid of them, by installing mirrors or
whatever. If an accident occurs because you have not done this, then
it's *your* fault, not the other driver's, nor the designers' of the
other vehicle.
dow
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