Fuel standards will force lighter autos - Will this affect safety?

Question

The new energy bill will require higher mileage standards, forcing automakers to lighten their cars. With lighter cars, will cars be less safe?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071224/ap_on_bi_ge/fuel_economy_lighten_up

Answer 1

Yes it will affect safety.  And for those who see those gleaming "Best in class safety" ratings are misled.  Yes you have a high probability of surviving a crash if you hit a car of your same class ie: compact car vs. compact car or sedan vs. sedan.  But you forget about the laws of physics.  You can't tell me that a if 320 pound linebacker and a 180 pound wide receiver crash into each other that the linebacker is going to have the worst damage.  Same applies in road crashes, no amount of airbags or seat-belts is going to save you from 70 Gs.  If you still don't catch my point, why is it that semi-truck drivers always seem to survive crashes when the smaller car they hit did not fare so well?  It is simple: Bigger is better when it comes to safety.  

The cars with the best gas mileage these days owe it to less weight.  Yes a Honda Civic gets around 35 mpg, but it weighs around a thousand pounds.  Smaller engines, more light weight plastic to replace steel which all lead to better fuel economy;  but can't save your life if a larger vehicle hits you.  And if the same pattern continues, automakers will have to cut down even more weight to save gas mileage.

Answer 2

Well if they try to cheat by cutting corners on safety standards, that will only devalue the American car that much more to the already dominating Japanese auto market.

Answer 3

Sure will. It will also make our cars considerably more expensive.

People don't realize just how hard 35 MPG is. IMO the stupid Prius is probably a big part of why this bill was passed. All the lawmakers said "see? they can easily make a car that gets 35 MPG", completely ignoring the fact that the Prius makes a lot of sacrifices to get it's fuel efficiency. And also has a huge premium that goes along with it.

Even today's smallest cars have a car time getting 35 MPG. In fact the tiny Yaris gets only 34.

Answer 4

NOt necessarily--in fact it may improve safety overall.  Here's why:

>first, many lighter cars now are not only safe, they are safer than average. Look at the figures for some of the foreighn compacts, for example. Its primarily a matter of good design, not weight (contrary to the advertising).

>Second, this may reduce the number of SUV's.  SUVs are inherantly unsafe in urban driving conditions--the only reason the newer models measure up is that buyers are paying for about $5000 worth of retro-engineerig to compensate for the fact that the basic design was never intended for urban streets; it's basically an off-road vehicle.

>SUVs are also a hazard in another way--even if they protect the occupants of the vehicle, they are a psoitive danger to anything they hit. Fewer or lighter SUVs will almost certainly reduce deathsand injuries to people involved in an accident with an SUV who are not in the SUV itself.