Accidents involving a smart?

[idrivesmart]

As awful as the thought is I wonder if anyone has had an accident involving a smart car, whether it was your car or another smart. I read what the NHTSA had to say but mainly I am curious what people experience in the real world...

What was the nature of the accident?

How many vehicles involved?

Where was the smart struck?

What was severity of the crash?

Highway or local road?

Any injuries sustained (I sure hope not)?

Any photos to share?

Any advice to share?

Thanks.

[Cassie]

A client of mine had his new smart for only 2 days when he was T-boned at an intersection on by a 16 year old who ran a red light. (For all the Houstonians, this happened on Westheimer). The smart was hit on the passenger door. According to the smart owner, the Nissan truck was totalled, the smart was not. No one was hurt, and the smart owner can't wait to get back on the road once it's done being repaired! Here are some pics for ya'll...

The Nissan Truck...


The smart...





Pretty impressive!

[idrivesmart]

That's great to hear, not the accident, but the fact that no one was hurt and that the smart did so well when pitted againt a Nissan truck. Those photos are a great testiment to the smart's structural strength. Thank you Cassie!

Any idea how fast the truck was going?

[blackbeagle]

Am I just seeing things wrong here? It looks like a 10-20 mph fender bender here to me. If it was a full head on crash or pure Tbone, you wouldn't have the damages on the corner of the truck.

If I had to guess what happened here based on the pictures, I would say that the Nissan took a right turn at the intersection and hit the Smart which was going straight, thus creating the damages on the left corner.

When you put down that the Nissan was 'totaled', I was thinking of a crumpled heap of mess. This didn't look too bad to me. Maybe I just read it wrong. I'm glad no one was hurt and that the Smart held up nicely.

[Cassie]

I'm not sure the speed of the impact, however, it was a straight on T-bone, if you look at the picture you can see the hood is bent on both sides with headlight and bumper damage. I assume the Truck tried to veer off to the right at the last second thus causing more damage to the left side. He also advised the Nissan was totalled...maybe the frame was bent?? I'm just going on what he told me. But I think the smart held up great condsidering the damage to the truck...and no one got hurt!

But you're right, it wasn't a MAJOR accident, it wasn't my intention to imply that, sorry if I misled you.

[rfernatt]

Originally Posted by Cassie

He also advised the Nissan was totalled...maybe the frame was bent??

It was probably totalled because the truck is a mid-90's 2WD model Nissan "hard body" truck (pre-Frontier). It wouldn't take too much damage for an insurance company to total such an old, low value vehicle.

[Cassie]

Ok Ok! I take back the "totalled" comment!

[SmartAzz]

That is impressive, from the truck's damage it was not just a tiny fender bender, looks like the Smart design did it's job.

[xcrew229x]

It would be most interesting to get a good followup on this, as the only real way to determine the damage to the smart will be measurements on a frame rack. How about it, Cassie?

[meaux61]

The tridion is the frame...right??? All one piece?

Was it damaged?

Meaux