Actually the headline on the New York Times story says Study Says Minicar Buyers Sacrifice Safety. But the study looked at head-on collisions between minicars and larger cars (twice as heavy in the case of Smart vs Mercedes C class). Since momentum is conserved, a car weighing half as much experiences twice the change in velocity in a head-on crash and hence is much more dangerous to the occupants in such a collision.
But whether a minicar is safer or not depends on your perspective. It's more dangerous for the occupants, but it's safer for the people in the bigger car. The NYT article…
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