Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) shouldn't share busy public roads wit

A Smart Fortwo would kill the NEV driver in a 31 mph side crash test. In a headline grabbing release by the IIHS this morning, more states are allowing a relatively new breed of vehicle on public roads, but crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show why the mix of low-speed NEVs or minitrucks and regular traffic is a deadly combination. The NEVs are designed for tooling around residential neighborhoods, and minitrucks are for hauling cargo off-road. While these vehicles have a lot of appeal as a way to reduce emissions and cut fuel use, they don't have to meet the basic safety standards that cars and pickups do, and they aren't designed to protect their occupants in crashes.