>>"The body and frame are designed with crush/crumple zones and roll-over protection, and the tandem seating means large side crush zones. Volkswagen claims protection comparable to a GT racing car. The car has anti-lock brakes, airbags with pressure sensors, and stability control." - in a car that weighed 290kg empty.
Trouble is that the laws of physics are more interested in mass and momentum than in crumple zones. When a two-ton behemoth rear-ends the 290kg vehicle, the lighter vehicle changes trajectory quickly enough to disengage neck vertebrae while the SUV driver brakes to a halt and says "ooh, what was that."
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
