No. The hood's way too long and horizontal to be a Smart. Like several other posters, I'm pretty sure it's a Peugeot 106.

I thought about the safety factor, too, when I looked at how easily that bike penetrated the right side. Peugeots, of course, are not sold in the American market, and do not have to meet American safety standards.

But I'm sure that European countries, primarily France, where the 106 was designed, have their own standards, even if somewhat more lax than ours. And, side door-beams or not, there's only so much you can do to keep out a biker who apparantly was going way too fast.....either that, or the driver just pulled out in front of the bike wthout looking.

 

Bear in mind the Peugeot 106 was designed in the late 80s and was sold from 1991 to 2003, so it didn't have side airbags and was not designed to modern side impact standards. Modern small Peugeots meet much higher crash specifications.

Euro NCAP standards are comparable to US standards - not surprising really as so many cars are sold in both markets and NHTSA has been working for the last 10 years towards harmonisation of the two testing procedures.

 

Don't know about France, but we've had side-impact standards here in America for almost 40 years. GM, I think, first introduced side-door guard beams in the late 60's....a few years later DOT made them mandatory.

 

That's true but these safety features were found to be ineffective in real world collisions with other vehicles and and it wasn't until 1996 that US cars were all equipped with side impact protection that actually demonstrated its usefulness in crash testing.

 

That was 1997, not 1996, but your point is well taken.