Thinking of going green by purchasing a Smart Car? Well, you may want to rethink that. I have on occasion blogged about many topics in the past dealing with alternative-fueled vehicles and it is no secret that I am a big proponent of “Green” technologies. I must now do a flip-flop on my position just a little.

After receiving one of those emails that has been passed around more times than Paris Hilton that contained an image that I have found both fascinating and chilling I decided to see if the story is real. The image was of some poor bastard in a Smart car sandwiched between two dump trucks making the econo-box look more like a compressed accordion than anything that remotely resembles a car. At first I thought it was a clever Photoshop image, but after some research I confirmed that the accident happened in Jefferson Parish (New Orleans), Louisiana on May 2009. Oddly enough I could not find any information on the driver's condition, but you shouldn’t have to use too much gray matter to figure out that the driver probably met his demise in this unfortunate mishap.

Those who have followed the development of Daimler’s tiny and trendy microcar, have surely wondered about this vehicle's safety. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash tested the Fortwo and found it performed so well it earned the Institute's best ratings for front and side crash protection. Plus, its rear crash worthiness was rated as "acceptable," the Institute's second-highest rating. Does that make you feel any better? Not me.

So how small is the Smart? At just a hair over 106 inches long; the Smart Fortwo is over three feet shorter and about five inches narrower than the Mini.

Any vehicle "short of another dump truck" would have suffered the same crumpled fate as the Fortwo did in the photo. There are a lot of reasons that people will buy a Fortwo but safety may be a harder sell because of this car's tiny size in a world of much larger vehicles. I am all for going “Green” and the Smart may be a great little car but I would sure as hell want to put my loved ones in something bigger.