If you live in the U.S. sunbelt or in an upscale gated community, you've probably seen quite a few of those hopped-up electric golf carts trolling around your neighborhood. These low-speed vehicles are great for zipping to the mailbox or heading over to the clubhouse, and the vehicles are currently allowed on select public roads in 46 of the 50 United States. But even though they're perfectly legal in many areas, The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has a pretty serious warning for anyone looking to take these vehicles onto high-traffic areas. IIHS tested both a GEM electric cart and a minitruck in side impact crashes, and the results were sobering to say the least.

The first test was a side impact affair between a GEM EV and a crash barrier moving at 31 miles per hour. The crash test dummy, which was buckled up and in the driver's seat, showed injuries consistent with catastrophic injury or death. IIHS then performed the same test with a Smart ForTwo replacing the barrier, but the results were very similar. The crash, which typically nets relatively low injury risk for vehicles with high safety scores, was so severe that the crash dummy's head almost hits the ForTwo's windshield. Chief research officer David Zuby said that the test shows that these vehicles "weren't designed to protect people in a crash with a microcar like the Smart ForTwo, let alone larger cars, SUVs, and pickups in everyday traffic."

After demolishing a few GEMs, the IIHS then focused its glare on the 2008 Tiger Star minitruck. The Tiger was pitted against a 2010 Ford Ranger in an offset front crash with the minitruck going 25 mph and the Ford 35 mph. The results were similarly catastrophic, with the Ranger dummy relatively unharmed while the Tiger dummy's head hit the steering wheel hard in spite of the fact that it was wearing a safety belt. Hit the jump to read over the IIHS' strongly worded press release.



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