This pdf shows that it seems “light trucks” which includes SUVs account for pretty much all the growth in pedestrian fatalities - GHSA Pedestrian Fatalitis
What’s interesting is that the growth is pretty much all night time crashes. If this information is correct, it raises the question if the increase is due to slower reaction times at night compounded by the heavier vehicles or is it simply that SUVs when involved in an accident lead to death over injury.
Sadly I can’t find a “pedestrian accidents” by year, as that would help to better understand if less people are surviving the same number of accidents or if more accidents are happening due to the increase in SUV usage.
This is it. A 2006 Ford F150 has a hood height of 51 inches, or just over 4 feet. Getting hit by one of these would be bad, but for many people it wouldn’t likely result in a head injury. A 2026 Ford F150 has a hood height of 75 inches, or more than 6 feet tall. Getting hit by one of these as a pedestrian is practically a guaranteed head injury.
I’m sure there are other factors. Higher speeds, lack of investment in infrastructure, political unwillingness to make any changes that might increase congestion or slow down drivers. But I believe hood height is playing a huge role in the type and severity of pedestrian injuries in the US and Canada.
Not sure where the actual numbers came from that they posted, but pedestrian fatalities correlates well with “hood height” of the vehicle. I’m referencing from memory here and would have to go digging for the actual source. The “hood height” could be slightly ambiguous but was taken as the point where the hood basically turns. Think about a 90’s minivan and it’s pretty low, a sedan is also low, a new gmc sierra or whatever is not so low.
The fact that it’s more difficult to see someone in front of you when your hood is 6 feet up probably has a lot to do with it too. Takes longer to stop a heavier vehicle too.
Commercial driving licenses exist to ensure there’s additional training for people driving a large vehicles. But there’s no additional training needed for driving massive pickup trucks.
I don’t like my chances as a pedestrian getting hit by even a Honda Civic. But I think someone driving a Civic is more likely to see me and stop their car before hitting me than someone driving a lifted F-350.
Instead of advocating for proportional representation to prevent vote splitting or vote skipping you tankies demand perfectionism allowing the fascist to win unopposed on the ballot resulting in many people of colour getting tortured and murdered by ice and Israel getting armed no questions asked for their bs acceleration fantasy tearing everything down in hopes a magically leftist government appears out of nowhere.
It was the tankies that decided not to have a primary for the Democratic nominee? Biden was unpopular by the end and Harris wanted to do everything he did, except she wanted to make the military more lethal and said she would have a Republican in her cabinet. Biden pushed through in the last months of his term the opening up of several new ICE facilities and gladly continued arming Israel when it was well documented that they were committing genocide, and Harris would do the same. The dems seemingly did everything they could to sabotage the election. Is your view really that the entire blame for Trump and the fascist rise to power is due to tankies? They really had a tiny impact if anything compared to every other thing that secured Trump’s win.
Plus car companies starting to aggressively push larger and larger SUVs + Trucks onto the US market. The visibility out the front is worse, more weight = more energy = harder to brake, higher center of mass on the grill means people are more likely to roll under the vehicle instead of over when a collision actually does occur.
Yeah, that’s also a big factor. I think a factor would also be that EU has stricter safety laws, it’s usually much harder to get a license than in the US, has better infrastructure, etc.
Not to mention that new US cars (as far as I’m aware) still don’t even have a requirement to have ADAS, doesn’t really help the situation. If an idiot is on their phone here, there’s at least some chance that their car will brake… but even more dangerous if it’s a twatmobile of course.
Cultural changes. More people started preferring bigger vehicles, becoming more aggressive, seeing pedestrians as adversaries, and voting for the far right
Idk. I remember cars getting crazy big in the early 2000’s. The COMPLAINING when gas went nuts in the mid 2000’s was hilarious.
You bought an Expedition or Hummer and want to cry for cheap gas? There was an old lady in a newish (no idea how new) Corvette at the gas station complaining about the cost to me. While I was driving a POS 1990 VW Jetta. Amazing
I’d like to know the real reason the rate is going up though.
Early 2000s big vehicles are tiny compared to modern SUVs and trucks. I work somewhere with a garage that sees mostly SUVs, and one day someone had brought in a Hummer H2. The classic monstrosity of its time. That thing parked next to a brand new Escalade or Yukon is absolutely dwarfed. Its about the same size as the average modern SUV. But compared to the average size of a 2000s sedan its huge, so people remember it as being bigger than it was
Up until recently I drove a nice early 2000s passat. That was a family car in its day, but its easily dwarfed by any modern sedan.
Anyone know what changed circa 2010?
This pdf shows that it seems “light trucks” which includes SUVs account for pretty much all the growth in pedestrian fatalities - GHSA Pedestrian Fatalitis
What’s interesting is that the growth is pretty much all night time crashes. If this information is correct, it raises the question if the increase is due to slower reaction times at night compounded by the heavier vehicles or is it simply that SUVs when involved in an accident lead to death over injury.
Sadly I can’t find a “pedestrian accidents” by year, as that would help to better understand if less people are surviving the same number of accidents or if more accidents are happening due to the increase in SUV usage.
I think that’s around when SUVs started really becoming commonplace and “everyday” pickup trucks like the f150 started getting gi-fucking-normous.
This is it. A 2006 Ford F150 has a hood height of 51 inches, or just over 4 feet. Getting hit by one of these would be bad, but for many people it wouldn’t likely result in a head injury. A 2026 Ford F150 has a hood height of 75 inches, or more than 6 feet tall. Getting hit by one of these as a pedestrian is practically a guaranteed head injury.
I’m sure there are other factors. Higher speeds, lack of investment in infrastructure, political unwillingness to make any changes that might increase congestion or slow down drivers. But I believe hood height is playing a huge role in the type and severity of pedestrian injuries in the US and Canada.
A 75" hood height is stupid.
Are all your mechanics Swedish volleyball players and where is the shop?
This is absolute bullshit, I am just over 6’ and there is not a stock car on the market in America that I cannot see over the hood.
Not sure where the actual numbers came from that they posted, but pedestrian fatalities correlates well with “hood height” of the vehicle. I’m referencing from memory here and would have to go digging for the actual source. The “hood height” could be slightly ambiguous but was taken as the point where the hood basically turns. Think about a 90’s minivan and it’s pretty low, a sedan is also low, a new gmc sierra or whatever is not so low.
Yeah it’s maybe cab height? Not hood height for sure haha.
The trick is to put it in a lift before you measure
They certainly don’t help but according to this, the spike is related to smartphones not trucks/SUVs
That scale though. You could stretch or squeeze any data to fit a curve like that.
The data is linked in the post
Yeah, it’s still a bad way of presenting it.
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The fact that it’s more difficult to see someone in front of you when your hood is 6 feet up probably has a lot to do with it too. Takes longer to stop a heavier vehicle too.
Commercial driving licenses exist to ensure there’s additional training for people driving a large vehicles. But there’s no additional training needed for driving massive pickup trucks.
I don’t like my chances as a pedestrian getting hit by even a Honda Civic. But I think someone driving a Civic is more likely to see me and stop their car before hitting me than someone driving a lifted F-350.
Good thing tankies got Trump elected again after Biden pushed to include pedestrian-safety into vehicle design.
Congrats, this is the dumbest fucking comment I’ve seen on the internet today.
Instead of advocating for proportional representation to prevent vote splitting or vote skipping you tankies demand perfectionism allowing the fascist to win unopposed on the ballot resulting in many people of colour getting tortured and murdered by ice and Israel getting armed no questions asked for their bs acceleration fantasy tearing everything down in hopes a magically leftist government appears out of nowhere.
It was the tankies that decided not to have a primary for the Democratic nominee? Biden was unpopular by the end and Harris wanted to do everything he did, except she wanted to make the military more lethal and said she would have a Republican in her cabinet. Biden pushed through in the last months of his term the opening up of several new ICE facilities and gladly continued arming Israel when it was well documented that they were committing genocide, and Harris would do the same. The dems seemingly did everything they could to sabotage the election. Is your view really that the entire blame for Trump and the fascist rise to power is due to tankies? They really had a tiny impact if anything compared to every other thing that secured Trump’s win.
Smart phones
A possible correlation would be that smartphones became much more popular and mainstream during that time.
Plus car companies starting to aggressively push larger and larger SUVs + Trucks onto the US market. The visibility out the front is worse, more weight = more energy = harder to brake, higher center of mass on the grill means people are more likely to roll under the vehicle instead of over when a collision actually does occur.
It’s interesting how Europe has a different trend.
Trucks / SUVs / twat mobiles certainly less popular. But perhaps they don’t use their phones when driving as much either?
https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-02/ff_pedestrians_20230213.pdf
Yeah, that’s also a big factor. I think a factor would also be that EU has stricter safety laws, it’s usually much harder to get a license than in the US, has better infrastructure, etc.
Not to mention that new US cars (as far as I’m aware) still don’t even have a requirement to have ADAS, doesn’t really help the situation. If an idiot is on their phone here, there’s at least some chance that their car will brake… but even more dangerous if it’s a twatmobile of course.
USA smartphone adoption, pedestrian fatalities, and the average weight SUVs/pickups https://lemmy.world/post/48427091
With different scales like that, you could make any data fit that curve.
Cultural changes. More people started preferring bigger vehicles, becoming more aggressive, seeing pedestrians as adversaries, and voting for the far right
Idk. I remember cars getting crazy big in the early 2000’s. The COMPLAINING when gas went nuts in the mid 2000’s was hilarious.
You bought an Expedition or Hummer and want to cry for cheap gas? There was an old lady in a newish (no idea how new) Corvette at the gas station complaining about the cost to me. While I was driving a POS 1990 VW Jetta. Amazing
I’d like to know the real reason the rate is going up though.
Early 2000s big vehicles are tiny compared to modern SUVs and trucks. I work somewhere with a garage that sees mostly SUVs, and one day someone had brought in a Hummer H2. The classic monstrosity of its time. That thing parked next to a brand new Escalade or Yukon is absolutely dwarfed. Its about the same size as the average modern SUV. But compared to the average size of a 2000s sedan its huge, so people remember it as being bigger than it was
Up until recently I drove a nice early 2000s passat. That was a family car in its day, but its easily dwarfed by any modern sedan.