Higher vehicle hoods significantly increase pedestrian deaths, study finds

Loopholes are always going to happen...

But if you close them, then the problem is fixed.

Currently we just ignore them, instead of passing regulations that close the loophole and clarify

We could even go a step further and require plans to be approved by a regulatory agency before mass production can start.

Boom, problem solved forever.

"loophole" implies that regulators are trying to restrict them, but manufacturers are finding ways to work around those restrictions. There is no "loophole" here: CAFE standards are specifically driving manufacturers to produce larger cars.

CAFE standards gradually tighten emissions standards. The problem is that they tighten the standards on smaller cars faster than on larger cars. CAFE are making it harder and harder to make small, compliant vehicles, and easier to produce larger compliant vehicles.

This isn't a loophole. This is incompetent, counter-productive regulation.

But hey, at least he's famous now, sort of

What decision is this? I've not been paying attention to Supreme Court doings lately.

I mentioned this is another comment, but the crazy thing is that's the driver's view from M1 Abrams. Typically, in hatches open operation you'd either have a Crew Commander (and/or gunner) standing with their torso out of the turret for better visibility (and a second set of eyes), or a ground guide watching where you go.

That'd be the one.

On another note, I think your comment is causing the Boost app to crash. :/

There's another extreme, when a friend of mine took me for a ride in a two-seat convertible BMW X2 it felt like I was barely above ground. When one of the SUVs was near us at a traffic light it felt like it was going to run over us without even noticing

I sit to pee because I'm lazy

But it takes slightly more work though the make the deed sitting

I fuckin guarantee remarks will be made about your penis size and your penchant for the cock

Every country on the planet other than the US will call someone gay for driving a large truck?

There are plenty of things vans aren't suitable for--towing fifth wheels or holding oversized power equipment, for instance. Nor are vans any better for visibility than the trucks on OP's list. Many start as the same truck frames and then have a different body placed on top.

Comedians would absolutely, definitely be the best way to swing this

It's probably better than hoping corporations and politicians rein things in though.

I mean I agree lol

It's been shown time and again that Americans get their news from comedy shows and their comedy from news broadcasts.

Bonus points if that truck has never seen a day of real truck work.

New insult unlocked!

Sitting up higher only makes you feel safer. A taller car (especially a hatchback on stilts like most crossovers are) makes you more likely to roll over, and less able to make defensive maneuvers.

That said, now that every car on the street is a damned SUV, you’d need a damned semi truck to gain any real visibility advantage.

Get one of those Google Street View cars with the 360 degree cameras on a pole and wear VR goggles or something.

The seats keep creeping up higher but so do the windows. And the windows are farther and farther away from the driver. If we continue the current trend, soon there will be no more than slits on eye level.

If you remember older cars like Mr Beans Mini, the windows went down to the elbows and were right up to the driver. Of course that's less comfortable, but I prefer the all around view of older cars to the "elevated position" with firing holes for windows.

Now with optional add on to munch 20% more child per child!

Are you high? Nothing about this is related to semis

A pedestrian’s body doesn’t slide up the hood obstruction-free. It gets mangled by a sconce.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's 1998 Global Technical Regulation Number 9 deals with pedestrian safety sets out how countries should test the pedestrian safety of vehicle exteriors. The U.K.'s Individual Vehicle Approval framework, which is based on the aforementioned Global Technical Regulation, limits the size and presence of sharp edges on any surface where a pedestrian or cyclist is likely to impact in the event of a collision. According to the U.K. regulation, protrusions greater than 5 mm (0.195 inches) must have a radius of at least 2.5 mm (0.098 inches), and further rules prohibit protrusions on which pedestrians could get caught in the event on an impact. These and other regional E.U. laws made it prohibitively difficult to engineer pop-up headlights into a vehicle.

They weren't killing people, I don't think, but they were unnecessarily sharp protrusions. They can still be used, but you have to make them roundish and smooth, which is tougher to accomplish with a flush-with-hood-look. It's more that to meet EU regulations, they would look uglier.

I think the bigger issue isn't death but simply that you can get caught on them, instead of rolling over the vehicle, which causes less harm.

The thing wrong with cars was the psyop the oil companies played on North Americans in the 50s that it was the ultimate symbol of freedom, before designing entire metropolises around them and causing everyone to have to sit in their car for 2 hours a day needlessly.

I'd argue there's nothing wrong with trucks, either. Some folk have a legitimate use for them: fitting construction material and lumber in the back; towing a trailer.

The problem is two fold, I figure: we've got a bunch of folk driving trucks (and SUVs) around that never have a legitimate use for them other than a status symbol. Then there's the folk that have a partial need for them, but can't afford to keep multiple vehicles around, so they're stuck driving the truck they need a fraction of the time.

I'm in the latter category. If i could reliably rent a truck to haul/tow with, I'd replace my family's Tacoma with a sedan, and save a bunch of money in the process.

The point being that owners are buying these vehicles to be the "winner" in any collision that may happen, and that includes with pedestrians.

I'm sorry if you're short... The truck is the answer to the age old question, "How did the dinosaurs get so damn big!?" Initially they were really small lizards but then as soon as the truck showed up in the form of a truck-like dinosaur, then all dinosaurs started to evolve into taller dinosaurs if they survived.... survival of the fittest they say.

BISCUIT.

Interesting, I did not know that.

I hope now that cameras are cheap and common that they will start adding them to busses to cover those blind spots. Not a perfect solution, but better than nothing.

The craziest part about that too, is that militaries typically acknowledge these poor sight lines and have procedures in place. I drove a Bison in the Canadian Army, and we had to have either a crew command (up higher on the vehicle with a better view) or a ground guide (literally a personal walking in front of the vehicle).

There's also like 30 adults outside the school looking out for children who are being dumbasses. And when they're not in the school they have those swingy arms to push them out of the way/give them a hint.

Edgy teens doing their thing. Or emotionally stunted adults who never grew out of it.

To admit would be letting 'the libruls' win. They know, but it will remain a closely guarded dark secret.

I have yet to actually be killed by it yet - so far - but several drivers seem to enjoy getting WITHIN INCHES of my body as I walk through a crosswalk, sometimes in heavy snow in sub-freezing temperatures where I struggle to even walk while they enjoy their climate-controlled cockpit with all the comforts of home, yet still want to shave off a few seconds of their commute. This has happened in both areas that heavily lean Democrat as well as ones that heavily lean Republican. In the former it is usually a smaller Lexus or BMW, while in the latter it is usually a giant vehicle, either truck or SUV. Also from what I have been told, the concept of "soccer mom" is a real one - a tiny person who can barely see over the wheel of a vehicle not made for tiny people, who drives perhaps once a month when their rotation comes up, not bothering to adjust the vehicle better for them, or to practice more often to become a safer driver.

In all of the above, as with the virus, the underlying attitude (whether rich or poor, liberal or conservative, whatever) is the same: I want MY way, the rest of you can deal with it as best you can - or die, whatever.

Somehow this idea of people abusing their vehicles with extreme negligence in the form of literally running over children like they are in a video game offends people's sensibilities, yet the same identical thought applied elsewhere gets the opposite reaction. e.g. if you knew that you had COVID, and you visit someone anyway (your >80-year-old grandparents?; crucially: before the vaccine existed) over their explicit objection that you only come if you have no symptoms, and then they die, how is that not "murder", or at least a form of almost murderous negligence? Not only did MANY people die (or get long-term symptoms) from exactly and precisely this scenario (a wedding, a funeral, a party or church service, etc.), but it also spread the pandemic much faster than it would have otherwise, flying in the face of the "flatten the curve" advice from scientists, affecting whole entire schools, churches, hospitals, and entire communities by the actions of just a few.

This is also btw the identical reason why groceries cost so much right now: they want to get THEIR way, so they just... do.

This is why society has rules: to provide a guiding light showing us how we all need to behave, or else experience the consequences (though anyone can be MORE friendly than those mandate, at any time). Hence why we might want an evidence-based policy on vehicles with higher hoods. Because people are literally dying here. We'll see if anyone cares, more than simply saying platitudes I mean, in the sense of taking any action to help stop it.