Bloomberg reports the large number of SUVs and trucks in the US is an “urban safety crisis” because of larger vehicles that “share streets with pedestrians and cyclists are more deadly than compact or mid-sized cars.” A recent report by the Governor’s Highway Safety Association “cites the growing popularity of SUVs as a primary culprit for the recent increase in pedestrian fatalities.” In 2019, “some 8,800 pedestrians were killed in the United States, 45% more than a decade ago.” The federal government has been “wary of dissuading buyers from choosing SUVs and pickups, whose juicy profit margins have lifted Detroit automakers during the last decade.” NHTSA “manages automotive design through the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and the New Car Assessment Program, but it has not leveraged either to protect vulnerable street users.” Bloomberg says that if city leaders “want to see fewer of these dangerous, hulking vehicles on their streets in the coming years, they’ll need to take action themselves.”
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
