Luckless Pedestrians

The latest in an ongoing, interminable series of studies concerning the impact sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks have had on pedestrians says that pedestrians are 59 percent more likely to get hit - most likely fatally - by an SUV or a pickup than a sedan or a hatchback.

Why?  Because they're big muthas, that's why.  Well, that's the short answer.  The long answer is that the A-pillars of these vehicles - the pillars between the windshield and the front doors - are so thick that they create blind spots that make it difficult for the driver to see pedestrians.  They have to be thick, ironically, to keep the passengers of these vehicles safe in the event of a rollover.  The high hoods of these monsters on wheels also make it difficult to the driver to see anyone approaching on foot.

In 2020, the most recent year for which data are available, 6,519 pedestrians were killed in the United States by vehicles despite reduced driving as a result of the COVID pandemic.  It was also in 2020 that SUVs and pickups accounted for over 75 percent of all new vehicles sold in the U.S.

Don't expect SUV sales to be affected anytime soon by this news, because in most America a pedestrian is defined as someone walking to his or her vehicle.   (Do-good liberals who despise SUVs, having lost the battle to prevent their mass proliferation, have shifted their attention elsewhere.)   Rising gas prices won't deter anyone from buying an SUV either.  Besides, there's one thing President Biden can say that would make even Democrats side with the January 6 insurrectionists.  That one thing is, "We need to use less gas, so you should trade your SUVs in for minicars with three-cylinder engines!" 

That's a shame, because I'd really love one of these.

You can certainly see someone coming on foot in this vehicle!  Heck, you'd have to crane your neck up to look a pedestrian in the eye!