New bill could put huge limitation on size of cars – as lawmakers push to protect pedestrians and cyclists

LAWMAKERS are implementing a bill that will put strict standards on trucks and vehicles as safety researchers find they’re getting bigger.

Lawmakers in Congress introduced a bill that would put federal limitations on automobile hood height and visibility.

Getty

Getty

The law is meant to protect pedestrians and others using the road unprotected, NPR reported.

“We’ve seen these standards over time improve vehicle safety with a focus on the people in the vehicle,” co-sponsor of the Pedestrian Protection Act, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon said.

“But this would sort of expand that to pedestrians, bicyclists and people outside the vehicle.”

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety researchers noticed a pattern happening a few years ago with the size of vehicles.

They have crash-tested thousands of cars and trucks over the past three decades.

The researchers realized that the automobiles they tested were getting bigger and heavier.

They had to make the cart that crashes into them larger, too.

“It was meant to represent a small pickup or a midsize SUV, and those vehicles have gotten heavier and heavier over time,” Becky Mueller, a senior research engineer at IIHS said.

“So it’s 500 kilograms more weight because that’s what the vehicle fleet now reflects.”

American roadway fatalities have also climbed sharply over the past decade as a result.

Larger cars are favored as they’re supposed to be safer for the occupants but it’s a very different story for people outside the car.

“I certainly like having an SUV,” Scanlon said, noting that she used to drive a Chevrolet Suburban to get her kids’ soccer teams and their gear to practice.

“Having a good size vehicle is helpful. But it does appear that there are things we can do with respect to design that would reduce the blind zones on these larger vehicles.”

Her bill will require regulators to set standards for hood height as well as make driver visibility part of the agency’s safety assessment for new cars.

Pedestrian Protection Act

The Pedestrian Protection Act is a new road law co-sponsored by Representative Mary Gay Scanlon to protect people on road but not in cars.

• The new bill’s introduction was on Friday, August 23, 2024.
• The road law puts federal limitations on automobile hood height and visibility.
• The act is meant to protect pedestrians and others using the road unprotected.
• American roadway fatalities have also climbed sharply over the past decade as a result of the size of cars getting larger over time.
• The bill requires regulators to set standards for hood height as well as make driver visibility part of the agency’s safety assessment for new cars.

SOURCE: NPR

An IIHS study of real-world crashes found that it’s more dangerous for pedestrians when bigger and taller vehicles are on the road.

Automobiles that are made with higher front ends and blunt profiles are 45 percent more likely to cause fatal crashes with pedestrians than smaller cars and trucks, according to research.

“Pedestrians that are hit by trucks or SUVs are more likely to be killed,” author of Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America, Angie Schmitt said.

The size of vehicles largely accounts for why annual pedestrian deaths in the US have risen more than 75 percent since hitting their lowest point in 2009.

The average US passenger vehicle has gotten about 10 inches longer, 8 inches taller and 1,000 pounds heavier, according to IIHS.

“The vehicles are bigger. They hit people with a heavier force, but they’re also hitting people higher on the body,” Schmitt said.

“So a child may be more likely or a shorter person more likely to be struck in the head. That’s more likely to be fatal for them.”

Today, SUVs and pickup trucks make up more than three-quarters of all vehicles on the road in the US.

That’s a major hike from only 38 percent in 2009.