Big Cars are killing Americans

[kenmbz]

Since I have had multiple people walk out in front of me while staring at their phone, while watching others drive with their phone in front of their face, the numbers going up is not surprising.
As others have said, the number of cars on the road is also increasing yearly.

I try to look ahead as much as possible, we have deer just standing in the road all the time.
Hard to see and it's mostly just luck that I haven't hit one yet.
The other night I hit the brakes, hard, to stop about 2 feet from a doe.

Now if the deer had cellphones, I might at least see the light from the screen....

 

[nbking]

I definitely can see better in my 3500, going forward and backing up with those awesome mirrors, and the HD back up camera, it still fits in the footprint of my 1500 where I park in the driveway. Only thing I can't go through the drive up atm. Its definitely a car atm lol.

 

[jk96]

As I ride around in my 2003 Suburban, which used to be one of the largest vehicles on the road, I'm dwarfed by the new pickups. Sitting at a stop light next to one, the top of their hood is about level with my eye height. There's no way in heck they have good visibility in front of them, or to the right side while sitting at a crosswalk. It's just not possible. Especially with the larger windshield posts that house today's airbags.

Ram 3500 mega cab. Better visibility over the hood, left, and right than my wife's durango and no worse than my little saturn I drive as a daily driver. I've driven many smaller cars with worse blind spots. Bigger issue is too many people not practicing active driving skills. On the phone, radio, and not actively checking mirrors for situational awareness.

 

[MossRoad]

More worried about people getting hit by silent EVs than big SUVs.

Almost daily for the past year I've seen a young blind woman with a cane learn to navigate our local streets. She has an assistant that walked with her at first, then as the days went by, the assistant walked farther and farther behind her. Now I see her out and about without the assistant, sometimes alone, and sometimes with other people. I can only imagine silent cars being a hazard to her.

Good friends of ours have a toyota hybrid. It's creepy when they drop us off and leave. The car just rolls back out of the driveway silently. A couple times I didn't even notice it moving. If it weren't for the little occasional pebble or sand on the asphalt, it's quieter than me walking out to get the mail from the box.

 

[newbury]

I'm gonna also guess that since I was a kid, the number of vehicles on the road has doubled. That leads to my second guess that the number of car/pedestrian accidents has also grown, given the numbers. I'd like to see what the numbers are per capita of car/pedestrian fatalities has been since 1961 before I make any decisions for myself.

number of vehicles registered now about 300 million
View attachment 727168

couldn't quickly find similar old statistics
BUT
vehicles/1000 people
View attachment 727169
doubled from 1956 to 2012

 

[5030]

Just totsally ban cell phones and accidents would drop like a rock. Distracted driving is a huge issue today. That and excessive speed.

 

[MossRoad]

Just totsally ban cell phones and accidents would drop like a rock. Distracted driving is a huge issue today. That and excessive speed.

Remember when smoking was the cause of distracted driving?

 

[5030]

I can see a helluva lot better driving my F350 Ford pickup than I can see driving my little puddle jumper Ford Focus. Like wise I can see even better driving my International Eagle Conventional long hood pulling a grain trailer than I can see in my pickup. Only issue is, you have to be aware that small cars can vanishi n front of you if you get too close...lol Just another good reason for not tailgating.

28 years of driving long nose Western Stars pulling 45 and 48 foot flatbed trailers and I have a squeaky clean license. Never had a chargeable accident or moving violation.

 

[5030]

Remember when smoking was the cause of distracted driving?

That all depends on what you are smoking...lol

Have hands free in my truck and cars and it's turned off. I get a call, I let it go to voice mail and call back when off the road.

 

[5030]

Without sounding political, I suspect in 10 years, we will all be driving toasters anyway.