Regulators propose tougher vehicle design rules
Pedestrians in High-Velocity Vehicles: The Impact of Vehicle Design on NHTSA’s Proposal
The trade group said that safety was a top priority. “Automakers have voluntarily developed and introduced many crash avoidance technologies to help make roads safer for pedestrians and road users. We provided input at the beginning of the process and will review the proposal released today.
The proposal would establish new test procedures and performance requirements to minimize the risk of head injury. The agency believes that could save 67 lives a year.
According to NHTSA, the new standard would save 67 lives a year but it still falls behind what Europe has done. It is important to use proven solutions to improve the safety of vulnerable road users.
Lawmakers in Congress introduced a bill last month that would require federal standards for hood height and visibility to protect pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.
Pedestrian deaths have gone up in recent years. NHTSA reports that pedestrian deaths increased by 57 percent over the course of five years. In the last four years, 88 percent of pedestrian deaths were in single-vehicle crashes.
The president of IIHS, David Harkey, said the group is “pleased to see NHTSA taking this step toward mandating vehicle designs that are less dangerous to pedestrians. This move is in line with recommendations that IIHS has made to NHTSA in the past to ensure that every new vehicle comes with baseline protection for pedestrians in the event of a crash.”
The auto industry may not be welcoming. An auto industry trade group says it’s still looking at the proposal from NHTSA.
The increasing use of cameras, blindspot detection, automatic braking and other technology can help to reduce pedestrian deaths, according to automakers. But rarely do they address the role that vehicle design plays in crash fatalities. That’s because big trucks and SUVs are not only popular but also better moneymakers than smaller vehicles. SUVs have a profit margin that’s 10–20 percent higher than smaller cars because they command a higher price while costing only slightly more to manufacture.
“It’s good to see NHTSA acknowledge that a myopic focus on pedestrian detection — which is imperfect — is no substitute for actually regulating car bloat,” said David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative and a Verge contributor.
“The US has never used pedestrian crash test dummies officially,” said Angie Schmitt, author of Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America. I thought that they would continue to avoid it even though Congress had told them to.
The Effect of Overhead Shape and Front End Angle on the Pedestrian Survival: A Study of the Trend in Heavy-Vehicular Vehicles
SUVs and trucks, two of the most popular segments in the US, have become larger and heavier than ever before. According to an investigation by The Economist, new cars in the US that weighed more than 5,000 pounds accounted for 31 percent of new cars in the country in the next four years. The shift to electric cars have made those vehicles even heavier. The Ford F-150 Lightning has a curb weight of around 6,500 pounds, roughly 60 percent heavier than its gas equivalent.
The shape of a vehicle, especially the hood, also plays a critical role in determining whether a pedestrian can survive being struck. Vehicles with hood heights of more than 40 inches and blunt front ends angled at greater than 65 degrees were 44 percent more likely to cause fatalities, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
A proposed US law would require cars to have a “high-velocity” front end and hood height to protect pedestrians and road users from crashes. Pedestrian deaths in the US increased by 58% over five years, according to theInsurance Institute for Highway Safety. Vehicles with hood heights of at least 40 inches and blunt front ends angled at greater than 65 degrees were 44 percent more likely to cause fatalities.