Why are feds cracking down on SUVs and big trucks?

America's love affair with super-sized trucks and SUVs has a downside: The giant vehicles can be a menace to pedestrians, who have died in ever-greater numbers in recent years. That may change. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing new rules designed to "reduce the number of pedestrians killed and seriously injured" on American roadways, NPR said.

The number of pedestrians killed in vehicle accidents has risen by 75% since 2009. The reasons for that rise are "complicated," but surely include the "growing size and weight of vehicles." Another factor? Design.



Those big vehicles with "higher front ends and blunt profiles" are 45% more likely to cause fatalities than smaller cars and trucks. The proposed rules will require auto companies to test their vehicles on crash test dummies that "simulate children and adults," said The Associated Press . That testing is expected to reveal "blind spots for drivers" in vehicles that have grown in "size and hood height" over recent years.

The aim is to save lives. "We have a crisis of roadway deaths," said one official, "and it's even worse among vulnerable road users like pedestrians." Subscribe to The Week Escape your echo chamber.

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Joel Mathis, The Week US.