Men and SUVs: A Bad Mix for Traffic Safety

Data from New York City show that male drivers are responsible for the vast majority of traffic fatalities in the city, and more of those fatalities are caused by male drivers behind the wheels of trucks and SUVs.

1 minute read

December 16, 2019, 5:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Sports Utility Vehicle

PlusONE / Shutterstock

"Macho men in pickup trucks are an American type — and they’re also responsible for more than their share of deadly crashes on New York streets," reports Clayton Guse.

Guse is sharing data from the New York Police Department that shows three-quarters of the drivers responsible for fatal car crashes between 2013 and 2017. There's more: "Some 41% of the men who caused fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 were driving trucks or SUVs, city data shows. That’s a sharp increase from the period from 2013 to 2017, when 32% of men blamed in fatal accidents drove trucks or SUVs."

The data on men, large private vehicles, and traffic safety motivate a new safety campaign geared toward men. The campaign marks a departure from the tradition of safety campaigns focusing "very much" on the victim, according to Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, as quoted in the article. More details on the safety campaign are included in the source article.

Thursday, December 12, 2019 in New York Daily News

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