Consumer Reports might be a surprising media outlet for an expose on the dangers of large personal vehicles—the kinds of trucks and SUVs growing in popularity and filling up U.S. roads.
Keith Barry reports new findings on the "hidden dangers" of big trucks—citing new data that reveal large trucks and SUVs as hazards to the health and safety of pedestrians and rivers of smaller vehicles.
Consumer Reports measured the front visibility of 15 new vehicles, finding that some trucks have blind spots 11 feet longer than sedans and 7 feet longer than some SUVs. Such blind spots increase the risk of "frontover" collisions, the kind of collision that is much more likely to kill small children between 12 and 23 months old.
Implied throughout the article is the new crop of full-sized and heavy duty trucks so popular in the United States are totally acceptable according to U.S. safety standards. William Wallace, Consumer Reports's manager of safety policy, calls on automakers to do more to protect the safety of people outside the vehicle.
But it's also obvious from the article that Americans like the bigger trucks. "Full-sized pickups command the marketplace," writes Barry. "The three best-selling vehicles in the U.S. are trucks: the Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram. Pickups now count for 1 of every 5 new vehicles sold."
FULL STORY: Pickup trucks are getting larger and becoming a hazard to pedestrians and drivers of smaller vehicles
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