America’s new cars keep getting bigger and taller. A new bill introduced in Congress would impose limits on that growth.
Front Blind Spots a Growing Safety Risk
A recent Consumer Reports study found that the average hood height of pickup trucks increased by 11% between 2000 and 2020. That creates a front blind spot – an area in front of the vehicle the driver can’t see.
“Full-sized pickup trucks — which are the most popular models on the market — can have a blind zone 11 feet longer than a car, and 7 feet longer than an SUV,” the organization says.
Researchers keep documenting the alarming risks. An insurance industry study from 2022 found that SUVs and pickup trucks are substantially more likely than cars to hit pedestrians when making a turn. They’re also more likely to kill them when they hit them.
Another insurance industry study found SUVs and trucks a greater danger to cyclists. A taller vehicle, researchers found, is more likely to hit a cyclist higher on their body and push them under its wheels.
In an analysis of nearly 18,000 crashes published last year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety concluded, “Whatever their nose shape, pickups, SUVs, and vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches are about 45% more likely to cause fatalities” than lower vehicles.
But taller vehicles create a sense of safety for the driver – they let drivers see over everyone else in their increasingly tall vehicles. As long as consumers want that, automakers are incentivized to keep raising vehicles.
Unless the government stops it.
New Bill Would Impose Limits
Last Friday, The Street reports, a member of Congress “introduced a bill requiring federal standards for automobile hood height and visibility to protect pedestrians and other vulnerable people using the roadways.”
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) proposed the Pedestrian Protection Act. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has signed on to co-sponsor.
Most Bills Fail. But This Is the Second of its Kind.
We rarely bother to report on a member of Congress introducing a bill because it means little. Most bills get introduced and die immediately, never advancing to a committee hearing.
In the 117th Congress, which met from 2021 through 2023, members introduced more than 15,000 bills. Just 365 – fewer than 3% – passed into law.
Scanlon is not a member of House leadership or the House Energy and Commerce Committee that will shepherd the bill through its next steps. That is often a sign that a bill will fail.
But the bill mirrors an effort in the upper hours started by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in 2022. Consumer Reports threw its weight behind that bill, urging its subscribers to write to Congress to push for its passage.
The effort failed. But its rebirth suggests that the energy behind it remains.
For her part, Scanlon tells NPR she’s an SUV driver, the owner of a Chevrolet Suburban. “Having a good-sized vehicle is helpful. But it does appear that there are things we can do with respect to design that would reduce the blind zones on these larger vehicles,” she said.
