The Latest Crisis: SUVs Must Be Outlawed

allen griggs · July 01, 2018 08:44

This is not from The Onion. Had to be cooked up by a Lib, it actually says "Minorities have been disproportinately affected.

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USA TODAY
Death on foot: America's love of SUVs is killing pedestrians
Eric D. Lawrence, Nathan Bomey and Kristi Tanner 12 hrs ago

The scene after a Ford Explorer jumped a curb, striking four people in Fountain Hills, Arizona, on March 13. Three people were killed and another seriously injured. (Photo by Robert Gundran, Arizona Republic/azcentral).

Robert and Karen Bonta, married 50 years last summer, explored all seven continents as they charged into their 70s.

So Amy Bonta Ferin didn't worry about her parents each winter when they left their chilly Iowa home for the saguaro-dotted desert hills near Phoenix. Her mother, Ferin said, who also kept a bag packed to travel to events involving her three children and 10 grandchildren, lit up a room with her hopeful, smiling face.

"One of the hardest things to see was her in a casket," Ferin said. "She didn't have a smile on her face."

Robert and Karen Bonta, 72 and 71 respectively, were killed after an SUV struck them March 13 in the desert community of Fountain Hills, Arizona.

A Ford Explorer driven by 27-year-old Alex Bradshaw hopped a curb and hit them as they stood on a sidewalk. Canadians Patti Lou and Ronald Doornbos, were also struck by the SUV as they walked toward the corner in a marked crosswalk. Patti Lou, 60, died immediately; Ronald died June 12.

The four deaths highlight a growing danger for America?s most vulnerable road users: Death by SUV.

A Detroit Free Press/USA TODAY NETWORK investigation found that theSUV revolution is a key, leading cause of escalating pedestrian deaths nationwide, which are up 46 percent since 2009.

Almost 6,000 pedestrians died on or along U.S. roads in 2016 alone ? nearly as many Americans as have died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002. Data analyses by the Free Press/USA TODAY and others show that SUVs are the constant in the increase and account for a steadily growing proportion of deaths.

Our investigation found:

Federal safety regulators have known for years that SUVs, with their higher front-end profile, are at least twice as likely as cars to kill the walkers, joggers and children they hit, yet have done little to reduce deaths or publicize the danger.

A federal proposal to factor pedestrians into vehicle safety ratings has stalled, with opposition from some automakers.

The rising tide of pedestrian deaths is primarily an urban plague that kills minorities at a disproportionate rate.

It is most prominent in cities both in the industrial heartland and warm-weather spots on the nation?s coasts and Sun Belt. Detroit; Newark, New Jersey; St. Louis; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Miami, San Bernardino, California, Birmingham, Alabama; Tampa; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Phoenix had the 10 highest per-capita death rates among cities with populations of at least 200,000 in 2009-16.

Vehicle safety measures, which the federal government says could save hundreds of pedestrian lives every year, are available but not widely employed by some automakers ? nor are they required.

Along with automakers, cities can take action that saves pedestrians. New York City, for example, cut such deaths nearly in half in just four years. The need for steps such as lower speed limits, more midblock crosswalks and better lighting grows in urgency as automakers move strongly toward truck and SUV production.

SUV sales topped sedans in 2014; pickups and SUVs now account for 60 percent of new vehicle sales. Ford recently announced plans to discontinue U.S. sales of most passenger cars, while Fiat Chrysler has already done so.

The Latest Crisis: SUVs Must Be Outlawed

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