Monster pickup trucks accelerate into Europe as sales rise despite safety fears – A Dodge Ram 1500 is bigger than a Panzer I tank and campaigners say heavy trucks are ‘lethal’ in collisions
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/12/monster-pickup-trucks-accelerate-europe-sales-rise-safety-fears
by Canal_Volphied
17 comments
>Researchers have seen such mechanisms play out in crash data. In August, the Vias institute in Belgium found a pedestrian or cyclist hit by a pickup was 90% more likely to face serious injury than one hit by a regular car, and almost 200% more likely to be killed.
>In November last year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the US found the risk of death was about 45% greater if a pedestrian were hit by a vehicle with a tall bonnet than one that was low and sloped. In January, a US study found a 10cm increase in bonnet height causes a 22% increase in fatality risk for pedestrians. The increase in risk rose to 31% for over-65s, and to 81% for children.
>But few people seem aware of the dangers. Just 40% of British adults agree that SUVs and pickup trucks are dangerous to other people, a YouGov survey found in February, falling to 20% for owners of such vehicles.
When most people seem unaware of the lethality of those vehicles, it’s the law that should come in to ban them.
Just why.. they don’t even fit on some roads. You literally can’t get through some small villages
We’ve got men here too with little peepee’s. Sadly a truck like that doesn’t compensate.
At least these cars will struggle a ton with a lot of the park houses you find all over Europe.
But still wish they couldn’t be bought here.
Can’t we start importing more of Japanese micro cars instead?
It’s like an arms race. I come from Canada and two to three decades ago this started happening. For context, these are not monster trucks by Canadian or American standards, where SUVs are the norm and a full sized sedan is considered among the smaller vehicles out on the road. The point is when the majority of vehicles are big like this it’s intimidating for regular sized cars. It’s hard to feel safe when you’re looking at some guys front grill in your review and you’re at eye level with a set of tires in front of you. Having said that, I don’t see people shifting to larger vehicles in Europe the way that they have in America. The roads are smaller and narrower and good luck parking that thing anywhere.
Evidently everyone is clearly determined to give the planet a fighting chance.
Some are hybrids and don’t have taxes, and others install LPG conversions on them to reduce the fuel expenses. If you want, there’s a workaround. Also, I’ve heard you can register them as utility vehicles, and the taxes are also reduced, like the Suzuki Jimny that the manufacturer had to remove the rear bench and install a partition to make the vehicle compliant with the shitty and absurd laws.
> and campaigners say heavy trucks are ‘lethal’ in collisions
What kind of retarded phrasing is this? What’s next? Campaigners say water is ‘wet’?
The Panzer I probably is more fuel efficient, too.
Part of the reason trucks have become so big in the US is due to a fuel efficiency regulation that’s more lenient on larger cars/trucks. Does such a regulation exist anywhere in the EU?
That type of vehicles should be banned from public roads in EU.
They are for Farms not for generic roads.
American culture is continuing to ruin Europe
People have them here because they’re the only affordable way to have some horsepower. Also, contrarians “sticking it to the man” and people who genuinely like such vehicles (my previous manager eg)
I just don’t get why Europe is turning into the US, when we used to shake our heads over this kind of thing
Won’t ever be a problem in bigger Polish cities – can barely find parking for a small car, let alone something double the size.
Small d energy
I like tak and its engine. But would prefer hilux for off-road capabilities