This report published on August 30 by Vias (Belgium) studies the relationship between the car’s characteristics (such as size, weight and power) with injury severity in case of collision. It’s available in French and Dutch only, but it includes an English summary.

Here’s an excerpt:

With the exception of vehicle age, we find that vehicle characteristics that reduce the injury severity of car occupants, such as high mass, are more likely to be detrimental for the other party. For example, when the mass of a vehicle increases by 300 kg, the probability of fatal injuries for car occupants decreases by half while the same probability for the other party increases by 77% for car occupants and 28% for vulnerable road users, respectively. A similar pattern is seen for other vehicle characteristics such as power and pickup trucks. This indicates an opposite relationship between occupant safety and opponent safety, or put another way: vehicles with a high capacity to protect their occupants (= high crashworthiness) tend to have a lower capacity to protect the opponent (= high crash aggressiveness).

Big takeaway for me: if the vehicle hitting a pedestrian or a cyclist is a pick-up, the victim is 91% more likely to be severely wounded and 196% more likely to be killed.

  • swope@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If there was only some governing entity that would prioritize the good of the whole community instead of selfish interests.