Just look at that. This truck is taller than a used kid (10 years old). I assume the truck can run over pretty much any other age but probably the driver might be able to see older kid’s heads. Or we could teach our kids to jump to school rather than walk. If you see a truck, jump and make eye contact before jumping while crossing the street. Or we could tell our kids to never go outside until they are 21.
NHTSA recently published a proposed rule taking on pedestrian safety, specifically calling out this problem. Expect it to be killed early next year.
Oh you mean the new kid regulations requiring stilts and helmets to bring your kids outside? We probably also need new construction regulations to required bollards along the side of the property facing the street so as to prevent damage to trucks if the house happens to get too close.
There’s a link to the proposed rule in the first paragraph. Note the diagrams on page 35, page 51, then page 84. They’re working on it. NHTSA is slow, and they won’t be allowed to finish.
You can comment here if you’d like to actually do something besides be snarky on a website nobody reads.
No stilts and helmets, that would be silly. The regulations require jumping up and down like a frog to stay visible, but also you’re entirely responsible to crossy the road while cars and trucks continue at speed
Probably going to require front-facing camera. Similar to how they dealt with the rear visibility issue.
IE one more screen based thing to distract from the fact that other humans exist.
Rear cameras make sense and help people who might no be tall enough or flexible enough to twist and look out the rear window.
But the front camera will be a distraction from lying proper attention while driving forward.
We need more vans really, but consumers (who can afford the fucking things) are too insecure to drive anything that might make their wieners look small.
Just gonna keep on posting this
Looking at normal buses, the driver is sat high up, right at the front and with a clear view in front of them. And it’s so weird the US school buses just ignore that design and are shaped like an old truck.
shaped like an old truck.
Up until recently, a good chunk of school buses were trucks, mainly based on the E/F350 - F650 platforms (or 3500 - 6500 if using GMC). Recently though, bus manufacturers are switching to internally designed platforms and the result is more cab-over buses and the ones that aren’t have a more swept hood (look at the Blue Bird Vision for an example). However, small buses are still based on truck platforms (E/F350, or GMC 3500)
I don’t disagree with the general premise.
But saying “this quarry hauler is only barely worse than pickup trucks” when it takes double the distance to see one…feels disingenuous. Same with the “this tractor cab has better visibility but requires a special license”, yeah cause a heavy laden trailer massively increases the stopping distance and requires a more advanced skill set.
I also feel like the kinda situations where “a three year was suddenly less than 1m from my bumper with zero warning” is more of a walkability/road design/driver awareness issue than one specifically solvable by increased visibility. I’m also aware I’m no traffic safety scientist; also more visibility is of course better.
I feel like this focuses on something that’s rooted more in emotion than logic or data, but there is a link between hood height and pedestrian injury severity iirc, and lowering that does increase visibility as a result.
Used kid?
This truck is taller than a used kid (10 years old).
Well there’s your problem: you’ve got a used kid. New kids are, on average, about 5’9" - plenty tall to compete with today’s civilian tanks.
Donnie Wahlberg was a New kid on the block??? Wow. I had no idea!
I’m used to the normal transition between toddler pupae to child-like human. That’s when I though children were brand spanking new.
I recall about 10 years ago, a guy at a shop i used to work at bought a GMC6500. I’m 6’2" and could easily walk under the side mirrors.
I noticed the truck was parked in the same spor for about a month. I asked some of the guys I worked with why it hadn’t moved. Apparently, the owner was getting into it when he fell out backward, injuring himself.
