Utah State Prof Says Hybrids Don't Kill More Pedestrians

thecarchik writes "Preliminary data seemed to show that hybrids were more likely to be involved in pedestrian crashes or hit cyclists. But now EV enthusiast Mark Larson (he's also an Emeritus Professor of Spanish at Utah State University) has analyzed some additional data and found this not to be the case at all. He used 1994-2008 figures from the Fatality Reporting System maintained by the NHTSA and found that the rate of pedestrian fatalities has in fact fallen over that same period."

Comments

Darwinism

[feedayeen]

Natural Selection removes the slower and less attentive pedestrians out of the gene pool.

this whole story is crap

[Sir_Sri]

Ok TFA isn't bad, in that it makes clear professor Larsons analysis is basically crap. A former professor of spanish failing at stats doesn't warrant a slashdot posting. Overall rates of accidents involving pedestrians are down over the last 10 years, some car makers are working on making sure their vehicles will be audible, and proposed legislation is mostly crap. None of this is news.

Maybe hybrid drivers are more aware?

[voss]

Someone who buys are care for its fuel economy
tend to be more aware of the world around them than people who buy hotrods.

Or at least they are aware enough to realize that killing pedestrians
looks bad to the other soccer moms.