Truck bloat is killing us, new crash data reveals

Just gonna keep posting this
- tfw your Silverado has worse forward obstruction visibility than an M1 Abrams MBT
- Both hilarious and infuriating.
  
  I love how they throw in a peterbuilt and an M1 Abraham for reference lol
- This is posted in metric so it doesn't apply to the U.S.
- And it doesn't even properly show how long and wide those vehicles are.
  Truck and SUV size has gotten absolutely ridiculous.
  
  They barely fit in parking spaces. Usually you see the ass of them sticking out.
- They should make a version of the chart with model years included. I need a truck for work, but I'll be looking for a 90's or older next because the new ones are all too tall with no real utility benefit.

It's past time to require a commercial driver's license to drive one and a business permit on file to buy one. Your average person can rent one when they need the utility of a truck bed.
- Or how about the more simpler solution of changing the emissions regulations so trucks and SUVs have to meet the same targets as all the other vehicles.
  And if you really want to encourage things even more they could also remove the tariffs on light trucks while increasing the sales tax on large trucks and SUVs.
  
  I think in the truck culture the damage is already done. At this point we need to deal with the demand to have those kinds of trucks.
- the hilarious irony is that modern trucks are often useless for hauling any decent loads because they're crew cabs and jacked up for no fucking reason. To purchase a truck with a large bed often requires a special order and weeks of waiting.
  
  I have a weird truck, it's a ten year old F150 with a single cab and an 8 foot bed. It's the only one I see that isn't obviously a company truck, and it used to be a hardware store rental truck. It carries building materials, motorcycles, junk to the dump, all with the tailgate safely closed. I don't like the little 5 foot beds on the crew cab trucks, it's like you have this giant truck and all you can carry are small things. It's as useful as a Ford Taurus.
- At least, something more than a standard drivers license. A CDL covers things like air brakes or railroad crossing that aren't necessary for most of the vehicles in question. But a more graduated standard, absolutely.

I need a truck for agricultural purposes, but don't want to purchase a ToddlerKiller4000. Short of inventing a time machine and traveling back to an era of car-sized rather than tank-sized pickups, my options are pretty slim. Fuck me, right?
- My whole family were farmers and one of my cousins jacked his truck up so much it could only pull one of his wagons...
  People still give him shit, even tho it was like 20 years ago.
  Point being, the stupid shit you see isn't even practical. The only point of giant modern trucks is helping men with low self esteem. And it doesn't even help them, it just makes them keep wanting an even bigger truck than everyone else.
  Which is why they've been consistently getting bigger for decades.
  
  It's hilarious if you ever off-road.
  They're really shit off tarmac driving anything through anything more advanced than a field. Too long wheel base, far too wide, shit turning cycle, too long nose, not enough weight on the rear wheels when not fully loaded.
  You can run rings around them on an off-road track in a Suzuki Jimny or even a 50 year old Lada.
  But obviously don't tell the truck people that. These are cars that are sold on the idea of being able to drive off into the wilderness at a moment's notice. Pointing out that's a lie, that they just spent too much money that if anything offers them less freedom than a conventional car, often results in an emotional reaction.
  
  I own an '01 3/4 ton suburban for boat and camper hauling. It's small compared to a stock 1/2 ton today. The top of their beds is almost at my roofline. All that size increase comes with very little gain besides dick measuring it seems. I will never understand why people buy them, especially for 60k+.
  
  When I had to buy a new car a guy at work who was big into cars asked me what I was getting and gave me grief for not getting a big truck. I asked him why I would want such an impractical and expensive truck for just myself (and I lived in an apartment) and he only gave me macho signaling answers.
- I guess in other climates it's different, but over here people get vans for that. Can I interest you in the concept of "what if your pickup truck had a roof and also wasn't grotesquely oversized?"
  Although, I'm looking at this year's Renault Trafic and that front is actually starting to get concerning, tbh.
  
  I have a minivan currently and they're so practical for the average American. Hauling stuff? Put the seats down, and your "bed" is longer than almost any pickup's, plus it's protected from the elements. Hauling people? Seats go up, and it will fit seven people. Even though you sit high up the grill is angled downward, meaning better visibility AND in a crash will throw the victim over the car rather than under (way better likelihood for survival). They also tend to get decent mileage compared to trucks. Hell they even make for a great camping vehicle: no tent needed, just throw a sleeping pad in the back with the seats down and call it a night. It's such a shame that they were branded as soccer mom vehicles, because a lot of folks buying trucks for their "practicality" would be better served with a minivan.
  However! They are not good for: carrying loose gravel/soil/mulch/manure, transporting livestock, traveling on 4WD roads and other rough terrain, hauling a trailer, or moving stuff that's tall but cannot be tipped on its side. The carrying/hauling capacity is really low, the ground clearance minimal, and the carpet-like interior gets dirty really easily. These are not tasks that the average customer is going to undertake often, and I've creatively worked around many of these limitations in the past for one-off instances, but it's definitely not an everyday-use farm vehicle.
  
  Plenty of agricultural stuff you don't want to share a roof with. And you want a hard bed that you can hose off.
- Japanese mini trucks are outstanding for true agricultural purposes. You have options for dump beds and completely removable (or flip-down) bed sides for super easy side loading. They’re cheap and super economical.
  Crash safety is the biggest drawback, so true road-worthiness is iffy (depending on how much the cops in your area care about that sort of thing). But if you’re looking for utility on private property, these things rule.
  
  As mentioned in another comment, I would totally consider importing a kei truck except they're not street legal in the US and AFAIK they're not available in automatic.
  
  Toyota pickups are also extremely popular with militias and small militaries who slap a heavy machine gun or AA gun on the bed.
  https://jalopnik.com/this-is-how-sudanese-militants-get-their-hands-on-so-ma-1842818238
- Yeah from what i could tell theres literally no small or mid size options currently
  
  Based on what I've seen, the Ford Maverick is still pretty mid sized relative to the rest. The Hyundai Santa Cruz is pretty small, but might not be practical if you're actually hauling stuff on the regular, as it's more like a car+truck hybrid
- Hilux?
- Buy a used Nissan Frontier?
- I wonder if a Holden Ute is available in LHD
- I guess so. The blind hatred in this thread is insane. Apparently, if you drive a big truck, you hate the planet, are a chronic tailgater, have a loud exhaust, and are an alcoholic.
  Like damn bro, I'm just trying to haul some shit around. If there was a better way, I'm all ears.
  
  The FuckCars people like to overstate their case and make unnecessary enemies while also having fundamentally good ideas. It is known.
  
  The automotive talk on lemmy is an echo chamber full of the most annoying people you could imagine.

In my experience, I’ve noted that truck drivers are on avg more likely to be shitty egotistical drivers.
I think it’s bc they have small dicks, and they feel safe in their giant metal death machine. Nice n cozy, perfectly ready to tailgate a Mazda MX-5
- Sadly, we cannot really ban them as they are utility vehicles that a small portion of the population needs. However, I still see freakin' ads that frame them as fancy cars.
  
  “The new Amarok V6. Pick-up truck for every day. Powerful and comfortable”
  I suggest making it illegal to buy them without a registered company or have them in any color other than matte excavator yellow (for construction) or green camo (for hunting and forestry).
  
  I disagree on all accounts. Instead of banning/restricting trucks, we should instead make them less convenient and more expensive. So:
  restructure cities to be transit and pedestrian first, not traffic first - see The Netherlands
  charge vehicle registration fees based on curb weight, since heavier vehicles destroy roads more; multiply this by miles driven, less any documentation the owner has about driving on private land
  charge an extra fee for vehicles falling net mpg targets; don't special case SUVs and trucks, just tax them (and have certain exceptions to the tax, like if you actually use the higher passenger capacity of minivans, have a farm, etc)
  The taxes would go toward pedestrian and transit infrastructure to offset the lower efficiency and greater danger larger vehicles pose.
  
  If you can't put a flatbed or utility bed on it, it shouldn't be called a utility vehicle. They're just SUVs with the back opened up.
  
  Business permit on file and a commercial driver's license.
  
  In this region, forestry vehicles are either regular-green (more 'crayola' than 'olive') or just plain white.
  The only people who drive camo trucks here are prepper weirdos or hunter rambos.
  
  I do like the color options
  
  It's trivial to setup a company. That's not a real block.
  Now, some kind of graduated licensing standard (below a CDL, but above the current standard), absolutely.
- Keepin it a buck fifty bro 💪
- Yeah typical reaction from a car driver. You “people” always have to make some sexual comment about our dicks. It’s like our penis’s live rent free in your sick fetishized little brains.
  Of course if you need to move something the we are the first people you think of as well. But then it’s right back to dicks.
  
  Lol i got a van to move shit
  But sounds like i struck a nerve. Do you feel nice and safe in your big trucky wucky, threatening other drivers with grave bodily injury by tailgating them? :o
  Are you sad bc you happen to fit the most basic stereotype easy target joke ever?
  
  I don't really have high opinions on modern truck design, or the average US truck driver. But I'm with you on the body shaming.
  There are plenty of tiny-cock'd individuals who are considerate drivers, and reasonable in their vehicle choice. They don't deserve to get lumped in with the average US truck driver.
  
  I usually rent a moving van. Trucks didn't kill U-Haul.
  
  The only person who ever cut me off to brake check me after I signaled a merge drove an F-250 dually with a Dallas Cowboys (I laugh just thinking about it) tow hitch and a fake butch name so he could sound tough in the parking lot where nobody knew what it said his name was on the registration.
  I offered to fix the damage out of pocket but he wanted to feel powerful for once in his life, and so he called my insurance because one of the arms on his tow hitch got bent as it shattered the grill of my civic.
  We had been driving in toward downtown LA in morning rush hour traffic and the dude thought it was appropriate to race into my signal, force me off the merge that I had already started so that he could keep me from being in front of him in the right lane.
  I have plenty more I could say about this guy but it's a waste to say anything more than the fact that he probably got a little dick.

Why do people feel the need to have a $60K+ massive behemoth? 99% of the time if I glance in the bed it is spotless. It is probably only used for commuting and carrying groceries. It might haul a load of mulch once a year. The things are so high that if they hit a car they are going to ride up over the hood and crush you. At least my state finally got its act together and banned those goddamn frontend lifted trucks that made it impossible to see anything within 50 ft and guaranteed a deadly collision. Now I know someone will say "But I need it for my building job/farm/etc", you are the exception, the vast majority sold are not being used for that.
"reasoning that these vehicles are safer for drivers in the event of a crash" Sounds like an arms race. Soon we will be driving armored personnel carriers.
It is bad enough they make them with ridiculously loud exhausts as bad as muscle cars and fart exhausts. Electric cars and trucks quieting everything can't come fast enough.
- As someone who uses their truck as it's intended I can say your absolutely correct. I get comments from other truck drivers when they see the dings and scratches and they'll be laughing while I'm looking at their spotless $80,000 truck that the heaviest thing they haul is a gallon of milk. I hope they downsize these trucks some day soon because when mine goes I don't want a physically bigger one. These trucks also take up 4 spots everywhere they go for parking.
  
  I've had a 95 V8 f150 and a 94 4cyl ranger that I consider to be about the perfect expression of the two most useful trucks ever made. There just isn't anything like them anymore.
- A big part of the problem is that they just don't make small affordable trucks anymore.
  The tiny little Ford ranger of the 90s used to be the cheapest car at a Ford dealership. The current ranger is only a couple inches smaller than the f150 and costs a couple grand less, if you can even find one.
  
  There's clearly some demand for small trucks, too. I've been seeing an increasing number of imported kei trucks around me.
  I had a 1986 Mazda B2000 for a while. Very useful, tough little thing, even though it only had like 75hp.
- You know the answer. It's insecure man children.
- I drive trucks for years, but now that I'm hauling less plywood and more camera gear I use a van.
  The thing about the trucks is I usually didn't need them to be trucks - maybe once or twice a week. But it's not like I was gonna pay insurance on 2 cars, and even only using it occasionally as a truck it still made more sense than a Civic.
  I think more trucks like the Ford Maverick would be a hit. Small, affordable 4-door hybrid that has a short bed.
- “reasoning that these vehicles are safer for drivers in the event of a crash” Sounds like an arms race. Soon we will be driving armored personnel carriers.
  Well, yeah. It is an arms race. I drive a "midsize" SUV, and a large part of the reason is that these trucks are going to be on the road no matter what. Statistically, in the event of a collision between a truck and a car, the truck driver will live and the car driver will die, no matter who is at fault. Is it more dangerous for drivers of small cars and pedestrians? Absolutely! But it's safer for the person in the tank. Ergo, if you want to maximize the safety of yourself and your passengers, be the one driving the tank. Am I selfish for driving my SUV? Probably--but it's hard to make a moral argument that defeats "This is more likely to keep me alive."
  I live in a rural area, so walking isn't an option even if we had the infrastructure (which we don't), and I dream of a future in which we have commuter rail here. But until then, I'm going to be in the thing that's most likely to keep one of these monsters from killing me, and once my son is old enough to drive, you bet your ass I'm putting him in one too, because these things are on the road whether I like it or not. The tragedy of the commons is that everyone contributing to the calamity is rational.
  All of these ridiculous trucks should be off the road, and I will cheerfully give mine up--once everyone else has, and not a moment sooner. Until then, anybody selling APCs yet? It looks like that Abrams has better sight lines than a 2500. Where do I get a road legal one of those?
  
  This is similar logic that 2A people use to claim citizens should have access all weapons that the military has. My man, no citizen needs a swarm of deadly drones, but since the guy up the block has an AR 15, I gotta keep up. The truth is, nobody really wins a war against a military superpower with small arms unless they have tenacity, balls of steel, support, and organization. Unless the gravy seals are digging tunnels, eating rat meat, they are not going toe to toe with the army like the Vietnamese. You could give them all weapons in the world and they still can't find grit, tenacity and balls. Key ingrediesum.
  Anyway...
  That's why I still drive my Corolla, and also, coincidentally, I can't afford a big suv.
- I have a simple question for people: if the truck bed can't hold an eight foot wooden stud without half of it sticking out the back, why do you have a truck?
  
  My dad always said that it should fit an 4x8 sheet of plywood laying down. Also that if you don't need to haul 4x8 sheets of plywood on the regular then you probably don't need a truck.
  I've never owned a truck, and there honestly hasn't been mant times when my Mazda 3 wont do. . Six drawer dresser - check. Queen size mattress-check. Hockey bags and kids- check. Visitors from the airport and luggage- check. Ikea furniture-sometimes sticks out the back.
  
  There are a lot of uses of trucks beyond transporting construction materials. I wouldn't want to tow a trailer loaded with round bales with a car, or try to put a big block chevy in the trunk.

Pedestrians should not be allowed outside without high vis, a helmet, and flashing lights after dark. Youngsters should never be permitted to be outside since they are invisible to motor vehicles.

I threw this in another chat talking about this, but some of these vehicles have poorer forward visibility than a literal fucking Abrams tank.

Driven by the exact same douche bags hoarding the guns that are killing us
- Thank God cars didn't exist when the constitution was written. We could actually solve this with legislation.

This is the best summary I could come up with:
American car buyers can’t get enough big, tall SUVs and trucks — but new data suggests that the downsides of this trend are growing increasingly deadly.
It also comes at a time when the auto industry is embracing bigger, more brutish designs for its SUVs and trucks, reasoning that these vehicles are safer for drivers in the event of a crash.
There have been numerous studies and investigations examining how tall, flat-nosed trucks and SUVs are more likely to cause serious injury and death when they hit pedestrians.
Larger bodies and higher carriages mean pedestrians are more likely to suffer deadly blows to the head and torso, as opposed to the legs when struck by a shorter vehicle.
And front blind zones associated with large trucks and SUVs have contributed to the injury and death of hundreds of children across the country, studies have shown.
Recently, NHTSA said it would update its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), also known as the five-star safety rating, to include advanced driver-assistance system features like automatic emergency braking, blind-spot detection, and lane-keep assistance.
The original article contains 708 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Welcome to 30 years ago. This is the least new news I've seen in ages!
- 30 years ago you could get a normal size truck. Now you can't.
  
  Okay does nobody on this site actually follow car stuff.
  The Ford Maverick is what you're describing. It's smaller than a lot of SUVs. It sold so incredibly well that every other car company that makes pickup trucks is racing to copy it.
  
  Because people stopped buying them. They decided they'd rather be safer at the expense of everyone else on the road. 'Merka! Fuck yeah!

All hat, no cattle

Obligatory 'We need to diversify transportation options" comment.

In before all the folks who argue that people want this thing and therefore they must be made

How do deaths scale with vehicle mass and did the study control for that …it seemed to be a (pretty critical) omission.

Cars have been killing us for a long time.

ah, must be that famous capitalist innovation I keep hearing about
- If America had a decent public transport system like North Korea we would all be safer. Capitalism killed rail in America. Capitalism created our drug problems. Capitalism starves the children of our enemies in Gaza, North Korea, and Afghanistan.

Okay we get rid of them but then how will closeted gays solicit without being found out?
- By going to RAM RANCH