Quote:
Originally Posted by skyking
When you think about it Bob, adding noise would make is safer than the rest because the truck/suv data still sets the average high.
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Until you look at the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) data and discover there is no 'there-there.' Based upon the number of Prius in the fleet, we should have just over five fatal, pedestrian accidents per year out of an annual death toll of 4,000. Here are the fatal ones I have a record:
- 2011/02/13 - bicyclist stopped in a traffic lane, not the bicycle lane to his right, on a raining night.
- 2011/02/11 - Pedestrian in motorized wheel chair drove into traffic on a freeway.
- 2010/09/03 - Pedestrian killed in crosswalk by hit-and-run, 26 year old Prius driver.
As a general rule, for every fatality, there are 3-5x injuries and I'm also tracking those reports. What I'm trying to find is evidence that Prius are killing pedestrians at a significant rate in environments where noise might have made a difference compared to the Prius population. Right now, the data is very thin and past analysis did not support the hypothesis that quiet Prius are killing pedestrians.
My personal feeling is the right answer is accident prevention systems (aka., radar and optical detection based) first for the hybrids including the Prius followed by general application for all vehicles. Making the Prius safer than gassers is the right answer as this accomplishes:
- all accident avoidance - the same system that prevents a pedestrian accident also prevents vehicle accidents
- makes all hybrids including the Prius significantly safer in the fleet, not 'just as dangerous'
- reduces hybrid owner insurance costs
Hybrid owners are relatively immune to costs that scare off many other buyers. So use our understanding of price-performance trade-off to bootstrap the accident avoidance systems needed by all.
Bob Wilson