Found a study from 2005 - https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/11/4/232

Light truck (pickups, suvs, vans) accounted for ~30% higher relative risk vs cars.

Surprisingly (to me) motorcycle/pedestrian accidents are three times as likely to result in a fatality.

Personally I think it's mostly related to distracted driving/walking but vehicle type almost certainly plays some role.

My neighbor's Smart Car and Cooper Mini beg to differ. Also, the proliferation of electric cars requires shedding weight in order to get more mileage. Sure, we still have lots of massive SUVs on the road but I would dispute the notion that vehicles overall are getting heavier on average.

> Larger vehicles, such as the popular SUVs and trucks that dominate new car sales, are more dangerous for pedestrians than sedans

Most new car sales are now SUVs and trucks. The share of SUVs and trucks sold is up over the period considered in the article, your neighbor notwithstanding.

https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/highlights-automotive-...

Also, VW Golf/Rabbits. Civics. Accords. They're all huge. And they've all got a lot less glass than they use to have. (High beltline, small windows)

Not that long ago you could get a car that was ~2000 lbs. A big car was 2 tons.

I haven't checked the sales numbers, but I see far fewer Smart Cars today compared to even 5 years ago. Also the latest Mini Coopers are massive. Much larger than most normal cars.

Given vehicle size trends, holding all else equal, this is exactly the outcome you would expect.

I don't hold all else equal, because nothing is equal. I contend that pedestrians are more distracted than ever, as are drivers.

The control for the 'bigger cars more death' would be evaluating the death rate of smaller cars.

The headline doesn't say 'accidents' are getting deadlier, it's saying 'roads' are getting deadlier.

> I don't hold all else equal, because nothing is equal.

Well yes, obviously. My point is that the observed outcome is in line with the expected outcome based on the increase in car sizes. But still it's a bit more complicated.

note the following:

> In 2019, 6,301 pedestrians were killed by vehicles on American streets — up 46% from 2010. Over the same timespan, the total for all traffic deaths rose by 5%.

This implies that distracted driving could be partially responsible, but something else is probably going on with pedestrians.

and:

> And in the first half of 2020, while driving was down because of the pandemic, the pedestrian death rate — the number of people struck and killed compared with the number of miles driven — soared by 20%, putting 2020 on track for the largest one-year increase in the death rate ever.

The article goes on to posit the popular theory that increased vehicle speed is the key factor in the last year. In fact a lot of the advocacy around the issue is focused on traffic calming in urban centers which has been shown repeatedly to lower the number of pedestrian deaths.