Utah State Prof Says Hybrids Don't Kill More Pedestrians 187
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."
Emeritus Professor of Spanish? (Score:5, Interesting)
How about data analysis by someone who isn't an "enthusiast" and by someone who is qualified?
"...rate of pedestrian fatalities has in fact fallen over that same period" yes, we've been designing pedestrian safe bumpers and hoods in that period, cross walks are safer with better lights and audible warnings.
As someone who was clipped by a Prius in a parking lot when it was on battery, the damned things are quiet as hell and sneak up on you like a ICE powered automobile doesn't.
Re:The study just involves blind people (Score:3, Interesting)
He's a professor of Spanish, which isn't really a scientist, and is a degree that probably came with a light load of mathematics courses.
He doesn't attempt to correct for any other factors that may have led to a drop in pedestrian fatalities. All he's proven is a very casual correlation.
The original NHTSA has a more credible methodology:
It concluded that hybrids like the Toyota Prius were involved in pedestrian crashes at a rate of 0.9 percent, half again as high as the 0.6 percent rate for gasoline vehicles. Hybrids were also twice as likely to have hit cyclists, at a rate of 0.6 percent versus 0.3 percent.
The main problem with the above is that data on VIN numbers are only available from 12 states.