Federal Agency Proposes Adopting UN Rule to Reduce Pedestrian Casualties

The rule would apply to passenger vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less, including SUVs, buses, vans, and light trucks.

Pedestrians cross Valencia Street in the Mission District in San Francisco, Calif., on June 5., 2024. Merchants reported that more residents shop locally after Valencia Street received safety improvements, like sidewalk widening and traffic-lane slimming. Christian Watjen/The Epoch Times

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Sept. 9 proposed adopting a new rule for heavy-weight vehicles such as SUVs and pickup trucks to decrease the risk of pedestrian injury or death, saving up to 67 lives a year.

With single-vehicle crashes resulting in 88 percent of pedestrian fatalities, the NHTSA said it is pushing for a new federal standard to ensure that “passenger vehicles are designed to reduce the risk of serious-to-fatal child and adult head injury in pedestrian crashes.” The standard involves improving the criterion for testing simulated head-to-hood impact.