Home / Forums / General Hybrid Topics / Politics, Incentives & Laws /

NHTSA report on pedestrians and hybrids

Created October 8, 2009, at 10:27 am by bwilson4web

Hi,

I've been reading DOT HS 811 204 "Incident of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Crashes by Hybrid Electric Passenger Vehicles", NHTSA September 2009. Within its limits, this is a fine report but there have been two articles that claimed 'hybrids are 50% more dangerous to pedestrians.' One was a September 23 article in the Washington Post and the other was a recent article in a Psychology blog. But this reviewer's claim is not found in the report that sad to say, lacks one critical piece of data.

This report of accidents in 12 states, 2000-2007, does not include the population of hybrids and non-hybrids in these 12 states during this time. What this means is the report describes the distribution of accidents without providing the accident rate per vehicle or vehicle mile. The 12 states in question are: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Would hybridcars or another source have the population of hybrids and non-hybrid cars for these 12 states from 2000-2007?

If we can come up with a credible count of hybrid cars and non-hybrid cars in these states, we can use the accident counts from DOT HS 811 204 Table 2, pp. 10, to come up with an accident rate. Currently the report has only a distribution of accidents, the shape of hybrid and non-hybrid accidents, without the gold standard, the actual accident rates per vehicle or vehicle mile.

The report can be downloaded from the NHTSA web site and I found it useful. The problem is there are reviewers who are taking numbers out of context and making false and misleading claims from it. Some facts and data, the actual accident rate would solve the problem.

BTW, I've used the Prius sales 2000-2007 and NHTSA Fatality Accident Reporting System (FARS) to calculate the Prius fatal accident rate 2001-2007. It is half the rate the NHTSA reported for fatal accidents. My full report is available here:
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/Prius_Fatal_Accidents/prius_fatalities...

This is an important issue because of legislation in the House and Senate that would force noise makers on our hybrid cars. We need facts and data to answer in kind.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson