New cars are supposed to be getting safer. So why are fatalities on the rise?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Alyssa Milligan was someone who intuitively knew when another person needed help, encouragement or a kind word. “Many studies have shown that larger vehicles like SUVs and pickups are more likely to kill or seriously injure pedestrians and cyclists when they’re involved in a crash,” she said, noting that large vehicles are more likely to strike people in the head and vital organs, rather than the legs. Meanwhile, a January 2023 report from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center determined “the increasingly large blind zones in SUVs and pickups have been associated with fatal ‘frontover’ crashes,” where people are run over by slow-moving vehicles. NHTSA has proposed new pedestrian crash avoidance tests, but they would be voluntary and not part of the agency’s 5-star rating system, said Billy Richling, a spokesperson at the National Association of City Transportation Officials, which is pushing to make pedestrian safety testing mandatory. “That’s why we’re focused on pedestrian crash avoidance.” Nearly all new GM vehicles come equipped with automatic emergency braking, and cameras are getting better at seeing pedestrians at night, when the majority of those fatal crashes occur.