Just look at that. This truck is taller than a used kid (10 years old). I assume the truck can run over pretty much any other age but probably the driver might be able to see older kid’s heads. Or we could teach our kids to jump to school rather than walk. If you see a truck, jump and make eye contact before jumping while crossing the street. Or we could tell our kids to never go outside until they are 21.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldOP
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    6 hours ago

    This morning I was driving to work and I saw off in the distance something moving behind an F250 truck. As I got closer and got to see the back, I realized it was the owner of the truck offloading tools at the worksite. He was on the shorter side, true, but a fully grown man completely hidden by the box of the truck.

  • assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The perfect height to deliver devastating head and chest injuries. It’s almost like they deliberately designed this thing to kill kids.

    • RadicallyBland@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Not to mention it’s so high up and the hood is so massive, you can’t see the ground for like 10 feet in front of it.

  • Heikki@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    I recall about 10 years ago, a guy at a shop i used to work at bought a GMC6500. I’m 6’2" and could easily walk under the side mirrors.

    I noticed the truck was parked in the same spor for about a month. I asked some of the guys I worked with why it hadn’t moved. Apparently, the owner was getting into it when he fell out backward, injuring himself.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      6 hours ago

      I’m 5’3 and had to do an oil change one one when I worked at wal-mart. I was in the pit so I had to stand on the top rung of the step ladder we had down there just to reach the suspension so I could hang off it to get at the oil filter.

  • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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    1 day ago

    They don’t make kids like they used to. Can you imagine that a brand new kid in 2024 is much shorter than this 10 year old used kid!

  • OmegaLemmy
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    1 day ago

    You can buy a tank cheaper in USA than you can buy a sedan in Turkey.

    By tank I mean a tank. A real tank. Used by Israel and Syria in the seven day war.

    Yeah.

  • Dem Bosain@midwest.social
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    2 days ago

    NHTSA recently published a proposed rule taking on pedestrian safety, specifically calling out this problem. Expect it to be killed early next year.

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      Oh you mean the new kid regulations requiring stilts and helmets to bring your kids outside? We probably also need new construction regulations to required bollards along the side of the property facing the street so as to prevent damage to trucks if the house happens to get too close.

      • Dem Bosain@midwest.social
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        2 days ago

        This one.

        There’s a link to the proposed rule in the first paragraph. Note the diagrams on page 35, page 51, then page 84. They’re working on it. NHTSA is slow, and they won’t be allowed to finish.

        You can comment here if you’d like to actually do something besides be snarky on a website nobody reads.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          In other news, NHTSA with the help of major manufacturers has determined the typical height of a ten year old is eight feet tall. Personal vehicles will be mandated to be able to see people of this height over the hood

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        No stilts and helmets, that would be silly. The regulations require jumping up and down like a frog to stay visible, but also you’re entirely responsible to crossy the road while cars and trucks continue at speed

      • DrunkEngineer@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Probably going to require front-facing camera. Similar to how they dealt with the rear visibility issue.

        • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          IE one more screen based thing to distract from the fact that other humans exist.

          Rear cameras make sense and help people who might no be tall enough or flexible enough to twist and look out the rear window.

          But the front camera will be a distraction from lying proper attention while driving forward.

          We need more vans really, but consumers (who can afford the fucking things) are too insecure to drive anything that might make their wieners look small.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        2 days ago

        Looking at normal buses, the driver is sat high up, right at the front and with a clear view in front of them. And it’s so weird the US school buses just ignore that design and are shaped like an old truck.

        • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          shaped like an old truck.

          Up until recently, a good chunk of school buses were trucks, mainly based on the E/F350 - F650 platforms (or 3500 - 6500 if using GMC). Recently though, bus manufacturers are switching to internally designed platforms and the result is more cab-over buses and the ones that aren’t have a more swept hood (look at the Blue Bird Vision for an example). However, small buses are still based on truck platforms (E/F350, or GMC 3500)

        • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          A lot of those have been replaced with modern designs. Just like most things, the farther you are from a city the shittier things get.

      • frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe
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        2 days ago

        School busses have barriers to force children to walk far enough away. When you don’t care about smooth lines, practical solutions are possible.

    • Ridgetop18@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      I don’t disagree with the general premise.

      But saying “this quarry hauler is only barely worse than pickup trucks” when it takes double the distance to see one…feels disingenuous. Same with the “this tractor cab has better visibility but requires a special license”, yeah cause a heavy laden trailer massively increases the stopping distance and requires a more advanced skill set.

      I also feel like the kinda situations where “a three year was suddenly less than 1m from my bumper with zero warning” is more of a walkability/road design/driver awareness issue than one specifically solvable by increased visibility. I’m also aware I’m no traffic safety scientist; also more visibility is of course better.

      I feel like this focuses on something that’s rooted more in emotion than logic or data, but there is a link between hood height and pedestrian injury severity iirc, and lowering that does increase visibility as a result.