YouTube conversation (Chris Collins and a co-host) about rising traffic fatalities in the U.S. in 2022. The speakers note a 7% increase in fatalities in Q1 2022, discuss how larger vehicles (SUVs, lifted trucks, heavy electric SUVs/trucks) increase pedestrian and collision lethality, cite design observations about vehicles like the Ford F-150 Lightning (frunk and high front-end geometry), and contrast U.S. vehicle mix and limited public transit with Europe. The clip ends with a brief news item about a Hyundai dealership shooting and show sign-off.
Chapters
So today's news, everyone, it's all about death, death and murder and all those great things. Super newsworthy, right? Like that's the stuff that people want to hear about. Car companies are making a deadly mistake with electric vehicles.
So this one actually talks a lot about.
Really that. It's fascinating that the United States of America, arguably one of the most advanced countries on the planet, arguably, they have done a lot of studies worldwide. And while traffic fatalities have gone down worldwide, what do you think has happened in the old US Of A?
They've not gone down, they've actually gone.
Up when everybody else is going down, really. So our consummate overachiever status is maintained, but rising 7, 7% in fatalities in the first quarter of 2022 alone. So they then started to kind of dig in there. All right, what are the things, what are the reasons why people are dying more in the United States? So there's a couple of things that are different. If you look at like the car market in the United States versus what it might be in Europe, for instance. Right. So you've been to Europe a few times and I think that you've made some really, really cool observation. So it's a little bit of a guided discovery for everybody. But what do you notice about the cars in Europe versus the cars in the United States?
Smaller.
They're much smaller. Right.
You don't see an Escalade over there.
Yeah. So let's say just in general, that if we're going driving down the road in our little thing that would look like a smart car, like a little Fiat or something like that, and we hit a pedestrian, what's going to happen to the pedestrian?
He's gonna break the Fiat.
Yeah. So either he's gonna break the Fiat or he or she would bounce over the. Over the car. Right. So it's kind of like a little hopping and jump. And typically what happens is people survive that, believe it or not. But in the United States, if you get hit with an Escalade, what happens?
You die.
You die. That's exactly right. So typically what happens is you don't go up, you go down. And going down underneath an 8,000 pound vehicle, not great for your life expectancy. Right. So a lot of the fatalities are like that. Right. So even car to car collisions are huge because there's just so much energy involved in the things hitting.
Well. And you know what else people like to do to like say, for example, when I had that gladiator truck, you put a lift kit on it, you go higher. So And I thought about this. Cause I've actually seen stuff on this before where when a truck is jacked up and it hits a car, the fatalities are way higher because they're coming right at their head.
Yeah. So the person getting impacted and you're.
Going over, not moving it.
And then the vehicle has rollover tendency. Right. When it's lifted like that because of the center of gravity. So here's one thing that I didn't know that was really, really interesting is that electric cars are actually not immune. I thought, you know, we probably talked about this on a couple of episodes that like, so it's electric car is low center of gravity, it's heavy, everything like that. So, so we thought safe. Like it's not rolling over, it's not doing anything. But over the last couple of years, what's happened is now we're starting to make electric SUVs and electric trucks. So now we have a higher center of gravity. And I think it's more like a tank effect. Right. So it's this heavy thing and there's the physics of the energy and it's moving towards you and like it just bowls everything over. And the article had a really interesting take on, on the F150 Lightning. So the F150 Lightning looks just like a regular truck. But what their contention was, well, it's electric. So underneath the hood of an F150 lightning, it's storage space. They call it the frunk. Right. But if they really wanted to, to try and like save lives and do that, if they had angled the front of the truck down, if there was a pedestrian hit, then they would have slid up, but they made the front of the truck higher. So now we're going under again. So I thought that was fascinating. Going through, going under, through everything like that. And then the other thing is. Is that the other part about electric cars, you and I both know this firsthand. They are really freaking fast. They're advertised as being really fast.
Oh. So now we have jacked up trucks or high trucks that are really, really fast, that are really heavy.
Weird that I wonder if this is.
This is worse for the driver of those or the person getting hit.
I think for the person getting hit.
Probably because they are. I think if you're in them, they're safer.
But.
And so is it. It's a lot also about people that are on bicycles and pedestrians and that.
So there's a lot of, a lot of talk in here about pedestrians passing away in the United States. But I also think the other Reason that the US has so many deaths is, is that they. That in comparison to other countries, and especially in Europe, is we do not have a public transit infrastructure. Like, it's cool how you can get around safely on a train in Europe.
No, I think there's only. Really. Well, I guess maybe there's three, but for the most part, there's only two cities, I think, in the US that the transit is widely used. That's New York.
Yeah. So.
And then San Francisco, maybe Chicago, but I don't think. I don't think it's as used as it is. People in Chicago drive.
Yeah.
Like, that's one thing with our clients in Chicago that always blows me away is a car will be a year old and have 30,000 miles on it. Like, people put miles on cars. It's crazy. But San Francisco has Barton. That's pretty good.
You know, the thing I thought you were going to say with that story, too is.
That for a while, our fatalities, I thought we're going the other way because of Uber. And, you know, Uber's another form of public transportation, in a sense, I guess. Not the same, but private transportation. People that drink. Right. So now, like, we're gonna have a party coming up, right? So we're gonna have a party for the Canelo fight in a. In a few weeks or whatever.
We will.
We will tell everybody they got to come in an Uber so then they can drink and have fun. So there's no chance that anybody drinks and drives because it's safer that way. So the addition of Uber does make it safer. But I'll tell you, like, that test lights almost is like, teasing you to, like, go from stoplight to stoplight as fast as you can. It is dangerous.
I would say that it's one of the few cars that I've driven that scared me a little bit.
And I'm not so fast.
Yeah, it was just too much too fast.
They don't handle that great.
Yeah. If you're going in a straight line, it's okay, but you start to go around.
Yeah, they're heavy.
Yeah, it doesn't. It. It just scared me a little bit, and I love to go fast, so. Yeah, so I thought that was a really interesting article where everybody else is going down and we're going up. Not even close to my favorite article about death. Well, it's not technically a death, but I just want to. I want to read the headline.
Hyundai Dealership Customer shot by Employee in Ohio. Please say.
I had a few people send me this.
So apparently an employee at a Hyundai store shot a customer after a disagreement. So Chris and I would like to kind of offer this to everybody. I would like to think maybe we could just kind of have a discussion in the chat about there is no.
Reason you should shoot a customer, first of all.
Wow.
There is no reason whatsoever. But if we just wanted to have a little bit of fun.
That Sam. That I won't even say that Sam Kinison joke. But.
What would be a reason if, you know, there, there is no reason. But if there was a reason, yes.
Posting comments we do not encourage the shooting of customers.
Thanks so much for watching this clip.
Of Service Driving Revolution.
We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see.
