Electric cars are too quiet

Electric cars are too quiet—Carmel Pine Cone, April 30, 2021

Pedestrian death rates are increasing due to lesser ability of people to hear an oncoming quiet electric vehicle. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducted a large-scale 12-state study that showed electric vehicles are 35 percent more likely to cause a pedestrian fatality. The pedestrian deaths by electric vehicles are particularly high for children and seniors.

Pedestrian deaths had declined steadily since 1980 and had declined steadily until 2010, when electric cars were introduced; in the next nine years pedestrian deaths increased by 70.1 percent. Bicyclist deaths due to electric vehicles demonstrates an even higher percentage kill rate compared to pedestrians. If the White House is successful in eliminating conventional vehicles by 2035, the number of excess deaths per annum in the USA will rise to 150,000. This is a rather inconvenient truth for the electric vehicle crowd.

—C. Michael Hogan, Carmel