Yes, and what % of people are hit by "normal" cars vs hybrids. Normal cars have engines. What is the excuse for all the people hit by normal cars? They were too quiet?
The more I think about this, the more pissed off I get. Think about it. Due to the Doppler Effect, the noise would have to be fairly loud to be heard if you were in front of the car. Hybrids and electric vehicles are only going to increase in numbers over the coming years. Can you imagine all the racket going with people driving around? With all the technology, imagine "hackers" making their car sound like, well, farts or something. How long do you think it would take advertising agencies to glom onto this? Imagine driving down the road, with your car running audible commercials...
First Its about vehicles with aftermarket mufflers that are too loud. Now its about vehicles that are too quiet. Anyone else think that if the world had more quiet cars there wouldn't be all that back ground noise from semi trucks, cars with loud mufflers, high performance engines that produce high HP, ect... I think the solution rest upon a group buy in train horns! We could sound the horn across every intersection, parking lot, neighborhood, and uh when were backing out the freaking garage. I also want to compare this to people who walk the streets with headphones on playing music. A few probably have it loud and can't even hear a normal car coming. I have yet to hear about them complaing that they got hit by a car cause they could'nt hear it and decided not to look both ways like our mommies taught us. Sorry bout the grammer and punctuation as i was writing this in a hurry.
Give me a break! all this is is a general lack of knowledge of the car, and people are afraid of new technology, it's like we live in the middle ages still. did anyone hear about the guy who was fired from school for WIZARDRY? Because he did a magic trick in class?!? what the hell man, middle ages
I have a solution: Whistle Tips! The whistles go wooo! BTW, the whistle tips are now illegal in Calif, but we could petition to bring them back in the name of safety. :evil:
They'll need to come up with a better bogeyman than this... I don't think there's been any reported incidents of blind people getting hit by hybrids, probably because they make enough noise to be heard. I do have to agree with a lot of this though, even though nobody's been killed, hybrids may add stress to a blind person's life. But they may have to wait for someone to get run over and thoroughly squished by a hybrid silently moving at 41 mph, which of course will never happen, fortunately... I'd be interested to know exactly how slowly a hybrid has to be moving in order for someone to not hear it. You usually hear cars by their tire noise, and if it's slow enough that you don't it'sy likely you'll survive a collision with it.
My two kids get punished when they don't look both ways before crossing streets, parking lots, and driveways. It's because we love them enough to care about it. Frankly, I'm glad to have an example to show my kids what happens when you don't look both ways - and no one had to die.
Well...The other day there was a gaggle of cyclists and as I passed them (carefully, of course) one cyclist screamed--apparently she had no idea a car was close by. I think I was in stealth mode at the time. Anyway, I've been wondering about the possibility of inadvertently sneaking up on cyclists and walkers, so I am just extra careful. Maybe cyclists and walkers can learn to be extra careful, too, now that there are more hybrids and perhaps someday fully electric cars on the road?
I heard this on TV this morning & had to laugh because the very next news item was about a Milwaukee crack-down on "boom cars" & their too loud stereos. So I have a solution: those who want to blast their stereos at max must be driving a Prius in stealth mode. Solves two problems at once!!
Give me a break. With over a million Prius on the road and millions of kids riding around on bikes, sooner or later the two will meet. Its the law of averages. One thing you can count on, No one will ever take blame for their actions.
I think it's the law of averages too. With the number of pedestrian accidents occurring every year and the number of Prii on the road increasing, it was bound to happen. Associating "scary new-fangled technology" with what could be a kid being careless seems like fodder for a silly and most likely fruitless lawsuit.
Woooo Wooooo Dats wat um sayying. Uh huh. Did you notice the stop sign "Bubb Rubb" races through at time 1:30...