What to do about America's killer cars
What to do about America’s killer cars
 Sep 5th 2024THE NEXT time you are stuck in traffic, look around you. Not at the cars, but the passengers. If you are in America, the chances are that one in 75 of them will be killed by a car—most of those by someone else’s car. Wherever you may be, the folk cocooned in a giant SUV or pickup truck are likelier to survive a collision with another vehicle. But the weight of their machines has a cost, because it makes the roads more dangerous for everyone else. The Economist has found that, for every life the heaviest 1% of SUVs or trucks saves in America, more than a dozen lives are lost in smaller vehicles. This makes traffic jams an ethics class on wheels. Explore moreUnited StatesThis article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “America’s killer cars”Leaders September 7th 2024What to do about America’s killer carsThe real problem with China’s economyThe Labour government’s worrying lack of ambition in Europe How to deal with the hard-right threat in GermanyA make-or-break moment for Mexico As Brazil bans Elon Musk’s X, who will speak up for free speech? From the September 7th 2024 editionDiscover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the editionReuse this content