Saw this shared on Mastodon and it really made me think of National and their Atlas Network aligned astro-turf organisation the Taxpayer’s Onion who campaigned against what they termed the ‘ute tax’.
If the results of this 2004 study hold true 20 years later, and in New Zealand, then knowingly or not, they in effect have campaigned for and enacted legislation that will kill more New Zealanders.
"A 2004 study found that for every life saved by a motorist who switched from a car to a light truck (SUV or pickup), 4.3 other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists were killed. "
That statistic also suggests that the safety fears driving people to SUVs are completely overblown and over-egged.
Considering some of the absolute boats that came out in the nineties, including the 80 and 100 series land cruisers, I wouldn’t be surprised if the average size of our road fleet has actually shrunk.
The length of a typical Hilux, for example, has increased by 100mm, and width by 150mm. Hardly a colossal increase in size.
https://www.carsguide.com.au/toyota/hilux/car-dimensions/1990
https://www.carsguide.com.au/toyota/hilux/car-dimensions
The 90s hiluxes I remember were tiny, but after searching it seems like this model was 1990 exactly, maybe it started growing from then (which feels like a looong time ago!)
Also, I ink the crucial metric which doesn’t seem to be covered is how the grille height has moved from roughly an adults hips towards their upper arm, which seems to me to be far more lethal
That’s a two wheel drive model, the four wheel drives were pretty much always that height.
The main change has actually been in the styling, they look more aggressive now.