An F-150 driver shared his devastation on the internet after damaging his beloved truck, but instead of sympathy, users reacted with their sincerest disapproval.
In a video shared to TikTok, molesrcool (@molesrcool) describes the incident, which started in an empty parking lot and ended with the driver running into a big, yellow concrete bollard.
@molesrcool giant lifted truck defeated by a bright yellow slab of concrete in a parking lot #liftedtrucks #trucks #f150 #pedestriandignity ♬ Yacht Club - MusicBox
A driver of any smaller car would've seen the large, yellow (really, how much more perceptible could it have been?) bollard long before they had the chance to run into it. But the truck's absurdly enormous size and lifted suspension created a blindspot larger than the immovable chunk, leaving him little chance of seeing it until it was too late.
Luckily, as commenters on TikTok pointed out, it was just a piece of concrete and not a person.
"I'm terrified of being around those trucks in my wheelchair," one user wrote. "I'm shorter than their hoods."
They have a right to be worried. Large trucks and SUVs are the primary culprits in the uptick of deadly accidents involving cars and pedestrians. NPR reported in November that pedestrian fatalities are at their highest in more than 40 years, surging over 80% since 2009.
This is a result of a global trend in which the average size of newly manufactured cars has increased by 20% or more in just the last decade, according to a 2022 report by the International Energy Agency. Taller vehicle clearances especially are dangerous for pedestrians because they increase the likelihood they will be run over by the vehicle rather than land on the hood or be tossed to the side.
To add to the horror, large vehicles are also significantly worse for the environment.
They have far worse fuel efficiency than other smaller vehicles, and they also emit more toxic polluting gases into Earth's atmosphere. A study by the IEA found that large vehicles, such as trucks and SUVs, consume approximately 20% more oil than smaller vehicles. The same study also found that the 330 million or so SUVs on the road today emit a collective 1 billion tonnes of CO2 annually.
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Users in the comments section of molesrcool's video were primarily worried about the safety of pedestrians and other small vehicles around large trucks and were thankful no one was hurt this time.
"The sheer amount of times I've almost been hit by trucks walking to work is alarming," one person said.
"That could've been a child or pet," another concerned user wrote.
Another person shared a heartbreaking incident that highlights the very dangers of unnecessarily large trucks, stating, "There was a [motorcyclist] killed in my city not too long ago, because the driver of a lifted truck didn't see him stopped at a red light."
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