‘Deadly’ American-style pick-up trucks taking over Geelong’s roads

Utes have been getting bigger for a while now, but a new breed of American-style trucks are hitting Geelong, bringing new safety complications. HAVE YOUR SAY.

American style utes are taking over Geelong’s roads.

Controversial American-style pick-up trucks are twice as likely to kill or seriously injure another person compared to a normal car, a leading road-safety expert has warned.

It comes as the trucks, basically super-sized utes, are beginning to take over Geelong’s roads, causing debate over their practicality and safety.

This year the Ram Trucks Australia’s Melbourne factory rolled out its 20,000th right-hand drive converted truck, a 6.2-litre supercharged pick-up in Hydro Blue.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data shows Ram is the most popular manufacturer of large utes in Australia, comfortably outselling arch rival Chevrolet.

One of Ram’s of the most popular models, the RAM 1500, is larger in both length and width than the standard Australian parking space.

Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) director Professor Stuart Newstead said while the vehicles were safe for the occupants, they’re “not very good for anyone else they crash with”.

“Generally they’re pretty safe for the person inside of them because they’ve got the full complement of airbags and other safety features,” Prof Newstead said.

“They’re incredibly heavy, when they hit other vehicles, particularly when they hit small vehicles, they tend to transfer most of the crash energy to that poor person.”

American style pick-up trucks are taking over Geelong's roads.

Prof Newstead said one of the utes was the equivalent of a light or medium truck when it came to its impact on other cars, with the main difference being only a standard licence was required to get behind the wheel.

“We know light and medium trucks are essentially, because of their unfavourable geometry and weight, about twice as likely to kill or seriously injure another person in a crash compared to a typical passenger vehicle,” he said.

The popularity of large utes tipped to continue, with Ford and Toyota both announcing they will be releasing their own versions of pick-up trucks, the F-150 and the Tundra, in the near future.

The trucks were also labelled “environmentally disastrous” by Prof Newstead, who questioned their popularity.

According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the four best selling vehicles in Australia in 2022 were the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger, and Mitsubishi Triton – all large utes – and the Toyota RAV4 SUV.

These style utes, not as big as the US-style pick-ups, are about 20 per cent more dangerous than the average vehicle on the road in terms of the risk of death or serious injury it poses to people with impacts, according to Monash University Accident Research Centre.

The debate has caused a stir on social media, with many members of the Geelong community defending the trucks.

“Councils need to make car spaces bigger,” one Facebook commenter wrote.

“These are becoming the car of choice in (an) ever changing market.

“Councils and (governments) need to keep up with consumer choices rather than dictating to consumers (sic) what they can have.”

Other commenters wrote of their negative experiences with the vehicles.

“One in (Waurn Ponds) today took up the whole road in between the car parks, couldn’t get around it,” one person wrote.

Originally published as ‘Deadly’ American-style pick-up trucks taking over Geelong’s roads