I run, walk and bike Portland’s streets regularly, and I’m raising a toddler here who I hope will someday walk to school or the library on her own. The deaths of Diane Bell and Jason Ayers, and the recent crosswalk injury to a sixth-grader off Brighton Avenue, hit close to home.

I’ve been heartened to see the Portland City Council and the Cumberland County District Attorney’s office beginning to respond to pedestrian safety. The Press Herald’s reporting on these casualties and dangerous intersection design is important. But one factor is missing from that response: the vehicles themselves.

A recent New York Times investigation found that hood height is an independent, statistically significant predictor of pedestrian deaths, even after controlling for road design, speed and driver behavior. Blind zones on today’s most popular pickup trucks have grown dramatically since the 1990s. The Times estimates higher hoods caused roughly 3,000 pedestrian deaths between 2016 and 2024, a toll in addition to that caused by bad roads.

I’d ask the Press Herald to report on this trend locally. When you cover these crashes, please tell us the vehicle’s make and model. Tell readers whether Portland’s serious injuries and deaths disproportionately involve the high-hood trucks and SUVs the Times’ analysis describes.

We should consider these tragedies from every angle, including the one parked in our driveways. Our kids deserve a city where they can walk to the library or bike with a friend, without fear of a catastrophic collision with a large truck or SUV.

Kyle Smith
Portland