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2010 Toyota Prius - Click above for a high-res image gallery

According to the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, just introduced by U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), "New vehicles that employ hybrid or electric engine technology can be silent, rendering them extremely dangerous in situations where vehicles and pedestrians come into proximity with each other."

For this reason, the aforementioned bipartisan bill would require that the government "conduct a study on how to protect the blind and others from being injured or killed by vehicles using hybrid, electric, and other silent engine technologies." Companies like Lotus Engineering and Harmon International are already one step ahead of this legislation with products intended to add some extra sound to silent vehicles.

Interestingly, it was just over a year ago that the last study into the dangers of hybrid and electric vehicles was started as directed by the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008, leaving us to wonder what progress, if any, has been made on the issue over the last year.


Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius - First Drive

Continue reading Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act introduced to protect the blind from quiet cars

Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act introduced to protect the blind from quiet cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blind carsBlindCarsnational federation for the blindNationalFederationForTheBlindpedestrian safetypedestrian safety enhancement actPedestrianSafetyPedestrianSafetyEnhancementActquiet carquiet carsquiet hybridsQuietCarQuietCarsQuietHybridssilent carsilent carssilent hybridsSilentCarSilentCarsSilentHybridsThu, 23 Apr 2009 10:27:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/1524792/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2009/04/23/pedestrian-safety-enhancement-act-introduced-to-protect-the-blin/1524792/article-detail.xml 1524792 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2009/03/2010_prius_01_opt_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2009/03/2010_prius_01_opt.jpg -1 2