Car Manufacturers Redesign Vehicles To Reduce Pedestrian Deaths

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While the blame game rages on in the pedestrian-automobile accidents, others are looking for a solution. According to a new post on Treehugger, car manufacturers are working to reduce injuries sustained by pedestrians struck by moving vehicles by making structural alterations. Of course, new design concepts are not without their obstacles:

Engineers have spent years studying what happens when a vehicle hits a pedestrian, and have come to several conclusions about how to minimize injury. Some of them, unfortunately conflict with other objectives, such as fuel economy, structural strength and repair costs. A flat, relatively soft front bumper, for example, minimizes the force of an impact, but hurts fuel economy.

Read about some solutions in the works and check out a video demonstration of a crash-detection device over at Treehugger. What kinds of solutions do you think should be implemented to cut down on pedestrian-auto crashes?Photo via Globe and Mail.