What's happening here is that there's an explosion of homeless living and walking in and around the very fast two-lane roads and one highway in particular. They are drugged out of their mind and oblivious. Just about every couple weeks there's a fatality where someone wanders into the road or crosses unsafely in the night and the car or often 18-wheeler can't see to avoid them. At highway speeds it wouldn't matter if it was a Honda, and sometimes is.
This isn't a suburban or urban area where it's people getting mowed down in the crosswalks. This is out in the desert. Just another way that fentanyl kills. Since 5 years ago, it seems to have increased almost an order of magnitude.
So as captivating as the SUV story is, at least here it's nothing to do with it. But might not be like that everywhere. But the article doesn't address this at all.