Whoever injures - or knock on wood kills - somebody with a truck with such a high hood should serve a mandatory prison sentence.
If you want the government to intervene, their first step should be to remove the regulations that encourage this growth in vehicle size to begin with, rather than going after consumers who have very little choice in trucks
We can’t change everything all at once but requiring more comprehensive coverage in general and especially for the most dangerous vehicles would be a good start.
If an accident had 10 or 1 million in damages, and was 80-20% why would the total ever matter?
I think your points about insurance are worth thinking about, minimum liability is lower than most expected earnings.
The angle I’m thinking about is that the person operating heavy equipment should be expected to exercise greater caution. If a pedestrian sets foot out of a painted crosswalk, it seems harsh to say that means the SUV driver who plowed into them is off the hook for 30% of the damages when the situation would almost certainly have avoided any injury had everyone been on foot/bike/scooter or substantially less lethal if the driver had been in a normal sedan.
Basically when I drive I’m cognizant of the fact that it’s the most dangerous thing most of us do on a regular basis. I’d like that attitude to be the default.
I think that is already baked in to contributory negligence. Its not just "you were speeding, and you stepped over a line, so 50/50%".
If the pedestrian is at fault, I think the individual, or their estate, should have to pay for the truck repairs and therapy for the driver.
At least in theory. Unfortunately the cops here almost never wants to prosecute cars hitting kids or pedestrians. There's always an excuse. "The sun was in their eye", "kid didn't wear high vis (it was daytime)".
AT least in the US, 33% of pedestrians involved in fatal accidents were drunk.
16% were on freeways. 59% were on non-freeway arterials, while 22% were on local streets. [1]
I found it surprising that fatalities are far more likely to involve Pedestrians being drunk or jaywalking on high-speed throughfare than drunk drivers.
https://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/GHSA-Pedest...
People don't just walk along the side of a freeway because they felt like it. They do it because negligent planners left them with no better route.
I don't see well-to-do businessmen jumping into the road all that often, but I do see deadbeat beggars do it every day.