What's interesting is fatality rates are increasing but injury rates are decreasing.
Seems like something else might be at play. If it is more SUVs and Pickups then I think a brake light helmet would do a lot considering the danger those cars present is being harder to see those below them. But if it is something else, then maybe not as good of a solution.
That seems unfortunately unsurprising. With shorter vehicles (sedans), when you get hit (as a pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist), you are more likely to be pushed over the hood of the car. But with a taller vehicle (truck, SUV), you're more likely to either be propelled forward after hitting the high, flat face of the grille, or get pulled and dragged under the vehicle.
While going over the hood is going to hurt, and can kill you, the other options are much more likely to kill you.
Vehicles with a tall, flat face are more likely to kill instead of injure, from my recall of previous discussions on HN. That's been a trend in vehicle design for a few years now.
The bulbous styling on your average "we would have called this a station wagon 40yr ago but now we call it an compact SUV because stupid laws" vehicle is driven in large part by a need to have big floofy plastic moldings full of airspace for a "soft" place for a pedestrian to land.
On the other hand you've got stuff like the Chvey 2500HD trucks that everyone screeches about that aren't designed that way and will propel a pedestrian back onto the pavement.
There was a news story this week in my area about a car driver who intentionally side-swiped a motorcyclist. The police said what normally kills motorcyclists is that they get thrown and then they hit something solid like a barrier or another car. This guy got lucky that there was an exit nearby and he just slid down the exit lane with minor injuries.
Seems like something else might be at play. If it is more SUVs and Pickups then I think a brake light helmet would do a lot considering the danger those cars present is being harder to see those below them. But if it is something else, then maybe not as good of a solution.