This brief article alerts readers to the new problem of pedestrians and bicyclists being unaware of quieter, hybrid automobiles as they share transportation byways. A new federal study reports that hybrid electric cars are more likely than models with internal combustion engines to crash with pedestrians and bicyclists, especially during low-speed manoeuvres when the hybrids are likely to be running only on electricity. The study was conducted by Refaat Hanna for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and includes data from police reports of collisions in 12 states. The author determined proportions of crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists colliding with Honda and Toyota hybrids versus similar cars from the same automakers without hybrid engines. The hybrids' overall likelihood of crashing with a pedestrian was 40% higher than the other cars', increasing to a 50% difference in areas where speed limits were 35 mph or slower. Readers are referred to the original study, available online at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811204.PDF
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