Charleston Leader

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, questioned national transportation leaders during a Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight and Ports Subcommittee hearing titled "Examining the Roadway Safety Crisis and Highlighting Community Solutions."

During her questions, Senator Capito raised concerns about the fatality risks posed by electric vehicles (EVs) in potential crashes. She noted that EVs have heavy batteries that often cause them to weigh more than gas-powered vehicles in the same class. The increased weight of EVs creates the potential for more deadly accidents resulting from heavier weight colliding with crash victims.

Senator Capito stated, “Here's the one thing that I haven't heard: I haven't heard one person mention the increased weight of an electric vehicle. The president has said that by 2030, we are going to have 50% of our cars are going to be electric vehicles… There's a study out there that says baseline fatality possibility increases 47% for every 1000 pounds added to a car.”

She continued by questioning whether existing infrastructure can withstand these impacts: “Can the guardrails withstand the impacts? Dr. Sandt said that when you talked about fatalities, it’s mass versus velocity... What are we gonna do about this? And does anybody have suggestions?”

Jake Nelson, Director of Traffic Safety Advocacy and Research at the American Automobile Association (AAA), responded: “Understood, but you're speaking our language because we've been giving a lot of thought to the potential safety implications of proliferating passenger vehicle fleet involving EVs...”

Senator Capito pressed further for solutions: “So, I’m not hearing any solutions here to how we're going to-”

Nelson acknowledged the current lack of solutions due to low penetration of EVs in the U.S. fleet but emphasized a cautious approach: “Well, I don't think we have solutions yet because we don't have a high penetration of EVs in the U.S. fleet... We should be approaching this as a ‘first do no harm’ kind of policy move.”

Senator Capito concluded by stressing the importance of addressing these issues now: “I mean, I just think it would be smart to be talking about this right now in terms of these types of vehicles because if any of the goals are actually met, this will be a large part of our fleet.”

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