If you stood outside your local primary school at pick-up time two decades ago you witnessed a procession of Commodores, Falcons, Corollas and the odd rusting Datsun 180b.

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Today it resembles a military deployment, a rumbling metal cavalcade of Rangers, Rams, Raptors and Warriors.

They're big, mean and mightily unclean. Not environmentally, although there's that too. But unclean because they're staining one of Australia's greatest public health successes.

Australia spent half a century making its roads safer. Now, despite engineering advances that have delivered the safest cars in history, we're going backwards. For the past five years our road toll has been on a grim upward trajectory unprecedented since the end of WWII.

More than 1300 people lost their lives in accidents in the 12 months to May this year. But it's not the occupants of cars, protected by airbags and autonomous braking, who are bearing the brunt.

Driver fatalities have been trending downward for years. Pedestrian, cyclist and motorcyclist deaths are spiking. Not because we're in the midst of an inexplicable wave of reckless jaywalking and biking. It's simple physics and geometry. The same accidents that 20 years ago left victims with bruises and broken bones are now sending them to the morgue.

A key difference? The size and weight of vehicles weaponised under the guise of family safety. Tax benefits, annual advertising blitzes of more than $100 million by auto manufacturers and heightened safety anxiety have helped Australians buy into the myth that bigger is better and safer.

The science is inescapable. Traditional sedans had low, sloping bonnets. A pedestrian collision usually hit the victim at knee or thigh level, throwing them over the hood and helping absorb some of the kinetic energy. But SUVs and those........

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