This article very much doesn't show what the quoted text purports it to show. There's no controlling for pedestrian traffic or vehicle traffic increases over that stretch of time, and there's no mathematics to show what a substitution analysis would look like (say, what would the expected number of deaths be were the proportion of trucks the same in 2016 as they were in 2009). And there's no discussion of the effects of distracted driving, which has been shown to be the biggest factor in the overall increase in traffic fatalities generally. It makes sense that the biggest increase has been at night, because distracted drivers are probably even less likely to see obstacles when visibility is poor. This is a great example of what the right complains about when they complain about liberal media--take some facts that support a narrative and make a sweeping conclusion based on the current liberal ideology (in this case "trucks are bad").

The only thing that is going to lessen the number of trucks and SUVs on the road is a dramatic increase in gas prices. We already saw in 2008 that when gas gets to $4/gal, truck sales fall. We should all care about better safety, but this is like when Walter tells the Dude, "And keeping an amphibious rodent in the city limits..." It's just hating for it's own sake, and I'm going to continue to shrug until we can control drunk driving and distracted driving.