I still think the bigger danger is the driver, not the hitchhiker.
In other words, the biggest risk is to the person that accepts the ride. What person in their right mind gets in a car with an absolute stranger along the side of a highway? You are entering a lockable lair of a potential predator.
Depends on the sex. A woman getting in a car with a stranger is certifiably nuts. But today the hitcher is a menace. As someone else pointed out, mental patients wander freely, dope is much worse and more prevalent, and then there is malevolent evil such as blacks who despise you just for being white. Leftists who might like you until you make one small verbal mistake revealing you are the enemy.
Everyone should think as hitchhikers as an extreme risk.