Pedestrians hit by SUVs and pick-ups are significantly more likely to be killed than those hit by lower-riding hatchbacks and saloons, according to a new study.
Conducted by Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the review compared data from collisions involving SUVs and ‘light trucks’ (pick-ups and small vans) with those involving saloons and hatchbacks.
Its analysis of 682,509 collisions found that the risk of an adult pedestrian dying in a collision is 44% higher when they are hit by an SUV or light truck compared with a regular passenger car. For a child aged 0-9, that risk increases to 130% higher.
The study estimates that 17% of adult pedestrian and cyclist fatalities could be avoided if drivers swapped their SUVs for lower-riding cars instead. That translates to 620 lives per year, it said.
However, it should be noted that the study primarily focuses on collisions in the US, where vehicles are typically larger and heavier than in Europe. Four-fifths of the study’s comparisons between crashes involving SUVs and regular passenger cars were from America.
European data is also influenced by the lower proportion of SUVs driven, compared with the US. As such, the study estimates that 8% of adult pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in Europe could be avoided by switching to traditional passenger cars.
Despite the findings, the report cautions against a blanket ban on ‘SUVs’, noting there is no universally accepted or legal definition of what constitutes an SUV.
It instead urges action against the biggest risk factor: the high beltlines and blunt front ends that are typical of SUVs and pick-ups.
“The key mechanism underlying this increased risk appears to be the taller and blunter profile of the front end of SUVs and [light trucks],” the study states.
“This means that the victim is initially struck higher up on their body (eg, the pelvis not the legs for an adult, or the thorax not the pelvis for a child).
“It further means that the victim is more likely to be thrown forward into the road, rather than carried on the vehicle’s hood [bonnet].
“These and other crash dynamics are associated with a higher proportion of upper body injuries (including to the head, thorax and abdomen) and with a more serious injury profile.”
Indeed, according to a 2024 study published in journal Economics of Transportation, a 10cm increase in a car's front-end height increases the risk of pedestrian fatality by 22%.
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Nobody mentions how fatalities occur on the first place, there are people etc who cross roads where your supposed to or at a safe place a place where you can see the Traffic and they can see you, how many times have we seen pedestrians not looking and just crossing? or the parents who don't hold there child's hand when crossing?, ok, I know it's about vehicle safety design,but, some pedestrians just dont care they expect you to stop in time in all weathers, these are areas that I think haven't improved.
When you look at the height of these things, then think where it would impact an average child, you can see why they will kill children quickly. The fact that vehicles are getting bigger and much heavier probably means death is possible at under 20 mph.
Define SUV or THB, I couldn't find the definition in the report other than tall, wide and heavy. Grouping the Suzuki Ignis and F150 truck in the same headline shrill isn't very scientific or helpful.
"A further likely source of heterogeneity in our estimates stems from variation in how different data sources defined ‘KSI’ as an outcome or defined ‘SUV’ or ‘LTV’ as an exposure. There exists no legal international definition of what counts as an ‘SUV’, and most included studies did not offer any explanation of how they defined this category. We recognise that vehicles classed as SUVs vary in size and shape, and that our use of binary categories is somewhat artificial. In particular, the key underlying road danger mechanism appears to be higher and blunter vehicle front ends,7 9 10 which cause victims more often to be thrown forward rather than carried and which are associated with more severe injuries to the upper body.4–6 Front-end profiles vary between SUVs and passenger cars, but they also vary among SUVs. Policies seeking to discourage use of larger vehicles or seeking to make them safer should be mindful of such variation and should ideally target any interventions not according to a label like ‘SUV’ but instead according to the underlying road danger mechanisms."