Study Says SUVs Are More Deadly Than Cars When Striking Pedestrians

Sport-utility vehicles, once exclusively hulking and heavy truck-based modes of transport, have largely evolved into the lighter and more manageable car-based crossover models that now dominate the nation’s driveways. And while their designs have adopted lower bumpers in recent years to lessen the threat to passengers in other vehicles in a collision, a just-released report indicates that even crossover SUVs remain every bit as lethal to pedestrians as ever.

That’s according to a study of 79 vehicle crashes in three Michigan cities conducted by the industry-supported Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in Arlington, VA. As it is, pedestrian traffic fatalities have risen by 53 percent from 2009 to 2018, the latest year for which such information is available. That means pedestrians now account for around one-fifth of all vehicle-related fatalities. 

The sample determined that SUVs cause seven percent more serious injuries to pedestrians than passenger cars when struck at speeds quicker than 19 miles per hour. At speeds between 20 and 39 mph, 30 percent of pedestrians struck by SUVs died, compared with 25 percent who were hit by cars. One hundred percent of pedestrians in SUV collisions at speeds of 40 mph or greater died, versus 54 percent who were struck by cars.

“The proportion of SUVs in the U.S. fleet has grown dramatically, so it’s discouraging that they still seem to be more deadly to pedestrians than cars are,” says IIHS Statistician Sam Monfort, lead author of the study. Admittedly, the IIHS says the limited sample size warrants further research to confirm that their initial findings will hold up in a larger study. 

The culprit here seems to be an SUV’s signature front-end design, which tends to be taller and more squared-off than with lower-to-the-ground sedans and coupes having sleeker hood lines. The Michigan injury patterns were reportedly consistent with earlier studies that determined SUVs were more likely to throw pedestrians forward when struck, being twice as likely to incur severe hip and thigh injuries than in incidents involving passenger cars.

Pedestrian airbags and other mitigating features have been introduced in Europe to help protect pedestrians, but according to the IIHS the fleet of SUVs across the ocean is too slim, compared to the U.S., to show how effective they might be given their blockier front ends.

Another possible solution could be more widespread installation of driver-assist systems that can detect the presence of pedestrians in a vehicle’s path and automatically apply the brakes at full force to either avoid or minimize an impact. An analysis conducted by the IIHS estimated that pedestrian crash prevention systems could potentially prevent or lessen the severity of up to 65 percent of vehicle crashes with pedestrians in the most common crash configurations, and reduce deaths by 58 percent. 

However, the proverbial jury is still out with regard to pedestrian detection systems’ real-world effectiveness. In a test of four midsize sedans conducted in 2019 by the AAA in partnership with the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Automotive Research Center, pedestrian detection was judged to perform inconsistently, especially after dark when 75 percent of pedestrian fatalities are said to occur. Overall, the systems in four sedans were found to be only 40 percent effective, and most failed altogether at speeds of 30 mph or higher.

For the time being the only solution to such fatalities is culturing a generation of more attentive drivers and pedestrians.

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