Vehicles With Higher,Vertical Front Ends Put Pedestrians At Risk

17.11.2023 - 20:17 / forbes.com

Vehicles with particularly tall, blocky, front ends are most dangerous to pedestrians. SUVs, pickups and vans with a hood height more than 40 inches – regardless of their nose shape – are about 45% more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes than those with a hood height of 30 inches or lower and a sloping profile. And medium-height vehicles with hood heights of 30-40 inches with blunt fronts are deadly, too. They were 26% more likely to cause pedestrian fatalities.

Those are the findings of new research about pedestrian crashes announced on Tuesday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit financed by the insurance industry.

“Some of today’s vehicles are pretty intimidating when you’re passing in front of them in a crosswalk,” David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute, said in a statement. “These results tell us our instincts are correct: More aggressive-looking vehicles can indeed do more harm.”

Earlier research linked SUVs and pickups to higher fatality risk in pedestrian crashes, but this new study, which aims to offer automakers guidance about how to design vehicles that are safer in crashes with people, shows that some vehicle features, like hood height, front end profile, and hood slope, contribute to the risk of death in pedestrian crashes, the institute said.

Pedestrian crash deaths have spiked 80% since hitting their low in 2009, according to the report. “Nearly 7,400 walkers — more than 20 people a day — lost their lives in 2021 after being struck by a vehicle. While speeding and poorly designed infrastructure have helped fuel the increase,” it noted, “many safety advocates have also drawn a connection to the growing portion of the U.S. vehicle fleet made up of pickups and SUVs.” In addition, over the past 30 years, the average U.S. passenger vehicle has gotten wider, longer, taller and heavier.

For the study, researchers analyzed nearly 18,000 crashes involving a single passenger vehicle and a single pedestrian, excluded vehicles with pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems, and controlled for other factors that could affect the likelihood of a fatality, including speed limit and age and sex of the struck pedestrian.

In another assessment, researchers examined records from 121 crashes involving the front end of a car. The data included detailed crash reconstructions, including information about the motion of the pedestrian’s body during the crash and the nature and severity of their injuries.

“Manufacturers can make vehicles less dangerous to pedestrians by lowering the front end of the hood and angling the grille and hood to create a sloped profile,” Wen Hu, senior research transportation engineer for the Institute and the lead author of the