Young children three times more likely to be killed by SUV, new study finds
The latest study on SUV road danger has concluded that being hit by an SUV as opposed to a passenger car increases fatality risk and injury severity among pedestrians and cyclists, with the strongest effect in children.
The study, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, examined data from 359,000 police crash reports where a pedestrian or cyclist was struck by a car to determine the extent to which vehicle type (i.e. SUV vs non-SUV) affects the outcome for the pedestrian or cyclist.
Previous studies (like this recent one) used data from the US and other countries. The new study exclusively uses UK data for the first time, giving a much more accurate picture of the harms of carspreading in this country.
The data show that child pedestrians and cyclists under nine-years-old are three times more likely to be killed if struck by an SUV compared to a regular car. For all children (i.e. under 18-years-old) the risk of fatality if struck by an SUV is raised by 77% compared to a regular car, a similar figure to that found in the earlier study mentioned above.
This finding makes clear the danger larger cars and SUVs pose to children and is perhaps explained by the common SUV feature of a raised bonnet.
Taking a longer view, replacing all SUVs with small cars would avoid 35% of road deaths in the UK for children under nine, and avoid 17% of road deaths for children of all ages.
For adult pedestrians and cyclists, the risk factor is less pronounced (at 14%) although adults are still more at risk of fatality if struck by an SUV compared to a regular car. If all SUVs were replaced with small cars, 4% of adult road deaths could be avoided each year.
Policy implications
The study finds that the increased danger posed by SUVs is most clearly associated with the vehicle’s weight and height, but not by length. This has implications for policies that aim to reduce road harms from SUVs.
Local authorities looking to introduce higher parking charges for SUVs with the aim of reducing road harm should base charges on the vehicle’s weight or height. Higher parking charges in Paris, for instance, are calculated on the vehicle’s weight, with cars over 1600kg (or 2000kg for electric cars) paying 3 times more to park.
The Paris scheme reduce SUV in the city by two-thirds within the first three months. Reducing the number of large cars on the roads is central to any road safety strategy. Weight-based parking charges were recently included as a recommendation in a report on London’s Vision Zero Strategy from London Assembly Member Caroline Russell.
Nationally, the SUV Alliance calls for legal restrictions on vehicle weight and size, including bonnet height, as current regulations are far too lax and fail to accurately reflect the increased danger larger cars like SUVs pose to other road users, especially children.
Feature image: Crispin Hughes / Clean Cities Campaign / Climate Visuals