- Larger vehicles appear to be increasing pedestrian fatality risks.
- The study backs up previous data on the same issue around taller hoods.
- Growing blind spots may leave drivers unaware of nearby pedestrians.
Back in 2008, technology appeared to be consistently improving pedestrian safety on the road. Then, in 2009, a new trend developed. Fatalities began to climb, and the number of pedestrians killed each year has risen by about 75 percent. Now, a new analysis points to one thing as the most likely culprit: trucks and SUVs that are taller than they need to be. The puzzle is that most other wealthy countries haven’t logged similar spikes, which undercuts tidy explanations like smartphones.
Read: Car Crashes Are 60% More Dangerous For Women, And It’s All Because Of A Dummy
According to a New York Times investigation that analyzed federal crash records, vehicle-dimension data, registration information, and crash-test findings, the growth of pickups and SUVs may account for roughly 200 to 400 additional pedestrian deaths each year. Researchers estimate that around 3,000 fatalities between 2016 and 2024 could be linked to the rise in hood heights compared to vehicles from the early 2000s.
That annual range works out to about 10 percent of the recent increase, and the 3,000 tally is conservative, since it leaves out crashes in parking lots, driveways, and private roads that never make the federal database.
Read: SUVs Are Embracing Boxy Designs Again, But Safety Rules Could Kill The Trend
Part of the problem comes down to physics. As hoods get taller, they increasingly strike pedestrians above their center of gravity. Rather than rolling onto the hood, which is the safest result in this already bad scenario, victims are more likely to be pushed downward and into the pavement.
For scale, a sedan’s hood typically clears the ground by less than 30 inches, whereas a current pickup averages closer to 45 and tends to catch a person at chest level instead of below the waist. Even the run-of-the-mill vehicle now wears a hood around three feet tall, high enough to knock down anyone under 5-foot-6, which describes roughly half the adults in the country.
Blind Spots Are Getting Bigger
“We see a lot of devastating collisions even at lower speeds because the pedestrian gets punted forward,” said Shawn Harrington, whose company, Forensic Rock, conducted crash tests for the analysis. “Before the driver knows what’s happened, the pedestrian’s head is under the wheel.” That takes us to the other big issue with trucks and SUVs of this size – visibility.
Some of the blame traces back to a 2009 safety rule that forced roofs to survive three times the vehicle’s weight. To clear it, plenty of automakers thickened the A-pillars flanking the windshield, a fix that shielded occupants in rollovers but handed drivers wider blind spots in the bargain.
Researchers found that blind zones in popular pickups have grown substantially over the past two decades. In their analysis, the Chevrolet Silverado’s blind zone nearly doubled, while the GMC Sierra and Toyota Tacoma saw increases of roughly 60 percent. At about 25 percent, the F-150 posted the gentlest growth of the four trucks the team measured.
Automakers argue that advanced safety technologies such as automatic emergency braking, exterior cameras, and pedestrian detection systems can help reduce crashes. Researchers and safety advocates counter that electronic systems are not foolproof and that direct visibility remains critical, especially when children, shorter adults, cyclists, or pedestrians suddenly enter a vehicle’s path.
Here’s the craziest part. None of this is shocking or surprising. Year after year, study after study finds this same sort of data. The reality is that America’s truck and SUV market has created a tradeoff.
Why Automakers Keep Building Them
Bigger trucks and SUVs offer more space, capability, and, unsurprisingly, maximum profit for automakers. The average full-size pickup now lists near $70,000, twice what a sedan commands, even though it costs only a little more to assemble, which explains why these trucks bankroll nearly the entire industry’s bottom line. Ford alone saw its car sales collapse from north of a million in 2017 to fewer than 100,000 by 2022.
But as hoods rise and sightlines shrink, researchers say the unintended consequences are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. The resurgence of sedans and wagons seemingly can’t come fast enough – if it happens at all, that is.
