British Researchers Sound the Alarm About the Dangers of Large SUVs

New British crash data follows the lead of data released earlier this year in the United States of the increased risk to pedestrian safety by the large SUVs currently popular with automakers and American consumers.

"A new data crunch from British transport data experts shows there may be a similar lethality problem with SUVs in the U.K.," reports Carlton Reid.

Adam Reynolds, a transport policy advisor, worked with Robin Lovelace, a "Big Data" fellow at the Institute for Transport Studies at Leeds University in northern England, to produce the findings. One of the significant contributions of the research is a call for the U.K. Department for Transport (DfT) to publish the analysis and potentially remove dangerous cars from the road.

Another recommendation has to do with how British police measure crashes. "Reynolds suggests that the DfT and the police should measure pedestrian fatalities by vehicle body shape as well as engine size," according to Reid's explanation. "Not currently doing this is 'masking a deadly problem created by the car industry marketing and producing taller, heavier vehicles,' argues Reynolds."