Study Zeroes in on Dangers of Taller Vehicles

More evidence is piling up that extra-tall vehicle hoods, increasingly common on American trucks and SUVs, are more dangerous to pedestrians.

As Jonathan M. Gitlin reports in Wired, “Data from the 1990s found that a pedestrian hit by a light truck was two to three times more likely to be killed, with another study finding that light trucks were twice as likely to injure a pedestrian than a car, especially at low speed.”

More recently, a new study reveals similar results. “When examined by vehicle type, vans proved to be the least dangerous to pedestrians, with a 6.6 percent chance of death. Cars were a bit worse—8.5 percent of pedestrians hit by a sedan or hatchback were killed. Compact SUVs were roughly the same as cars, at 8.8 percent.” By comparison, SUVs killed 12.4 percent of pedestrians they hit, while pickups had a death rate of 11.9 percent.

Pickup trucks and full-size SUVs have 27 to 28 percent taller hoods than average cars and are 51 to 55 percent heavier. Between 2016 and 2021, median front-end height increased by 5 percent. After a more granular analysis, study author Justin Tyndall found that hood height is a primary factor. “In fact, the study estimates that a 4-inch (100-mm) increase in front-end height translates to a 28 percent increase in pedestrian death.”