Cars vs. SUVs vs. Pedestrians

A few weeks ago I pointed out that overall traffic fatalities both in our state and nationally declined last year, but at the same time pedestrian and cyclist fatalities have increased. In Washington we’ve had an increase in pedestrian and cyclist-involved crashes, but even more concerning is that pedestrians are dying at a higher rate. In case you missed the previous column, here’s a quick refresher on the data: In 2013 we had 3118 crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists, resulting in 63 fatalities. Last year we had 3718 pedestrian/cyclist-involved crashes, resulting in 120 fatalities. That’s a 19 percent increase in crashes, but a 90 percent increase in fatalities.

I don’t have a good answer for why vehicle/pedestrian crashes have increased, but as I mentioned previously, there is some evidence for why the fatality rate has shot up. And right now I’m about to alienate about 43 percent of my audience. A big reason for the increase in pedestrian fatalities can be blamed on SUVs and pickups. Don’t take this personally; I’m not accusing owners of SUVs and pickups (or what the industry calls light trucks) of being worse drivers. Crash rates for SUVs and cars are about the same. The problem lies in what happens to a pedestrian in a crash.

Before we get to crash mechanics, let’s look at how things have changed on the road. SUVs have been available for decades, but early on, unless you were the in military, a rancher, or were hauling a crew to a job site, you probably didn’t drive one. It wasn’t until the 1990s that SUV sales really took off. And as recently as 2013, car and SUV sales were split 50/50. That has obviously changed. In roughly the same timeframe as we saw a 90 percent increase in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, the percentage of SUVs on the road increased from 32 percent to 43 percent. That trend continues in 2019, with 70 percent of vehicle sales going to SUVs and pickups.

Back when light trucks made up about a third of the vehicle fleet, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration looked at pedestrian-involved crashes and found that about one third of pedestrians were struck by SUVs and pickups, suggesting that driving a light truck doesn’t affect the likelihood of crashing into a pedestrian. But when they looked at crashes involving pedestrian fatalities, SUVs and pickups took a 40 percent share. After their analysis of 12 independent injury studies, NHTSA concluded that pedestrians are two to three times more likely to die if struck by a light truck compared to a car.

The reason is staring us in the face. The tall, blunt nose of an SUV or pickup results in a different mechanism of injury than the low sloping hood of a car. To put it rather crudely, if you get hit by a car you’ll probably land on the hood, but if you’re hit by an SUV you’ve got a better chance of being knocked down and run over.

Even if you’re not run over, the point of impact is critical to survival. The lower front end of a car results in leg injuries to pedestrians (still a potentially serious injury) while the taller grill of an SUV or pickup impacts a human in the torso, where we keep many of the organs necessary for our survival. For the visual learners out there, here’s an average sized human standing between a Chevy Spark and a Chevy Suburban (I selected these vehicles for no particular reason other than they represent opposite ends of one manufacturer’s lineup):

I’m not writing this to vilify SUVs or their owners. We all have our reasons for our choice of vehicle. We just have to recognize that our choices have consequences; some good and some not-so-good. You might choose an SUV because the higher seating position increases your visibility (good) even though a taller vehicle is more prone to roll-over crashes (not-so-good). Given the increase in pedestrian fatalities, it’s important that as we chose the vehicle we drive, and how we drive it, we remember to consider our impact to pedestrians.

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