Vehicles with higher, vertical front ends raise risks for pedestrians

abcnews.go.com:

Motor vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends are the most dangerous to pedestrians, according to a highway safety organization

Motor vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends raise risks for pedestrians, according to a highway safety organization.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said that whatever the nose shape, pickups, SUVs and vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches are about 45% more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes than cars and other vehicles with a hood height of 30 inches or less and a sloping profile.

But among vehicles with hood heights between 30 and 40 inches, a blunt, or more vertical, front end increases the risk to pedestrians.

The study released Tuesday arrives with roadway deaths in the U.S. mounting despite government test data showing vehicles have been getting safer. While the number of all car-related fatalities has trended upward over the last decade, pedestrians and cyclists have seen the sharpest rise: over 60% between 2011 and 2022.

IHS researchers looked at 17,897 crashes involving a single passenger vehicle and a single pedestrian. Using Vehicle Identification Numbers to identify the crash-involved vehicles, they calculated front-end measurements corresponding to 2,958 unique car, minivan, large van, SUV and pickup models from photographs. They excluded vehicles with pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems and controlled for other factors that could affect the likelihood of a fatality, such as the speed limit and age and sex of the struck pedestrian.

Vehicles with hoods more than 40 inches off the ground at the leading edge and a grille sloped at an angle of 65 degrees or less were 45% more likely to cause pedestrian fatalities than those