Safety Study: SUVs, Pickups More Likely to Hit, Kill Pedestrians When Turning

By Sean Tucker 03/17/2022 8:16am

SUVs and pickup trucks are substantially more likely than cars to hit pedestrians when making a turn. They’re also substantially more likely to kill them.

That’s the result of a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The institute says, “more research will be needed to understand the role of visibility in these crashes,” but the likely explanation is simple physics. Drivers are more likely to hit an obstacle they don’t know is there.

About the IIHS

The IIHS is what the name says it is – a research group funded by the insurance industry, focused on making cars safer. Insurance companies have a financial interest in reducing the number and severity of accidents. So, while government agencies fund some automotive safety research in the U.S., the insurance industry funds much of it. The IIHS is the insurance industry’s main car safety watchdog.

The institute conducts crash tests, studies accidents, and issues awards to the safest vehicles. In recent years, it has focused heavily on improving headlights and finding solutions to the problem of distracted driving.

About the Study

Researchers studied thousands of police reports of single-vehicle, single-pedestrian accidents at or near intersections. They examined the types of vehicle involved and the severity of accidents.

Researchers found that pedestrians were more often killed by turning vehicles than by vehicles traveling straight. Left turns were more dangerous than right turns. And the type of vehicle mattered a great deal. Pickups were the deadliest, followed by vans, minivans, and SUVs. Cars were least likely to kill.

Even when traveling straight, bigger vehicles were more dangerous. “SUVs and pickups were associated with 51 percent and 25 percent greater odds than cars of killing a pedestrian walking or running along the road versus a fatal straight-on crash with a crossing pedestrian,” the IIHs explained.

A Growing Problem

Pedestrian crash deaths are on the rise. They hit a low in 2009 and have risen every year since. By 2020 (the last year for which data are available), traffic accidents killed 6,500 pedestrians — nearly 60% more than a decade before. Another 54,700 were injured.

Also, a GROWING Problem

“One suspected factor is the growing prevalence of larger vehicles,” the institute notes. A recent Consumer Reports study found that the hoods of full-size trucks and SUVs today are 24% taller than they were in 2000. That growth has left the average full-size truck or SUV with a “front blind spot” — an area where the driver can’t see what’s in front of the vehicle — on average 11 feet longer than the average sedan.

Driver assists like automatic emergency braking can help avoid some accidents. But nothing is better at preventing an accident than a driver who is paying attention and can see the road.

As for why turns were more often fatal, the IIHS says that more study is needed. But researchers suggested that thicker A-pillars – the pillars beside the windshield — may limit drivers’ visibility in turns.

A-pillars have grown thicker as vehicles have grown heavier, because they need to be stronger to prevent the car from crushing its occupants in a rollover accident.