My new paper, The effect of front-end vehicle height on pedestrian death risk, was just published at #Economics of #Transportation. I use vehicle design measurements to test for the effect of taller vehicles on pedestrian outcomes in crashes. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Using recent crash-level data, I show that a pedestrian hit by a full-size SUV is twice as likely to die compared to being struck by a car, under similar crash conditions.
One reason large vehicles are so dangerous for pedestrians could be due to tall front-end designs. Tall front-ends often make first contact with a pedestrian’s torso or head, increasing the severity of the crash.
Prior econ studies have not directly tested for a relationship between front-end height and pedestrian outcomes due to data limitations. I combine crash data with actual vehicle measurements of front-end height by linking data sets through VINs.
I find a vehicle’s front-end height is more predictive of pedestrian death compared to other measures of vehicle size. A 10 cm increase in a vehicle’s front-end relates to a 22% increase in the probability a pedestrian dies, controlling for crash characteristics.
I show the effect of tall vehicles is more pronounced among women, children, and seniors. The front-end effect on death probability is 4x as strong for crashes involving children.
I estimate how many pedestrians would be saved if front-end vehicle heights were capped at 125 cm (about the height of a new Honda CRV). I estimate 500 fewer pedestrians would die each year if taller front-ends could be lowered to 125 cm.
Haven’t read your paper, but it reminded me of a friend whose father died after being hit by an SUV. Because of the high front, he was knocked fwd & his head hit the pavement. I remember my friend saying if it’d been a car, he would’ve had his legs cut out from under him & landed on the hood.
I've read elsewhere that it's also the prevalence of "front-over" crashes in these collisions. Lower fronts mean that people of moderate height are struck and fall onto the hood, whereas the tall fronts knock people down and then the car goes over them.
The most memorable driver's ed video I watched was all about bumper height! Though it was supposed to teach about the gruesome consequences of hitting pedestrians, it inadvertently taught who could be hit at low speeds and live, based on human/bumper height.
for the record: SUVs are also a massive threat to your small sports car. mine was totalled during a low speed collision because it slid UNDER the SUV which caused the entire hood to be scraped off and scrunched
I want to thank you for your reasearch and your paper. I recently refered to your work in a discussion on the increasing popularity of large vehicles in the Netherlands. The discussion attracted a lot of people, pro's & cons. Your work was very helpfull to stick to the ratio instead of emotion.
