Occasionally there are rumors that SUVs are more dangerous to pedestrians than “normal” cars because they are taller. A recently published study by the American organization IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) says that pedestrians are at greater risk not only in the event of a collision with an SUV, but with all higher cars, including vans, MPVs and pick-ups.
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But not because of the height itself, but because of the view from the car. The study says that these types of vehicles are more likely to have an accident with a pedestrian when the vehicle crosses a pedestrian path when turning. That is, especially at the crossroads.
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“The chances of an accident crashing into a pedestrian and killing a left at an intersection are about twice as high for SUVs, almost three times as high for vans and MPVs and almost four times as high as for regular cars and in a straight line, ”the IIHS writes in a press release.
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“It is possible that the size, shape or position of the A-pillars that support the roof on the sides of the windshield may make it more difficult for diversing drivers to see pedestrians,” IIHS quoted traffic engineer Wen Hu as saying.
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The institute adds that further research will be needed on how much visibility affects these accidents. Previous studies have shown – and every driver encounters this whenever they drive – that A-pillars can create significant blind spots in which not only a pedestrian but also a biker or cyclist can hide.
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What with this? “Improving vehicle design and exploring possible changes to transport infrastructure (…) can play an important role in reducing pedestrian accidents,” Hu continues. This is, of course, a long run.
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For now, from the position of drivers and pedestrians, we can do the only, quite possibly the most effective – to look around better and rather assume that the other does not know about us until we are sure of the opposite.
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For the sake of completeness, let us add that 81 pedestrians died in the Czech Republic last year after a collision with a motor vehicle. This is stated by police statistics without information on what proportion of this number was caused by the pedestrian and what by the driver of the motor vehicle. The total number of people killed in traffic accidents in the Czech Republic has been steadily declining since the mid-1990s, albeit with fluctuations. There were 470 of them last year.
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