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Someone struck by a large sports utility vehicle is more than twice as likely to die as someone hit by a saloon car travelling at the same speed. The finding by American researchers will add further weight to calls for SUVs sporty vehicles with a high, blunt-fronted body atop a broad chassis to be made safer. In March, Jeffrey Runge, the head of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), called on the automobile industry to make SUVs safer (New Scientist print edition, 8 March). Their high centre of gravity makes them more likely to roll over. According to the NHTSA, 36 per cent of fatal SUV crashes in the US in 1998 involved a rollover, compared with only 15 per cent in cars. Forgotten crash victims The proportion of SUVs on the roads is increasing in both the US and Europe. Half the passenger vehicles being sold each year in the US are now classed as light trucks and vans (LTVs), a class that includes SUVs, pickups and light freight vehicles. But no one has ever performed a broad analysis of the risk the burgeoning LTV fleet poses to people on the sidewalks, says Clay Gabler, a mechanical engineer specialising in vehicle technology at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. So with colleague Devon Lefler, Gabler set out to investigate risk to pedestrians from various types of LTV design. From four accident databases in the US they extracted information about accidents where one vehicle collided with one pedestrian. The pair looked at which LTVs posed the most threat (see graph). They found that all LTVs have a higher risk of injuring pedestrians in an impact than cars. A pedestrian struck by a large van is three times as likely to die as someone hit by a car at the same speed. Pedestrians struck by large SUVs are twice as likely to die. As they are lower in profile, cars tend to cause leg injuries, which are less likely to kill than head injuries. Radical design changes More on this story 38 Subscribe to New Scientist for more news and features Related Stories 39 Smart assistant will cut driver distraction 7 December 2003 40 Cellphone 'radar' tracks traffic flow 27 October 2003 41 Smart fender recognises pedestrian impact 11 September 2003 For more related stories search the print edition 42 Archive Weblinks 43 US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 44 Rowan University 45 Association of International Automobile Manufacturers 46 Accident Analysis and Prevention Making SUVs less dangerous to pedestrians will require radical changes to their design. But this won't be popular with SUV buyers who like their rugged, off-road look," Gabler says. Meanwhile motor industry research is focused on making impacts between cars and SUVs safer, says Michael Cammisa of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, in Arlington, Virginia. The UK Department of Transport says new rules coming into force in Europe in October 2005 will force makers of "cars and car-derived vans" to meet strict new pedestrian protection standards. But in the US, pedestrians are losing the safety battle.
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