New pedestrian injury risk curves calculated by IIHS show that vehicles with taller front ends begin to cause serious injuries at lower speeds.
The faster a vehicle is moving when it strikes a pedestrian, the more likely it is to inflict serious injuries. Exactly how much more likely depends in part on the height of the vehicle, with taller vehicles compounding the risk from higher crash speeds, new research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows.
IIHS researchers analyzed pedestrian crashes to develop injury risk curves showing how speed affects crash outcomes. They found that the effect of crash speed on injury risk was magnified for vehicles with taller front ends. Compared with risk curves developed using crash data from Europe, where tall passenger vehicles are less common, risk curves for the U.S. show pedestrians here begin to suffer more serious injuries at lower speeds.
“A small increase in crash speed can really ramp up the danger to a pedestrian,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “Our fondness for tall SUVs and pickups in the U.S. has intensified that effect.”
The findings suggest that the 25 mph speed limit commonly used in residential neighborhoods in the U.S. may be too high for bustling city centers or other areas with large numbers of pedestrians.
To estimate injury risk at different impact speeds, IIHS researchers examined 202 crashes involving pedestrians ages 16 or older. The records came from two databases — one of crashes that took place between 2015 and 2022 in Michigan and […]
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