Turning SUVs are more often involved in pedestrian accidents than ‘regular’ cars, according to American research. This would mainly be caused by the height of the SUVs and the larger blind spot.
Research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows that drivers of SUVs are more likely to hit pedestrians when turning at intersections. can make it more difficult for drivers of these larger vehicles to see crossing pedestrians when turning,” said Wen Hu, Senior Transportation Engineer at IIHS.
When turning left at an intersection, SUVs were found to be twice as likely as smaller cars to hit a pedestrian. For right-hand bends, the accident probability of a pedestrian crossing the road was 63 percent higher for SUVs than for standard cars. The IIHS also found that SUVs have a 25 percent greater chance than standard cars of killing a pedestrian walking or running along the road.
An analysis by Consumer Reports last year found that because of their taller structures and more angular design, “some SUVs have much larger blind spots.” The IIHS says more research is needed, but at least the number of deaths and injuries in pedestrian accidents has increased every year since 2009. In 2020, there were more than 6,500 fatalities and 54,700 injured in the US. Previous studies have shown that SUVs are more deadly to pedestrians than smaller cars, and it is well known that sales of SUVs have continued to rise, while sales of smaller passenger cars have fallen.
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