Camionetas y SUV representan un riesgo para los peatones a baja velocidad
IIHS presents a new study on pedestrian death risk at different speeds and with different cars: «Europeans are safer»
Attention to pedestrian safety is growing in line with the increasing sales of cars. According to a recent study by the Institute of Insurance for Highway Safety (IIHS), vehicles with higher fronts, such as SUVs and trucks, increase the risk of serious injuries to pedestrians even at speeds typical of urban roads and much more than lower-faced cars.
IMPACT SPEED AND LARGE FRONTS: A LETHAL COMBINATION
IIHS scientists analyzed 202 pedestrian accidents that took place between 2015 and 2022, focusing on how speed and vehicle height influence the severity of injuries. The data shows that regardless of the vehicle height, increasing speed increases the risk of serious injuries. However, in vehicles with higher fronts, the effect is greater. For example:
- At 20 mph (approximately 32 kilometers per hour), a pedestrian has a 46% chance of suffering moderate injury and an 18% chance of serious injury.
- At 35 mph (approximately 56 kilometers per hour), the risk of serious injuries rises to 67%.
- The probability of mortality increases dramatically with speed, going from 1% at 20 mph to 80% at 50 mph.
In trucks, whose front is, on average, 33 cm higher than that of a regular car, the probability of suffering moderate and serious injuries, respectively, is 83% and 62% at average speeds of 27 mph (approximately 43 km/h), compared to 60% and 30% for medium-height cars.
COMPARISON UNITED STATES VS EUROPE
The IIHS study compares American data with European data, where the vehicle fleet is dominated by shorter cars. Pedestrians in the United States are more vulnerable at all speeds, and researchers attribute this difference to the higher prevalence of SUVs and trucks on American roads. Despite the growing popularity of SUVs in Europe, European passenger vehicles are generally lower, thus reducing risks for pedestrians. However, current import regulations allow vehicles that are not homologated to be registered in Europe, and the number of imported pickups has significantly increased in recent years.
SAFE SPEED LIMITS FOR PEDESTRIANS, BUT ARE THEY RESPECTED BY DRIVERS?
A key finding of the IIHS study is that an impact speed of 15 mph (approximately 24 kilometers per hour) is the maximum limit to ensure a risk of serious injuries equal to or less than 10%. These data suggest that speed limits of 25 mph (40 kilometers per hour), common in residential areas in the United States, may be too high for densely populated pedestrian areas.
According to the IIHS, reducing speed from 30 to 25 mph could reduce the risk of serious injuries by 50% to 32%. In addition to reviewing speed limits, vehicle manufacturers play an important role: changes in front-end design, such as reducing the hood height or improving automatic emergency braking systems, could mitigate damage in the event of a collision.
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