Taller cars linked to risk of pedestrian deaths in Australia — ABC News Australia
Researchers at the University of Melbourne analysed 10,376 road crashes in the state of Victoria, Australia, from 2012 to mid-2025 and found a link between vehicle size and the likelihood of a pedestrian being killed. ABC News Australia reports.
Vehicle weight and height
The scientists considered the type of vehicle, road conditions, speed limits, time of day, as well as the characteristics of drivers and pedestrians. For station wagons, the likelihood of a pedestrian death was 1.2 times higher than for passenger cars, including sedans and hatchbacks. For ute-type pickup trucks, the figure was 1.6 times higher.
Modelling crashes that differed only in vehicle size showed that every additional 100 kilograms of weight increased the likelihood of a fatal outcome by 6%, while every 10 centimetres of vehicle height increased it by 11%.
One of the study’s authors, Associate Professor Milad Haghani, explained that the risk is linked, in particular, to the point of impact on a person’s body. The likelihood of fatal injuries may rise if the impact hits the upper body and the pedestrian is not thrown onto the bonnet but falls onto the road surface and strikes their head.
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Risk at lower speeds
According to Haghani, women are disproportionately more affected because they are, on average, shorter than men, and their heads and torsos may be at a critical impact height. The researchers also found that the elevated risk persists in crashes at lower speeds that might not have been fatal with a different vehicle design.
The scientists calculated that keeping vehicle height and weight at levels seen in the early and mid-2000s could have saved about 9% of people who died in such road crashes.
Testing large pickup trucks
Australia’s New Car Assessment Program, ANCAP, tested five large pickup trucks last year. All of them met Australian standards for road vehicles, but performed worse in simulated scenarios in which a child runs out in front of a vehicle at night, as well as in assessments of driver visibility when turning.
The National Transport Research Organisation called for a review of safety standards for large pickup trucks. ANCAP is preparing new three-year assessment protocols that may take into account bonnet height, collision-avoidance technologies, automatic or advanced emergency braking, and vehicle design. The researchers also proposed abolishing tax concessions, reviewing import rules, and introducing separate licensing conditions for large vehicles.
