Laurie Winkless: physicist and science writer on the risks associated with SUVs

Utes and SUVs make up 9 out of 10 of the most popular cars on our roads - but a new study has revealed the safety risks they pose.

Research from the journal Injury Prevention shows that a pedestrian or cyclist is 44 percent more likely to be fatally injured if they are hit by an SUV or light truck (LTV), compared with smaller passenger cars.

For children, the stats are even more bleak - a child hit by a SUV or LTV is 82 percent more likely to be killed than a child hit by a passenger car. 

Physicist and science writer Laurie Winkless explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB Gosh.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
We love our SUVs in our utes, don't we. We
know that there are some downsides to that. We know
they're not great for the environment and they can cause
a bit a congestion on the road. But something else
has come to light about how safe they make our roads.
Joining me now to talk us through the latest studies
is Lori Winklers. Good morning, Lurie.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Cut a fantasica. I love you to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Good to talk to you too. Now tell me a
little bit about the latest studies that have been taking
a look at the safety of SUVs.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, so this is looking particularly at the impact of
SUVs on pedestrians and cyclists. So this is from a
group of researchers in the UK and they did what's
known as a meta analysis, So they effectually did a big,
huge review of existing studies and combined those with the
most reliable data and in the end they ended up
looking at six hundred eighty two thousand real world crash

(01:08):
victims from the past thirty five years, specifically looking at cars, SUVs,
pedestrians and cyclists, and they found that in a crash,
pedestrians and cyclists struck by an SUV suffered more severe
injuries than those that were involving a passenger car. But
they also had a huge impact on fatality rates too.

(01:29):
So they showed in this study that across all of
their crashes, pedestrians or cyclists are forty four percent more
likely to be killed if they're struck by an SUV
rather than a passenger car. And for children, the statistics
are even worse. So a child struck by an SUV
is eighty two percent more likely to be killed than

(01:49):
a child struck by a passenger car.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Okay, that is not right news. What about for occupants?
Did they learn anything about safety for occupants of an ECUV?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, great question, This good question. They didn't look at
it in this particular study. That there have been lots
of other studies that have looked at occupants. And to
be honest, the reality of whether SUVs are safer for
occupants is a bit complicated, more complicated than I expected.
So in a head on crash, for example, between a
car and an SUV, generally the driver of the car

(02:21):
comes out less well from that situation. But we also
know that because SUVs are taller, they are more likely
to roll over in a crash, for example, and their
stiff structure might mean that when an impact happens, if
the passenger will experience what's called higher deceleration, so they'll
stop quicker, which can actually cause injuries in themselves. So

(02:42):
it's not that clear that necessarily that they're even safer
for occupants, but we know for sure from this huge
meta analysis that they are much more dangerous for everyone
else on the road.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Laurie I was also really interested to say that the
Kresh study supports the decision by a growing number of
cities as well to kind of encourage least of the
use of SUV's end utes on these streets.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, totally. So there's actually lots and lots of cities
that are trying to do things like making it more
expensive to park larger cars on their streets. So Paris
is one of the cities doing that the most. But
places in the UK in particular, they're really leading with
banning advertising of vehicles like SUVs or even airlines in
some cases within their cities because they see it as

(03:25):
and I quote today's tobacco. So cities are really trying
a lot of them are trying to push down and
discourage or disincentivize the purchase and use of these massive,
super sized vehicles on streets that were not designed for them.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Laurie, thank you so much for filling in for doctor Micheldikinson.
We've really appreciated it over the last a couple of
weey

Speaker 1 (03:46):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.