SUVs 44% more likely to kill cyclists and pedestrians than conventional cars when involved in collisions

Pedestrians and cyclists are far more likely to die if they're hit by an SUV rather than a traditional hatchback or saloon car, a new study claims.

Analysis produced by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Imperial College London found that the likelihood of death is 44 per cent higher if vulnerable road users are hit by 4X4-style vehicles over standard cars.

And this figure rises to 82 per cent for children, the report warned.

Researchers gathered data from more than 680,000 road collisions over the past 35 years - a period of time that has seen SUVs dramatically rise in popularity.

A third of car registrations in 2024 were SUVs, firmly cementing these jacked-up bulky vehicles as Britain's favourite car type. Wind the clocks back a decade to 2014 and SUVs made up only 12 per cent of registrations.

The report is the latest in a wave of negative studies blasting the rising SUV trend, with campaign groups already calling them out for being overly polluting, too large for our roads and parking spaces, and damaging to our terrible road surfaces.

LSHTM and Imperial compared the severity of injuries suffered by pedestrians or cyclists struck by standard cars with light truck vehicles, which include SUVs, small vans and pick-up trucks, with the research published in the journal Injury Prevention.

SUVs are generally taller, wider and heavier than other car types, and they are favoured by many Britons for their higher driving position.

However, it is this height and raised body that is responsible for the higher death rate when a pedestrian or cyclist is hit by one.

The study highlighted previous research showing that a key reason for the increased risk from SUVs is that they have a taller front end, which means a person is struck higher on their body.

Instead of an adult being hit in the knees, they're struck in the pelvis, while the point of collision on a child is typically the head.

SUVs also tend to have squared-off grilles and bumpers. This blunter front end also means a person is more likely to be thrown forward, which could result in the vehicle hitting them a second time or rolling over their body, the report added.

Researchers analysed 24 studies - including 16 from the US - with others from countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands.

They estimate that the proportion of car crashes involving an SUV are around 20 per cent in Europe and 45 per cent in the US.

If all SUVs were replaced by standard cars though, the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed in car crashes would decrease by around eight per cent in Europe and 17 per cent in the US, the authors said.

Anna Goodman, assistant professor at the LSHTM and senior author of the study, explains that the 'huge increase in the sale of ever-larger cars' is not just 'substantially undermining net zero goals' but threatening road safety.

'Our findings indicate that this proliferation of larger vehicles threatens to undermine all the road safety gains being made on other fronts,' she said.

'Cities and countries around the world are starting to introduce measures to discourage the use of these large vehicles, and our study strengthens the road safety rationale for this.'

Tanya Braun, director of external affairs and fundraising at charity Living Streets, told PA that the charity is urging the Government to step in to protect people: 'It's clear that SUVs make people, especially children, less safe while walking on our streets.

'Nearly 50 child pedestrians are killed or injured in England every day, and every one of those deaths is a tragedy. We urgently need more measures to protect pedestrians.

'We're urging the Government to invest in active travel infrastructure and safe zones around schools that are proven to help keep children safe from vehicles like SUVs.'

Last year, SUVs became Britain's best-selling type of new car for the first time on record, official sales figures reveal.

A third of new cars entering the road last year were 'Chelsea Tractors', dethroning superminis which have been the most popular car type in the UK for decades.

SUVs accounted for 33 per cent of all registrations in 2024, up from just 12 per cent a decade earlier, according to Britain's auto trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

SMMT sales stats also show that eight of the ten most commonly bought new cars last year were crossovers or 4X4s.

This built on 2023, when SUV sales surpassed a million, with registrations of the bulky vehicles increasing by around a fifth between 2022 and 2023 to the point where one in three motors are now sports utility vehicles.

To see where the obsession with SUVs came from we have to look back to the original of these modern day 'off-roaders' - something This is Money has covered in detail.

Modern term SUVs first hit the mass market in the 1970s - Jeep launched the term with its Cherokee 'Sports Utility Vehicle' in 1974 - it was Land Rovers and Range Rovers of the '80s and '90s that really caught on in Britain.

Yet scrutinising the last 12 years of car registrations, we've found that it was 2013 onwards that really saw a rapid rise in SUVs.

SUVs that year accounted for just one in ten new models making their way onto UK roads, while superminis (35.9 per cent) like the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa and small family hatchbacks (26 per cent) including the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus had the stronghold on the market with three in five registrations.

However, increasing demand for SUVs has seen this body shape swallow-up market share through the 2010s and 2020s.

By 2018, SUVs made up a fifth of new cars sales. A year later they accounted for a quarter of registrations.

And then by 2023 the SUV overtook the compact family hatchback to become the nation's second favourite car body.

Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Royal Family, Vogue - all of these contributed to the idea that SUVs are the status car to have.

As well as being the luxury 'we've made it' car, SUVs offer a large cabin with lots of space for the family, a big boot, towing capacity and higher ground clearance which gives you a better view over the road - and because of this their popularity jumped almost tenfold in the 2010s.

And then there's the fact that the majority of new cars on the market today are SUVs as manufacturers fall over themselves to try and feed the appetite of car buyers.

At this point the rise in sales is very much a chicken and egg scenario, with car makers satisfying demand for SUVs by offering a wider range of jacked-up vehicles of all sizes - and at the same time removing more traditional body styles from showrooms.

This is Money carried out market analysis of the top 10 car manufacturers by sales in the UK last year and it's clear that car brands are focusing on delivering an SUVs to meet demand.

Volkswagen, Britain's favourite car firm with 166,304 passenger vehicle registrations in 2024, has a choice of 10 different SUVs across its model line-up of 23 cars - 44 per cent of its availability.

BMW (125,265 registrations in 2024) is second in the order by manufacturer - a third - 11 out of 33 - of its models are SUVs.

Third in the charts is Audi (122,431); the luxury German maker currently offers 11 different SUV options across 24 models - 46 per cent of its new-car availability.

Rounding out the top 10 makers by UK registrations is Kia, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai and MG.

Most have ranges heavily bias towards SUVs and crossovers.

MG has the fewest options in its line-up (29 per cent) while four out of five Nissans currently on sale fit into this segment.

Luxury car brands including Aston Martin (DBX), Bentley (Bentayga), Ferrari (Purosangue), Lamborghini (Urus), Maserati (Levante) and Porsche (Macan and Cayenne) all offer SUV models today - they've got to compete with Range Rover after all.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, told This is Money: 'Manufacturers respond to consumer demand and, increasingly, drivers are attracted to 'dual purpose' [SUV] vehicles given their practicality, comfort and good view of the road.'

The switch to battery electric cars is also accelerating SUV demand.

Hawes added: 'Importantly, around two in five of these vehicle models are zero emission as their body type lends itself well to electrification with longer battery range that can reassure consumers concerned about charging accessibility.

'This has led to the average CO2 emissions of new SUVs more than halving since 2000, helping the segment lead the decarbonisation of UK road mobility.'

The huge size of SUVs is an increasing problem in the UK, with this posing problems to other road users, to owners themselves as they face parking restrictions and increased parking charges, and to our roads as SUV exacerbate the road surface issue due to their weight.

Increasing pollution

A report by the International Energy Agency in 2024 claimed large, heavy passenger vehicles were responsible for 'over 20 per cent of the growth in global energy-related CO2 emissions' in 2023.

'If SUVs were a country, they would be the world’s fifth largest emitter of CO2,' it stated.

The reason new cars are too big for the road and parking spaces

Also in 2024, green think tank Transport & Environment (T&E) reported that, due to the popularity of large SUVs, new cars are getting 1cm wider every two years.

It found that the average new car has swollen to 180.3cm - or 200cm with its wing mirrors out - but took aim at 'mega SUVs', which measure in at 220cm wide, for bullying other road users, particularly cyclists, off the street.

As well as the threat to other road users, SUVs are a nightmare for owners because you can be fined £150 if your SUV doesn't fit in an allocated parking bay, and it can even mean you get banned from car parks.

A freedom of information request carried out by Autocar last year found that a number of councils have added rules around vehicle length to their own car parks in addition to the more commonly seen weight and height restrictions.

Other councils are already stipulating that SUVs to pay more to park in council car parks, while a number of councils such as Cardiff and Bristol are looking into higher parking permits for SUVs.

Cardiff could require drivers to pay more for a residential parking permit if they own an SUV, while Bristol could charge on-street, off-street and residential parking 'based on 'weight, emissions and size-based pricing'.

Already many London Boroughs, as well as cities like Bath, have emissions-based parking that means drivers of higher polluting cars (many of which are SUVs) have to pay more to park.

Reading Council is currently looking into a sliding scale of parking charges, which would see SUVs have to pay double to park on-street and via a permit - because councilors are concerned about how polluting these larger vehicles are.

Reading Council said: 'The primary objective is to encourage those with the most polluting vehicles to choose other modes of transport.'

This is 'part of the drive to net zero' to 'reduce the number of vehicles with higher emissions, whilst having direct benefits for air quality and health.'

Councilor John Ennis, in charge of climate strategy and transport, said: 'We have seen similar schemes successfully introduced by councils around the country.

'We believe it is an effective way of helping to reduce the number of high emission vehicles, while improving air quality, benefitting health and helping achieve our ambitions to be a net zero borough.'

Contributing to the rise in potholes

Cars are also getting heavier and it's SUVs that are responsible for tipping the scales.

The average weight of new car models has risen by nearly 400kg - the equivalent to adding the bulk of a grand piano.

Autocar also analysed the weight of vehicles it road tested from 2016 to 2023 – the seven years representing the typical lifecycle a new car is on sale.

Over this period, the mean average kerbweight has risen from 1,553kg to 1,947kg.

What's caused this weight gain? The increasing demand for big SUVs.

Sports utility vehicles in 2023 represented three in ten (30.4 per cent) of all new models registered in the UK.

A decade earlier in 2013, they accounted for just 11 per cent of the new vehicle market.

Due to the increasing weight of SUVs campaign groups are pushing for increased taxes to cover the cost of pothole repairs.

The Clean Cities pressure group commissioned a YouGov poll in April, which said that 54 per cent of motorists favoured increased taxes on sports utility vehicles to cover the cost of repairing potholes.

The survey found that just 19 per cent of respondents were opposed to imposing extra taxes on SUVs.

Oliver Lord, UK head of the Clean Cities claimed that a two-ton off-road vehicle caused 16 times more road damage than a one-ton car.

SUVs have already seen increases in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rates from 1 April.

Labour has double VED showroom tax rates, which will see SUV buyers stung thousands of pounds in the first year of ownership as higher polluting cars have to pay more showroom tax.

The Land Rover Defender 90/110 V8 petrol, Land Rover Range Rover V8 petrol/RR Sport SV, Maserati Levante V6 petrol, Porsche Cayenne, Porsche Macan S/GTS, Ineos Grenadier, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio are just some of the SUVs that will cost £5,490 to tax, This is Money recently revealed.

But environmental campaigners want road tax rules to go further and be updated to target SUVs in particular.

Nick Molden, founder of environmental research company Emissions Analytics, has called on transport ministers to implement a taxation formula that multiplies the weight of the car by the distance it is driven.