Autoblog and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article.A big, tall truck or SUV tends to make its occupants feel safer and more secure, and generally, that's true, but those outside the vehicle are being put in more and more danger with each inch that the hood rises. That's according to a new study published by the New York Times, which found that the increase in average vehicle hood height over the last two decades has cost thousands of pedestrian deaths. The publication delved deep into the subject, using NHTSA crash data, NHTSA fatality reporting data, vehicle measurements from Expert AutoStats, and registration info from S&P Global.Despite how scary the numbers are, they could actually be worse, with the NYT saying its estimates are conservative because they omit crashes that take place in parking lots, driveways, and private roads, which aren't included in the federal database of crash data. So just how bad is the situation, and why?Over 3,000 Deaths Could Have Been Avoided with Shorter Vehicle HoodsJames Ochoa/AutoblogForensic Rock also contributed to the study, and its head, Shawn Harrington, had the following to say: "We see a lot of devastating collisions even at lower speeds because the pedestrian gets punted forward. Before the driver knows what's happened, the pedestrian's head is under the wheel." With taller hoods, the point of impact with a pedestrian is higher than their center of gravity, thus causing them to be pushed down into the asphalt rather than up onto the impact-absorbing hood. The study found that, as large trucks and SUVs have risen in popularity, requiring thicker rollover protection (including A-pillars) and thus getting bigger blind spots, more and more vehicles have been built and regulated under the auspices of improved occupant safety, with pedestrian safety falling since around 2009. The consequence is that roughly 3,000 pedestrian deaths between 2016 and 2024 could have been avoided. In other words, if vehicles had stayed approximately the same size they were at the turn of the millennium, an estimated 200 to 400 pedestrians may not have died each year since.AdvertisementAdvertisementRelated: Ford Tells Thousands Of Bronco Sport And Maverick Owners Not To Drive Over Crash RiskThe data also showed that every one-inch increase in vehicle hood height increases the odds of a pedestrian fatality by an estimated 2.8 percent. If the hood heights of all the vehicles in the dataset had been decreased by three inches, around 2,624 lives could have been saved from 2016 to 2024. Another angle taken by the researchers was to consider what would happen with a random sampling of hood heights from 2002 across 10,000 simulated crashes from 2016 to 2024. In that scenario, 3,077 lives could have been saved. Similarly, research conducted by the IIHS and the USDOT's Volpe Center examined data over the 25 years from 1997 to 2022, finding that pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities on U.S. roads increased by 37 percent and 42 percent, respectively, and it's partly because several popular vehicles have become harder to see out of.Autoblog's TakeCadillacVehicles of all descriptions have been ballooning in size over the last two decades, and while the sense of security (and other fringe benefits) they provide occupants is hard to ignore, especially for families, their designs mean that even fully grown adult pedestrians are harder for drivers to see, and when impact is made, the pedestrian often gets pushed under the vehicle, where the driver still can't see them. Furthermore, the bigger the vehicles become, the more safety equipment is needed, and thus the heavier the curb weight. Unfortunately, it's become a vicious circle. As trucks, SUVs, and cars get bigger, safety-conscious buyers who might never have even considered owning or driving similar vehicles increasingly feel the need to, worrying that the only protection against an unstoppable force is an immovable object. In a world where 9,000-pound Escalade IQs and Hummer EVs exist, it's tough not to want your family's chariot to be sturdy enough to withstand a potential collision, but the cycle is increasingly becoming a death sentence for defenseless pedestrians.This story was originally published by Autoblog on Jun 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Autoblog as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
