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By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS
On BBC Reporting Scotland this morning and across Scottish media, the report of a child being struck by an SUV, as reported by Police Scotland.
Appeal after child struck by car on Tantallon Road, Glasgow – Road policing officers are appealing for information following a collision involving a pedestrian and a car in Shawlands, Glasgow on Thursday, 27 February, 2025. Around 9am, officers were called to a report of a child struck by a car on Tantallon Road.
Emergency services attended and the four-year-old girl was taken to the Royal Hospital for Children where hospital staff describe her condition as critical. The female driver of the BMW X1 did not require medical treatment. Sergeant Ally Wright said: “Our enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of this incident and I would urge any witnesses or anyone with information to come forward.
“I’m also keen to speak to any drivers who were in the area at the time and may have dashcam footage which has captured something of significance.”
This has reminded me of something, not directly relating to Scottish independence, that has concerned me for years – the differential death rate when someone is hit by an SUV with it’s high, more rigid, front end compared with that where it is a standard car or even van, where the point of impact is lower and where bonnets have been softened to reduce injuries.
The evidence is in, yet SUVs, unnecessary in urban or on-road settings, are still with us everywhere, on suburban roads, in supermarket carparks and near schools.
The evidence:
From Towards Data Science in January 2023:
So are SUVs and pickup trucks more dangerous to pedestrians? Yes. The logistic regression models show that SUVs are 16% more likely to cause incapacitating injuries and 36% more likely to kill pedestrians than smaller cars. Pickup trucks are 33% more likely to cause incapacitating injury and 108% (more than twice as likely!) to kill pedestrians.
https://towardsdatascience.com/suvs-are-killing-people-de6ce08bac3d
The above research did not consider the probable, to me, factor – height. The smaller you are, the more likely the bumper will strike you in the chest or even head.
From the peer-reviewed Journal of Safety Research in September 2022:
Results suggest that children are eight times more likely to die when struck by a SUV compared to those struck by a passenger car.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022437522000810?via%3Dihub
Anecdotal, I know, but I once witnessed a drunk hit by a Vauxhall Zafira people carrier with a low bumper and soft bonnet. It hit his legs, and deposited him on the bonnet. He rolled off, got up, took a second to regain a little balance, then walked off without even looking behind him.
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And yet, most cars now are SUVs or mini-SUVs. The biggest percentage of e-cars seem to me to be taller, presumably to give more space for a larger battery that will seldom be used given that most journeys are short. I fail to see how these big, bluff front ends can be as aerodynamic as a lower front end, therefore I guess they use more fuel/energy to cut through the air.
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Motor bikes are dangerous. Death and injury.
Drink less.
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I have yet to see a motorcycle go out if its way to injure someone, same with chain saws.
It’s the bio mechanical devices called humans that think they know how to use them without training or common sense that are the problem.
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Car features. Cars can automatically stop if they encounter an obstacle.
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Another factor is the mass of the car. The greater the mass the greater the momentum and it is the transfer of momentum during a collision which does the damage.
Height is a factor, too, as you indicated with regard to the location of the bumper. However, the driver is higher above the road and does not get a similar view of the road to pedestrians. This is why drivers’ cabs in buses are at a level which has the driver’s head at the same level as a pedestrian’s. That allows for eye contact communication. SUV Drivers do not have such eye contact with pedestrians.
Finally, a headline from the London Evening Standard, reporting on the trial of an SUV driver who was travelling at 28mph over a crossing which had people on it: “Child collides with vehicle”. The judge took a different view from the journalist who wrote this article.
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