Electric Cars Twice As Likely To Hit Pedestrians, According to New Study

Research indicates that pedestrians face a higher risk of being hit by electric or hybrid vehicles than by petrol or diesel cars, especially in urban settings, calling for enhanced safety measures during the transition to electric vehicles.

Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young people, and 1 in 4 road traffic deaths are of pedestrians, they note. Amid the ongoing shift to electric and hybrid cars, concerns have been raised that these vehicles may pose more of a safety hazard to pedestrians than fossil-fuelled cars because they are quieter, particularly in urban areas where background ambient noise levels are higher.

Most collisions occurred in urban areas, a greater proportion of which involved electric or hybrid vehicles than petrol/diesel vehicles: 94% vs 88%. This compares with 6% and 12%, respectively, in rural areas. Based on these data, the researchers calculate that between 2013 and 2017, the average annual casualty rates of pedestrians per 100 million miles of road travel were 5.16 for electric and hybrid vehicles and 2.40 for petrol and diesel vehicles.

“One plausible explanation for our results is that background ambient noise levels differ between urban and rural areas, causing electric vehicles to be less audible to pedestrians in urban areas,” they suggest.

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