New research suggests thousands of pedestrian deaths may be linked to the growing size of SUVs and pickup trucks.
This article is based on reporting and analysis published by The New York Times on June 21, 2026 “The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s” by Michael H. Keller, Eli Murray, Danielle Ivory, and Irineo Cabreros. The analysis was conducted in conjunction with testing by Forensic Rock, and additional pedestrian safety research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the National Safety Council, and other transportation safety organizations.
For decades, automakers have focused on making vehicles safer for the people inside them. Seat belts, airbags, reinforced passenger compartments, and advanced crash-avoidance technologies have saved countless lives. But since 2009, the number of pedestrians killed each year on America’s roadways has risen by about 75%.
A groundbreaking investigation by The New York Times has highlighted a troubling reality: as American vehicles have become larger, taller, and heavier, pedestrian deaths have climbed alongside them. Researchers estimate that more than 3,000 pedestrian lives may have been lost between 2016 and 2024 because modern SUVs and pickup trucks have significantly taller front ends and larger blind zones than the sedan vehicles they are replacing.
The American Vehicle Has Changed Dramatically
Walk through any parking lot today and compare it to one from twenty years ago. Vehicles in the U.S. today are larger than at any point in modern history.
Sedans have largely given way to SUVs and pickup trucks that have front ends that are dramatically taller than the passenger cars that once dominated America’s roads.
Vehicle hoods sit higher. The average hood height today is about 3 feet high. Front ends are flatter and more vertical. Windshield pillars (known in the industry as A-pillars) are thicker. Drivers sit farther from the roadway. A person who is 5 foot 6 inches tall is likely to be knocked down by 48% of vehicles today compared to 33% in 2002.
Why Bigger Vehicles Kill More Pedestrians
The danger is not simply a matter of weight. Traditional passenger cars have lower profiles that typically strike a pedestrian’s legs first, causing the body to roll onto a slopped hood. While still capable of causing severe injury, the vehicle’s design can absorb some of the crash forces.
Large SUVs and pickup trucks behave differently.
Their tall, blunt front ends are more likely to strike a pedestrian’s torso, chest, neck, or head directly. These impacts produce more severe injuries and significantly increase the likelihood of death. Studies have found that pedestrians struck by SUVs face substantially greater fatality risks than those struck by passenger cars and can be pulled under the vehicle itself.
Visibility is another major concern.
As hood heights and windshield pillars have grown, so have front blind zones. In some modern trucks, drivers can no longer see children, pedestrians, or cyclists directly in front of their vehicles. The New York Times investigation found that expanding blind spots are a significant contributor to the pedestrian safety problem.
The United States Is Moving in the Wrong Direction
Pedestrian fatalities in the United States remain dramatically higher than they were a decade ago. More than 7,100 pedestrians were killed in 2024 alone, nearly 20 percent higher than 2016 levels despite recent modest declines.
Safety experts increasingly point to the rapid growth of SUVs and pickups as a key factor behind this trend. Pickup trucks and SUVs are estimated to be two to three times more likely to kill pedestrians in a collision than smaller passenger vehicles.
Europe Took a Different Approach
Europe has also experienced growth in SUV sales, but many European regulators have spent years incorporating pedestrian safety into vehicle design standards.
European safety testing programs evaluate how dangerous a vehicle may be to a pedestrian during a collision. Cities across Europe have also adopted traffic-calming measures, lower urban speed limits, and policies discouraging the proliferation of oversized vehicles.
As a result, many European countries have avoided the dramatic rise in pedestrian fatalities seen in the United States. Safety advocates increasingly argue that American regulators should follow Europe’s lead by requiring greater consideration of pedestrian safety during vehicle design and testing.
Design Choices Have Consequences
Vehicle crashes are often discussed as if they are unavoidable accidents. But vehicle design is not accidental. Hood height, front-end geometry, visibility, blind zones, and pedestrian impact performance are all design choices. Manufacturers decide how large a vehicle will be, how much visibility a driver has, and how a vehicle will interact with a human body during a collision. Those choices can mean the difference between a survivable crash and a fatal one.
As America’s roads continue to fill with larger SUVs and pickup trucks, the evidence is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: bigger vehicles are contributing to a growing pedestrian safety crisis, and thousands of lives may depend on whether regulators and manufacturers choose to address it.
If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in a motor vehicle crash, contact Jaime Jackson Law on 717-519-7254 or through our website.
To read the full NY Times article and investigation, including the methodology, click here (NY Times subscription may be required): https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/06/21/us/trucks-suv-pedestrian-crashes
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