Hybrid and electric cars are more likely to hit pedestrians than petrol and diesel vehicles, especially in cities. In fact, according to a study on road accidents in the United Kingdom, electric vehicles are quieter than combustion engine cars, making them harder to hear, especially in urban areas. Additionally, electric car drivers tend to be younger and less experienced.
“Electric cars are a danger to pedestrians because they are less likely to be heard than petrol or diesel cars,” explained Phil Edwards, first author of the study and professor of Epidemiology and Statistics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “The government must mitigate these risks if it wants to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel cars,” he added.
“If you are switching to an electric car, remember that it is a new type of vehicle – Edwards continued in the reflection – they are much quieter than old-style cars and pedestrians have learned to cross streets by listening to traffic. The drivers of these vehicles they have to be very careful.” Road accidents are the leading cause of death among children and young adults in the UK, with pedestrians making up a quarter of all road deaths. The team of researchers led by Edwards analyzed crash risk in the UK using data from 2013 to 2017.
Their analysis included 916,713 victims, of which 120,197 were pedestrians. Of the approximately 96,000 pedestrians hit by a car or taxi, approximately three-quarters were hit by a vehicle with a diesel or petrol engine (almost 72,000) and two percent (approximately 1,700) by an electric or hybrid car. For about a quarter, no information was provided. The researchers related these figures to the distance traveled by each type of vehicle and calculated the pedestrian accident rate per 100 million miles (about 160 million kilometers).
The annual average for electric and hybrid vehicles (5.16) was double that of petrol and diesel vehicles (2.40). Most accidents occur in urban centres. But the difficulty of hearing electric cars is not the only problem. These tend to have rapid acceleration and are usually much heavier, with some weighing twice as much as their petrol equivalent, making stopping distances longer. “If the government is planning to promote a transition to electric cars, then this will pose some risk to pedestrians unless the issue is addressed now,” concluded Edwards.