They warn of the danger of cars with increasingly high hoods.

In 2010, the average hood height of cars sold in Europe was 76.9 centimeters. Last year, it had risen to 83.8 centimeters. That's a gain of half a centimeter per year.

The data is part of a study conducted by the environmental association Transport & Environment (T&E), which obtained it from registration figures from the EU, the UK, and Norway, as well as from crash tests conducted during the period by Euro NCAP.

EVOLUTION OF HOOD HEIGHT

They are explained by a well-known fact: the high demand for SUVs, which have grown from 12% of the European market in 2010 to 56% last year. And they translate into a serious warning, since higher front ends, according to T&E, increase the risk of both a collision (due to reduced visibility) and the consequences of such collisions. This is especially true for vulnerable users such as children and the elderly. (Vulnerable Vehicle Users Act).

But neither EU nor national legislation limits this continued growth in vehicle size, so the association has called for a height limit of no more than 85 cm by 2035. They also demand, among other measures that could help discourage demand, that taxes and parking fees, as Paris has already done, be linked to the weight and size of vehicles.

Visibility and injuries

The report notes that higher hoods tend to impact adult pedestrians above their center of gravity, often striking vital organs first. The higher the front end of the vehicle, the greater the likelihood that a person will be pushed by the car, rather than pushed to the side, and then run over. Furthermore, visibility tests showed that drivers of vehicles with higher front ends could not see children as young as nine years old standing in front of them.

For example, Belgian crash data suggests that a 10 cm increase in hood height (from 80 cm to 90 cm) increases the risk of death by 27% for pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users. Similarly, in the event of a crash, these vehicles with large front ends pose a 20% to 50% greater risk of serious injury to occupants of conventional cars.