Giant Trucks and SUVs: The Deadly Rise in Pedestrian Deaths
American roads have become significantly more dangerous for pedestrians over the past decade and a half, and a major investigation by The New York Times points to a clear culprit: the relentless growth in size of trucks and SUVs. Since 2009, annual pedestrian fatalities in the United States have surged by approximately 75 percent, from around 4,100 to over 7,000 per year — reversing decades of steady progress in road safety.
A Reversal of Progress
For decades, American roads were steadily getting safer for pedestrians. From roughly 8,000 annual deaths in 1980, the number fell to just above 4,000 by around 2009. But then the trend reversed sharply. By 2024, drivers struck and killed 7,148 pedestrians, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. While that figure represents a 4.3 percent decline from 2023, it remains nearly 20 percent higher than the 2016 level and close to historic highs.
This reversal is uniquely American. Most other wealthy countries have not seen similar increases, suggesting that factors like smartphone distraction alone cannot explain the trend.
The Physics of Danger
The New York Times investigation identified two primary mechanisms that make larger vehicles deadlier for pedestrians. First, taller hoods change the dynamics of impact. A standard sedan’s hood, roughly two and a half feet high, strikes a pedestrian in the lower body and flings them onto the hood — which is designed to absorb impact. A modern pickup’s hood, approaching four feet, strikes the pedestrian in the chest, knocking them to the pavement where they are often run over.
“We see a lot of devastating collisions even at lower speeds because the pedestrian gets punted forward,” Shawn Harrington, a crash test expert at Forensic Rock, told the Times. “Before the driver knows what’s happened, the pedestrian’s head is under the wheel.”
The average passenger vehicle hood today is about three feet high. Anyone shorter than 5-foot-6 — roughly half of American adults — would frequently be rammed to the pavement in a crash. The Times’ statistical model found hood height to be a statistically significant predictor of pedestrian death, with a 2.8 percent increase in the odds of a fatality for every one-inch increase in hood height.
Second, larger blind zones hide pedestrians from drivers. Bulkier frames, thicker A-pillars (required for rollover safety), and larger side mirrors all contribute. The Times used 3D scanning to compare modern pickups with their 1990s counterparts. The Chevrolet Silverado’s blind zones have nearly doubled; the GMC Sierra’s and Toyota Tacoma’s grew by about 60 percent; the Ford F-150’s grew by about 25 percent.
A November 2025 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that vehicles with large driver-side blind zones are 70 percent more likely to strike pedestrians when turning left compared to those with small blind zones.
The Human Toll
The Times estimates that the shift toward vehicles with higher hoods caused approximately 3,000 pedestrian deaths from 2016 to 2024 — roughly 200 to 400 lives lost each year that might have been spared if vehicles had remained the same size.
Personal tragedies illustrate the statistics. In 2016, Margaret Lacey, a 57-year-old nurse, was killed while walking her dog in a crosswalk in Colorado. The driver of a Ford Excursion said he hadn’t seen her — his view was blocked by the A-pillar. Her sister, Betty, recalled that Margaret’s head was grievously misshapen from the impact. “The only part that looked like Margaret was her hands,” she said. The coffin was closed.
In 2025, Charlene McAlister, 76, was killed by a Ram 1500 TRX while crossing a street in Colorado Springs. She was not quite five feet tall. The pickup’s hood was at least four feet high.
The Market Forces Behind Bigger Vehicles
SUVs and pickups now account for virtually all of the U.S. auto industry’s profits. The average sticker price for a full-size pickup is $70,000 — double that of a sedan. Automakers have dramatically scaled back sedan production; Ford went from selling over 1 million cars in 2017 to fewer than 100,000 five years later.
Marketing has played a significant role. “You’re the king of the road,” Frank Hanley, a director at JD Power, told the Times, describing the message automakers send to consumers. Nicole Gayney, a former Ford marketing executive, said, “We’re kind of in this American mind-set that bigger is better.”
Automakers argue that the issue is more complex. “While vehicle safety is critical, blaming larger vehicles for pedestrian deaths overlooks systemic issues,” including road design, said Mike Levine, a Ford spokesman. General Motors pointed to its front pedestrian braking technology, which a company study found reduced injury frequency by 35 percent.
Regulatory Response and Challenges
Federal regulators have begun to act, but critics say the response has been insufficient. In September 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a new safety standard requiring passenger vehicles to reduce the risk of serious-to-fatal head injuries in pedestrian crashes, as reported by NPR. The agency estimates the rule would save 67 lives per year — a fraction of the thousands dying annually.
In August 2024, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) introduced the Pedestrian Protection Act, which would require NHTSA to develop vehicle safety standards for hood height and visibility to protect pedestrians and vulnerable road users.
However, the response has been slow. In 2022, researchers at the Transportation Department’s Volpe Center warned NHTSA leaders that large vehicles with big blind zones were killing hundreds of pedestrians annually. According to attendees, a senior NHTSA official disputed the data. “There was just zero acknowledgement of the problem,” said Angie Byrne, a former Volpe Center employee.
What’s Next
The debate now centers on whether technology or design changes will solve the crisis. NHTSA is betting on automated collision-avoidance systems. “Such technologies are actively reducing the occurrence of these crashes and fundamentally shifting the risk landscape,” said Sean Rushton, an NHTSA spokesman.
But many experts argue that technology is not a perfect substitute for direct visibility. The owner’s manuals for popular vehicles caution that safety technology can fail in bad weather, at high speeds, or if a pedestrian is running or the size of a small child.
With the Pedestrian Protection Act pending in Congress and NHTSA’s proposed rule under review, the question remains whether the United States will follow other wealthy nations in reversing this deadly trend — or whether the dominance of ever-larger vehicles will continue to come at a devastating human cost.