Melbourne University study links taller, heavier cars to higher pedestrian death risk
Analysis of over 10,000 Victorian crashes finds each 10cm of extra vehicle height raises pedestrian fatality odds by 11%, with women most affected.
What to know
- A Melbourne University analysis of 10,376 Victorian crashes (2012–mid 2025) found each 10cm increase in vehicle height raises pedestrian death odds by 11%, and each 100kg of weight raises odds by 6%.
- Utes carried 1.6 times the pedestrian fatality probability of sedans/hatchbacks, and station wagons 1.2 times; women, but not men, showed a significant risk increase from vehicle height and weight.
- The findings align with a prior US study showing a 22% higher pedestrian death risk per 10cm of front-end height, amid a broader shift toward SUVs and pick-up trucks in Australia's vehicle fleet.
- Australian pedestrian deaths have risen over the past five years after a long decline, while in-vehicle passenger fatality rates have stayed roughly stable.
The dispute Whether mocking large-vehicle owners as insecure or narcissistic constitutes unfair body shaming or is legitimate criticism. · positions read across 31 posts and comments
Large-vehicle owners should be socially pressured, discouraged, or subject to incentives to switch to smaller cars.
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“We really need to bring in a public campaign of shaming the wankers who choose to buy these yank tanks.”
Real_RobinGoodfellow · reddit ↗
Calling large-vehicle buyers insecure or narcissistic is a form of body shaming and unfair.
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“It really is body shaming. It's taking a physical feature, denigrating it and using it to attach to negative traits to support your position.”
Marshy462 · reddit ↗
It is not body shaming — it is legitimate criticism of narcissism and insecurity behind buying oversized vehicles.
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“It is NOT body shaming, it is highlighting mental insecurity and narcissism with a fictitious presumption.”
AgUnityDD · reddit ↗
The mechanism matters technically: both extra weight and height increase force and stopping-distance impacts on pedestrians.
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“The initial impact is still imparting significantly more force to you before you start to move, then the increased stopping distance also means that the secondary impacts... impart more force onto you as well.”
FirstDayPlaying · reddit ↗
“significant predictors of death”
Melbourne University researchers, Study authors · ABC Australia ↗ · Sep 16
Melbourne University researchers Study authors
How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Reddit thread debates blaming large-vehicle buyers versus "body shaming"
Commenters split between calling for social pressure or subsidies to shrink the vehicle fleet and objecting that mocking large-vehicle owners as insecure is itself a form of body shaming.
“We really need to bring in a public campaign of shaming the wankers who choose to buy these yank tanks.”
— Real_RobinGoodfellow, Reddit commenter · source -
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For every 10cm of vehicle height, the odds of a pedestrian death rise by 11 per cent. https://www. abc.net.au/news/2026-09-18/big -cars-linked-to-pedestrian-deaths/107053810
2 more of the top 3 · 31 posts in this stretch
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I'm surprised it took this long for a study like this to come out...it was kind of common sense a long time ago...with height of cars being designed to allow a pedestrian that is getting hit to fall onto the hood rather than getting whipped under the car. You'd likely still get seriously hurt, but statistically less likely to kill you because it'd…
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If you are outside and someone driving a car don't see you, has bad reaction time, swerves to avoid something else, is distracted, or crashes into you for any other reason, these are your chances of dying: - Every additional 100 kg of vehicle weight increased pedestrian fatality odds by 6%. - Every additional 10 cm of vehicle height increased…
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Story circulates via Google News, Reddit and Mastodon reposts
The ABC report was picked up and shared across Reddit and Mastodon within hours, with one Mastodon post tagging it "# Shocker".
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Report ties findings to Australia's shift toward SUVs and pick-up trucks
The coverage notes sedan and hatchback sales have declined since SUVs overtook them in 2017, mirroring a US trend, and links this shift to Australia's pedestrian death rate rising over the past five years after years of decline; the analysis also compares the new Australian figures to a prior US study finding a 22% higher pedestrian death risk per 10cm of front-end height.
“For every 10cm of vehicle height, the odds of a pedestrian death rise by 11 per cent.”
— ABC News, Reporting on the study · source -
background
Melbourne University releases 13-year crash study on vehicle size and pedestrian deaths — Researchers analysed 10,376 Victorian crashes from 2012 to mid-2025 and found every 10cm increase in vehicle height raised pedestrian death odds by 11%, and every 100kg of extra weight raised odds by 6%; utes carried 1.6 times the fatality probability of sedans/hatchbacks and station wagons 1.2 times.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by abc.net.au, 6d ago · also ABC Australia
What people are saying 20 voices from 2 sites · best of 31 · verbatim
- Would subsidies for alternatives like e-bikes meaningfully shift people away from oversized vehicles?
- Sep 19
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Silent about what? Vehicles which deal with an actual problem being more common? As opposed to vehicles which solve no existing problem and make problems? This is whataboutism whinging, and no amount of that will ever make a point, nor will not actually reading up on these issues.
- Sep 18
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Where are you getting the tray dimensions from? >Dual cab Ford Ranger trays measure 1826L x 1850W
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With evidence like this widely available, anyone who kills a pedestrian with an SUV or a truck should automatically be found guilty of negligennt homicide.
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When I had a small car I actually liked how bigger vehicles consistently underestimated it so I nearly always got the jump on them, even when I didn't intend to. The mindset is stuck two decades in the past when small cars struggled to get up to speed, but engine designs have come a long way. Now small cars have a great power to weight ratio in…
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Rather than ban them from car parks create an area where they can park that people in sedans are encouraged not to No, no, no. Do not make it easier for them. That is the opposite of what you want.
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Genuine question, do you know what the reason is? What makes the wheelchair version more compliant than the standard one? I have a Z11 Cube that I imported many years ago that wasn't required to be the wheelchair version - kind of curious why that's changed.
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This is a scenario where distance based fees would probably make sense. People that need a big vehicle for towing their shed up a mountain or whatever should be given an incentive to own a normal car for everything else and not have to pay full rego for both. It would be an opt in system, with the alternative paying a full unadulterated rego per…
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They could claim it as a work expense and get instant depreciation during covid due to stimulus measures. So not only was it immediately and blindingly obvious they would kill people (and increase fuel use and road wear) it was also the government helping establish them here.
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KE is just a tiny part of it. The bigger issues are loss of close visibility in vehicles with high hoods, and the much higher point of impact on pedestrians. Impact at leg height causes broken bones and bruises. Impact at hip or above means you hit the road and get run over, which increases the chance of death by an enormous factor. I'd rather be…
- Sep 17
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Yeah you would need to enforce it. There's quite a few rules where they all fail on defects too, but police don't seem to ever canary cars nowadays, dunno why as it was a serious concern when i was growing up.
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Plus don't forget half of them get a 50mm lift to really fuck up the dynamic handling for an imaginary off-roading use case they never do.
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Depends if you're measuring from the ground to the hood or the hood to the roof. Hood hight has nothing to do with window size and decreases visibility
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I think it could be more basic physics and poorer sightlines to pedestrians (especially children) in larger vehicles.
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OMG yes this! Can we all just drive smaller cars please. Heapssss cheaper, so easy to park in the city, safer for pedestrians and other small cars, less environmental impact. It's not like you are 4WD'ing everyday, in the city at least! Our society is so obsessed with maximum space it's just boring. I am so over HUGE cars and if you drive a RAM…
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It really is body shaming. It’s taking a physical feature, denigrating it and using it to attach to negative traits to support your position. It’s irrelevant that the body part is behind clothes. Would you use a mental illness to support a negative trait because you can’t see it?
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I don't understand the fascination. My Corolla feels small in comparison. Give me that lower centre of gravity to reduce motion sickness, please.
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The danger isn’t just that they’re heavier* ftfy. If a Yaris weighing 3 tonne hit you, it’d do a lot more damage at 60km/h than an 1100kg Yaris at 60km/h. The initial impact is still imparting significantly more force to you before you start to move, then the increased stopping distance also means that the secondary impacts (hitting the bonnet…
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You'd be better off issuing some kind of government subsidy for e-bikes Yeah, good luck with that while there are people who want to introduce rego for bikes.
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It is NOT body shaming , it is highlighting mental insecurity and narcissism with a fictitious presumption. If I said they were, say, "fat and short" then that would be body shaming because is outwardly evident.
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# Shocker As our car sizes grow, new evidence points to pedestrian risk https://www. abc.net.au/news/2026-09-18/big -cars-linked-to-pedestrian-deaths/107053810