AUTONEWS

Researchers reveal why eco-friendly cars collide with pedestrians so much

A study on accidents with electric and hybrid vehicles in Europe caught the attention of researchers due to its results. Seeking to understand why ecological cars collide so much with pedestrians, the analysis showed that one of the main risk factors of the EV when compared to a gasoline or diesel car is precisely its high noise reduction technology: that is, it is so silent that people don't notice your approach. 

The research concluded that, as a result, electric and hybrid vehicles are twice as likely to run over pedestrians as cars running on fossil fuels, and three times more likely for this to occur in urban areas (where there is more external noise); 

The researchers also highlighted another factor that also contributes to the number: the strong trend towards younger and less experienced drivers; 

The survey comes after a report showed that road accidents are the leading cause of death among children and young adults in the UK, with pedestrians responsible for a quarter of all road deaths; 

The analysis considered 916,713 victims, between 2013 and 2017, of which 120,197 were pedestrians;

The average annual rate of pedestrian casualties per 100 million kilometers driven was 5.16 for electric and hybrid cars, compared with 2.4 for gasoline and diesel cars, according to the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 

''Electric cars are a danger to pedestrians because they are less likely to be heard than petrol or diesel cars. The government needs to mitigate these risks if it wants to phase out the sale of combustion cars. If you're switching to an electric car, remember that it's a new type of vehicle. They are much quieter than old cars, and pedestrians have learned to navigate the roads by listening to traffic. Drivers of these vehicles need to be extremely cautious.''...Phil Edwards, lead author of the study and professor of epidemiology and statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In 2017, a US Department of Transportation report concluded that electric and hybrid automobiles posed a 20% greater risk to pedestrians than gasoline and diesel automobiles, and a 50% greater risk during low-speed movements — also because they are too quiet. 

It is worth remembering, as pointed out by The Guardian, that since July 2019 all new hybrid and electric vehicles sold in Europe are required to have an acoustic vehicle warning system that emits sound when the car moves slowly. However, many cars still drive without the devices.   

''If the government ensured that these systems were installed in all electric vehicles and retrofitted them to older electric cars, that would be a good start.'' 

Researchers also added that, not just the fact that it is silent, electric vehicles accelerate faster and, some, can be very heavy, taking longer to fully brake.

Mundoquatrorodas