Do sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and light truck vehicles (LTVs) cause more severe injuries to pedestrians and cyclists than passenger cars in the case of a crash? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Cited in 2 Likelier entries (2 risks, 0 decisions).
Used in 2 entries
For each citing entry, the verbatim excerpt and Likelier's calculation notes (how the source's number was converted to the lifetime-probability framing) are shown below. Click through to read the full claim ledger.
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Children hit by an SUV/LTV vs a passenger car: odds of fatal vs non-fatal injury 1.82 (95% CI 1.57, 2.11); for children aged 0-9, odds of fatality 2.30 (95% CI 2.09, 2.53), a 130% increase
“"The odds of fatal versus non-fatal injury if hit by an SUV/LTV versus a passenger car increased among adults/all-age samples by 1.44 (95% CI 1.33, 1.56) and among children by 1.82 (95% CI 1.57, 2.11; p=0.006 for heterogeneity by age). ... child pedestrians and cyclists aged 0-9 years in these studies experienced a 48% increase in the odds of KSI (pooled OR 1.48; 95%CI 1.34, 1.63) and a 130% increase in the odds of fatality (pooled OR 2.30; 95% CI 2.09, 2.53) if hit by an SUV versus passenger car — that is, even larger than the increases observed for children as a whole."”
Calculation notes
Systematic review and meta-analysis of 24 studies covering 680,000+ collisions over 35 years (searched to September 2024). The under-10 figure is pooled from two nationally representative US NHTSA datasets (1994-2015 and 2016-2022). OR 2.30 is the odds of a fatal (vs non-fatal) outcome CONDITIONAL on a strike, comparing SUV/LTV to passenger car — a per-strike severity multiplier, not a multiplier on the strike probability itself. Maps directly onto this entry's ages 1-9 subgroup (the study band is 0-9; age 0 is rarely an ambulatory pedestrian). Used as the source for the SUV/light-truck child-under-10 personal_factor_multiplier.
Independence note: Independent academic meta-analysis (LSHTM / Imperial College London, published in Injury Prevention). Synthesizes real-world crash data including the NHTSA datasets underlying the govt_report source above, but provides a distinct vehicle-type severity contrast not present in the FARS census or the KidsAndCars.org incident tracking.
Source date: 2026-01-20 · Accessed: 2026-06-14
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Pedestrians/cyclists 44% more likely to be killed if struck by an SUV/LTV vs a passenger car (82% for children); systematic review of 680,000+ collisions
“"The likelihood of a pedestrian or cyclist being fatally injured is 44% higher if they are hit by a sports utility vehicle (SUV) or light truck vehicle (LTV) compared with smaller passenger cars."”
Calculation notes
Meta-analysis of 24 studies (Inj Prev 2026;32:16–24, doi:10.1136/ip-2024-045613). This is a relative severity-given-strike effect, not an independent base rate, so it does not change the headline lifetime figure; it is applied as a personal_factor multiplier (1.44) on the striking-vehicle axis. The mechanism — taller, blunter front ends striking the torso/head — is corroborated by IIHS (2023, hoods >40 in ~45% more likely to kill) and Tyndall (Economics of Transportation 2024, ~22% per 10 cm of front-end height).
Independence note: Independent of GHSA/FARS crash counts and NSC actuarial odds: a peer-reviewed meta-analysis pooling international collision datasets to isolate vehicle-type effect, not a US national fatality tally.
Source date: 2025-04-30 · Accessed: 2026-06-14
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