Ever-rising height of car bonnets a ‘clear threat' to children, report says

The Guardian

2 days ago

The bonnet height of new cars in the UK and Europe is rising relentlessly, a report has found, bringing a 'clear and growing threat to public safety, especially for children'.
Higher fronts on cars significantly increase the death rate when pedestrians are struck. The analysis also found that drivers in the tallest cars could not see children as old as nine at all when they were directly in front of the vehicle.
The UK has an especially large number of the cars with the tallest bonnets. This is due to higher sales of Land Rover models which, with Jeep, are the only car brands with average bonnet heights over 100cm. The researchers accused Land Rover of 'trading on the intimidation that comes with high-fronted vehicles [and] ignoring their related dangers'.
In crashes, high-bonneted SUVs are more likely to strike the vital organs in the core of adults' bodies and the heads of children. Hitting pedestrians above their centre of gravity means they are more likely to be knocked forward and down and then be driven over. In contrast, low bonnets tend to hit pedestrians' legs, giving them a greater chance of falling on to the vehicle and being deflected to the side.
The report, by the advocacy group Transport & Environment (T&E), found that the average bonnet height of new cars sold in Europe rose from 77cm in 2010 to 84cm in 2024.
The rise matches booming sales of SUVs from 12% to 56% of all cars over the same period, with the increasing size of vehicles being described as 'carspreading' or 'autobesity'. SUVs are also 20% more polluting on average and this rise in sales is cancelling out the reduction in climate-heating CO2 due to electric vehicles and fuel efficiency improvements.
There is no legal limit to bonnet height in the UK and Europe. The researchers said a limit should be introduced for 2035 and set at about 85cm.
'A child is killed every day on our roads, yet cars are being made so large that children are invisible from the driver's seat. How is that acceptable?' said Barbara Stoll, senior director of T&E's Clean Cities campaign. 'Thankfully, more and more city leaders are pushing back against carspreading, standing up for what citizens actually want – safe, green streets without monster vehicles.'
Paris and Lyon in France, and Aachen in Germany, are among the cities that charge bigger cars more to park. In the UK, councils in Cardiff, Bristol, Oxford and Haringey in London are looking into similar measures and last week the London assembly called for limits on bonnet height.
A Jaguar Land Rover spokesperson said: 'JLR is committed to the highest safety standards and our vehicles are made with the strictest adherence to safety requirements. We continually invest in safety and advanced technology features – which, amongst other things, include pedestrian detection, 3D surround camera systems, and autonomous emergency braking (AEB).'
The T&E report said AEB can prevent some crashes but that 'a car with a good AEB system and a bonnet height between 60cm and 75cm will always be safer than a high-bonneted vehicle with the same AEB.'
The report used data from Euro NCAP, the safety rating programme for new vehicles, and sales data to assess the growth in bonnet heights. T&E also commissioned Loughborough University School of Design to test the visibility of children from high-fronted cars.
It found that a driver of a Ram TRX was unable to see children aged up to nine who were standing directly in front, while a Land Rover Defender driver could not see children aged up to four and a half.
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A 10cm increase in bonnet height, from 80cm to 90cm, raises the risk of death in a crash by 27% for pedestrians and cyclists according to a Belgian study involving 300,000 casualties. Children are substantially more likely to be killed as pedestrians in collisions compared to adults, the report said.
The number of cars with extremely high bonnets is 'very disproportionate' in the UK, the report found. The UK made up 15% of all new car sales in Europe in 2024, but 39% of the sales of cars with bonnets higher than 100cm. Land Rover models represented 85% of the 63,000 cars with bonnets 100cm or higher sold in the UK that year.
The report noted aggressive marketing slogans for the Land Rover Defender – 'Locked and loaded' – and 'Built to impress, known to intimidate' for RAM pickup trucks: 'The intention is clear: such companies are trading on the intimidation that comes with high-fronted vehicles, ignoring their related dangers.'
The report concluded: 'The rise in high-fronted SUVs poses a clear and growing threat to public safety, especially for children. With no benefit to society, it's time for lawmakers at all levels to act.' The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, Jeep and RAM did not respond to a request for comment.
The surge in SUVs is also making European cars wider, a 2024 T&E report found, with half of new cars too bloated to fit into standard parking spaces.
The International Energy Agency recorded record global SUV sales in 2024 and record SUV CO2 emissions of 1bn tonnes. If SUVs were a country, they would rank as the fifth most polluting in the world, the IEA said.