Research: Electric Vehicles Are More Likely to Hit Pedestrians

Electric vehicles, which are expected to cover the roads in the coming years, are being adopted by more and more people every day. So how safe are these vehicles for pedestrians compared to traditional vehicles? A new study answers this question.

The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and examining the events in Great Britain, revealed that electric vehicles are more likely to hit pedestrians.

Being quiet may cause more accidents

According to the findings, crashing into a person with an electric or hybrid vehicle is more likely to occur compared to conventional internal combustion cars. twice as much. It has even been stated that this risk can increase up to 3 times, especially in urban areas.

So what’s the reason for this? While the research doesn’t answer this definitively, it does have an answer: they’re quiet. As we all know, there is a lot of noise around in urban areas. We can understand that it comes from the engine sounds of normal vehicles. However, electric and hybrid vehicles are much quieter. This ensures that pedestrians do not notice them and accidents occur. It is also said that it may be because those who use electric vehicles are less experienced young users.

51 billion km of electric/hybrid vehicle travel and 4.8 trillion km of gasoline/diesel vehicle travel were examined. The study examined deaths from 2013 to 2017. It was observed that one quarter of the deaths occurring in accidents involved pedestrians. Data from Great Britain shows that more than 96 thousand pedestrians died as a result of being hit by cars.

It would not be right to say that electric vehicles are definitely more risky.

Of course, due to the large number of gasoline-powered vehicles, the number of deaths due to them was higher. However, in electric vehicles 2% is not insignificant A rate was observed. Experts stated that if their numbers increase further, the risk could be twice as high as that of internal combustion engines.

Researchers underlined that due to the increased adoption of electric vehicles, safety measures for pedestrians should be increased and governments should address concerns on this issue.

Of course, these results do not necessarily mean that electric vehicles are more risky. First of all, the data Does not cover periods after 2017 We see. The real electric vehicle revolution took place after this period and more advanced cars were launched. However, we can understand that their silence could indeed pose a risk.