Monash University slams utes as unsafe

A MONASH University road safety expert has suggested that utility vehicles pose a 30 per cent higher chance of posing a serious risk of death or injury in the event of an accident when compared with a medium-sized car.

Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) director of national road safety partnership program Jerome Carslake told GoAuto the statistic was sourced from used car safety ratings data compiled by his MUARC colleague Stuart Newstead.

Among the data points is “aggressivity” of vehicles, or the performance of a vehicle in a collision as it rates to the driver, passenger, and unprotected road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

Mr Carslake provided GoAuto with confidential research data sourced by MUARC which showed comparable aggressivity between a small SUV and medium passenger car, and a medium SUV and large passenger car, while all larger vehicle types (people mover, large SUV, commercial ute, commercial van) showed a higher aggressivity figure.

Given force equals mass times acceleration it is no great relevation that larger vehicles have a propensity to cause greater damage.

Safety watchdog ANCAP now more heavily weights “vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility” in its testing and has previously confirmed to GoAuto that in a collision between five-star-rated vehicles of different sizes, occupants of the larger vehicle have the lower risk of injury.

Although the reduced agility and braking distances of taller, heavier vehicles with dynamics that can vary significantly depending on whether they are laden or unladen are likely to be a factor in their ability to avoid accidents, there is no data to show that four-wheel drive or utility drivers are more likely to be involved in an accident that those in other groups.

Publicly available Australian Bureau of Statistics data provides no breakdown of vehicle type, specifying only truck (articulated or heavy), bus, vehicle, or motorcycle.

Australian Road Deaths Database information (current to September 2023) shows drivers (47.4 per cent) and passengers (15.9 per cent, including motorcycle pillion passengers), and motorcyclists (19.6 per cent) account for the highest portion of road users killed in a vehicular collision. Vulnerable road users including pedestrians (13.5 per cent), and cyclists (3.5 per cent).

In 2022, the Australian road toll stood at 1194 – an increase of 5.8 per cent over the year prior. However, fatality rates per head of population have decreased by 10.4 per cent over the past decade. Deaths of vulnerable road users were also listed as “largely flat” over that period.

More than 10 per cent of those involved in a fatal collision were found to have a blood alcohol concentration exceeding the legal limit or were found to be under the influence of illicit or prescription drugs.

Speaking in a podcast published by Drive, Mr Carslake said the Australian road toll had increased by five per cent (over an unspecified time frame), owing largely to what he said was a buyer preference for larger utes, SUVs and four-wheel drives.

“The risk of death and serious injuries posed by utes compared to a medium car is 30 per cent higher when in a collision, and with the average increase in car size on our road (sic), this poses a threat to pedestrians if they’re struck by these large vehicles,” he detailed.

“The death toll has risen five per cent purely from people choosing to buy four-wheel drivers, utes, and larger SUVs, showing that just from the size, the risk increases.

“There needs to be more emphasis on the shared responsibility of road safety, and how the choices in vehicle purchases or actions behind the ’wheel contribute to the issues we face driving.

“For people to get home safe, they need everyone to be safe around them using the road.”

Throughout the podcast, Mr Carslake identified a broad series of issues that he said need addressing to improve road safety.

Among these were features to look at when purchasing cars; keeping safety front of mind when driving; the increase in the average size of cars on Australian roads; the accountability of pedestrians regarding road safety; and knowing driver fatigue triggers ahead of holiday time.

The sweeping array of statements does not, however, factor in the rise in the road toll that has occurred despite the introduction of initiatives including mandated advanced driver assistance systems; improved road markings, altered intersections, lower speed limits, and steel cable safety barriers; and additional speed enforcement from both state and territory police and fixed and mobile speed cameras.

Mr Carslake made little mention driver training or licence assessment processes, nor the added weight (and therefore impact force) of a small- to medium-sized electric vehicles, which although generally having a lower centre of gravity due to underfloor battery packs, may weigh as much or more than a full-size utility vehicle or four-wheel drive.

“It’s the old age (sic) problem. If something big hits you, it’s going to hurt, and that’s the fundamental (argument),” he said. “If you’re a pedestrian or a vulnerable road user, the user of a small vehicle, when you are hit by something larger, it wins.

“The thing is, everyone has good days and bad days, and the thing is that if you’re having a bad day in a big vehicle, perhaps a little brain fog, and you’re in an area where there’s a lot of people – pedestrians around schools is a big one – you may not be as switched on and go through a lollipop person or something like that.

“In these bigger vehicles, the survivability of a vulnerable road user goes down dramatically.”

Mr Carslake responded to a Drive interviewer question related to the growing number of American-sourced pick-up trucks on Australian roads by saying that the vehicle’s size dramatically increases the risk of a poorer outcome in the event of a collision with a smaller vehicle or vulnerable road user.

“There hasn’t actually been specific work (research) on the bigger utes, ‘yank tanks’ … but the death toll has been inflated by five per cent purely from people choosing to buy four-wheel drive utes and large SUVs,” he said.