Drivers of high-fronted cars are unable to see children as old as nine, tests find. The hood height of new vehicles in Europe is increasing by half a centimeter a year, on average, driven by the growth in SUV sales, new research assembled by Transport & Environment (T&E) finds.
The trend is part of the recent phenomenon of ‘carspreading’, where supersized SUVs crowd out space in towns and cities and are more dangerous in a crash. In tests conducted for the report by T&E, drivers in the highest fronted vehicles could not see children as old as nine standing in front.
Seven centimeters in 14 years
New car hoods were 83.8 cm high, on average, in 2024, up from 76.9 cm in 2010, according to the report, which covers the EU, the UK, and Norway and is the first to analyse hood heights at European level.
The rise coincides with the steady increase of SUV sales from 12% of the European market in 2010 to 56% last year. European and national laws do not limit the height of hoods.
High hoods: less vision, more lethal injuries
In crashes, high-fronted cars typically strike adult pedestrians above the center of gravity, often first hitting vital organs. The higher the vehicle’s front, the more likely a person will be knocked under the car, rather than pushed to the side, at speeds of up to 50 km/hour.
One study, based on crashes involving 300,000 road users in Belgium, suggests that a 10 cm increase in hood height (from 80 cm to 90 cm) raises the risk of death by 27% for pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users.
High hoods also reduce drivers’ vision of other road users. Tests commissioned by T&E find that a driver of the highest fronted model on EU and UK roads, the Ram TRX, is unable to see children aged up to nine standing directly in front. A Land Rover Defender driver cannot see children aged up to four and a half.
James Nix, vehicles policy manager at T&E: “Higher hoods are a danger to pedestrians, cyclists, and people in regular cars. It’s impossible to see children standing in front of some of the highest fronts. The growing trend toward SUVs means this problem will only get worse unless we set limits.”
Running in parallel to hood height rise, the width of new cars is also increasing by 0.5 cm a year, as shown by T&E’s 2024 study.
Restrictions necessary
More than 30 civil society organizations have called on the EU to cap hood height by 2035 as part of a reform package aimed at limiting the ever-expanding dimensions of cars.
For hoods, the study recommends a maximum height of 85 cm for further research. The long lead time to 2035 would help minimise disruption to existing production and designs.
T&E and the Clean Cities Campaign said national and city authorities should also make taxes and parking charges fairer by linking them to the weight and size of vehicles. Across most of Europe, weight is the best available proxy until lawmakers make size data more accessible.
Barbara Stoll, Senior Director of Clean Cities Campaign, resumes: “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? Thankfully, more and more city leaders are pushing back against carspreading, standing up for what citizens want: safe, green streets without monster vehicles. Cities must go further and faster to restrict oversized SUVs, reclaim public space, and put safety and people first.”
Paris and Lyon in France, as well as Aachen in Germany, are among the cities that have already linked parking charges to the weight or size of cars.
