Regulations needed for SUVs, trucks to keep others safe: report

SUVs and pickup trucks pose a public health risk for pedestrians, cyclists and smaller cars, says a coalition of Ontario advocacy groups that's released a report urging governments to introduce regulations that make them safer for everyone.

The 106-page report, entitled Oversized Danger, recommends among other things special licenses for such larger vehicles, smaller size requirements for manufacturers and banning SUVs and pickup trucks from certain busy areas, like school zones. The report also suggests safety warnings in advertisements for larger vehicles.

The report brings together a variety of studies that point to unnecessary dangers the vehicles pose to other road users. Those studies include a 2021 Ontario Ministry of Transportation report that found 61 per cent of road fatalities involve SUVs, even though they only make up 41 per cent of road vehicles.

Albert Koehl is founder of Toronto Community Bikeways, one of 16 advocacy groups involved with the report. He says governments need to consider everyone's safety when it comes to larger vehicles.

"The federal government decides what vehicles are safe enough to be on our roads," Albert Koehl, founder of coalition-member Toronto Community Bikeways, said in an interview.

"But what it isn't looking at is whether these vehicles are safe not only for occupants, but for other people on the road: people who are walking, people cycling, the kinds of activities that we're really trying to promote."

CBC Toronto reached out to Transport Canada for comment on the report's recommendations, but they were unable to respond before publication.

Albert Koehl is the founder of the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition, one of 16 groups that came together to release a report making 11 recommendations to government to make SUVs and trucks safer for all road users. (Grant Linton/CBC)

The Coalition to Reduce Auto Size Hazards produced the report. It's made up of 16 road safety, environmental and community groups from across Ontario, including Bike Law Canada, Walk Toronto, TTC Riders and Friends and Families for Safe Streets.

Koehl says there's an "arms race" happening with manufacturers, where SUVs and trucks are getting bigger and bigger. He says that's making the road more dangerous for everyone, and the federal government needs to regulate vehicle size.

Since 1980, the weight of new vehicles has gone up about 25 per cent in North America, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Canada shares an auto market with the U.S. So while Transport Canada does regulate the size of road vehicles in Canada, manufacturers would have to make a different sized SUV for each country to meet the recommendation in the Oversized Danger report.

In recent years, the department has tested vehicle sensors that could address blind spots in larger vehicles. The sensors detect cyclists and other road users, but those aren't mandated in SUVs.

Ontario's Ministry of Transportation and the city of Toronto said in separate statements they have road safety plans in place to protect vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians, but neither is looking at special safety initiatives for SUVs and light trucks.

Blind spots, high front ends, weight pose risks

The mass of such vehicles, along with the height of their front ends, makes them more dangerous in a head-on collision, according to a new study cited in the report.

In that 2024 study in the Economics of Tranportation journal, University of Hawaii researcher Justin Tyndall estimates a 10-centimetre increase in the height of a vehicle's front end increases the fatality risk for a pedestrian by 22 per cent in a collision.

The report encourages cities to charge higher parking fees for SUVs and trucks, since they take up more space. Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood, pictured here, introduced such a model in 2019. (Thomas Gerbet/Radio-Canada)

On top of that, the coalition notes, children are eight times more likely to die from a collision with an SUV than with a regular-sized car, according to a 2022 report from the Journal of Safety Research.

Larger hoods also create a blind spot directly in front of the vehicle, according to a 2021 consumer report the coalition cites, making collisions more likely.

Sonam Sapra, a lawyer at a personal injury firm who contributed to the report, says her firm has seen a consistent difference between pedestrians struck by smaller cars and vehicles with large front ends.

"When we see somebody come in and they've been involved in a collision with an SUV, we already know that those injuries are going to be a lot more severe," she said in an interview.  "When they strike a pedestrian or a cyclist, they're often striking them waist up. So they're hitting them in their chest or they're striking them in on their head."

Koehl says that information has been common knowledge for some time, but the coalition report will provide new ammunition in a battle advocates have long been waging.

"With our report in hand and with a coalition of groups behind it, we're going to meet with all of these politicians and with health and safety officials and push harder for these [recommendations]."