Road safety fears from increasing car bonnet height

A growth in SUV sales is behind the bonnet height of new cars in Europe increasing by half a centimetre a year, new research suggests.

The trend, says Transport and Environment (T&E) is part of the recent phenomenon of ‘carspreading’, with passenger vehicles increasing in size.

In tests conducted for a new report by T&E, drivers in the highest fronted vehicles could not see children as old as nine years old standing in front.

New car bonnets were 83.8cm high, on average, in 2024 – up from 76.9cm in 2010, according to the report which covers the EU, the UK and Norway.

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 bonnet height.

Click here for data for EU countries, the UK and Norway.

In crashes, high-fronted cars typically strike adult pedestrians above the centre of gravity, often first hitting vital organs.

The higher the vehicle front the more likely a person will be knocked under the car, rather than pushed to the side, at speeds of up to around 30mph.

One study, based on crashes involving 300,000 road users in Belgium, suggests that a 10cm increase in bonnet height (from 80cm to 90cm) raises the risk of death by 27% for pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.

High bonnets also reduce drivers’ vision of other road users. Tests commissioned by T&E find a driver of the highest fronted model on EU and UK roads, the Ram TRX, is unable to see children aged up to nine years old standing directly in front. A Land Rover Defender driver cannot see children aged up to four-and-a-half years.

James Nix, vehicles policy manager at T&E, said: “Higher bonnets 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 towards SUVs means this problem will only get worse unless we set limits.”

More than 30 civil society organisations have called on the EU to cap bonnet height by 2035 as part of a reform package to limit ever-expanding car dimensions.

For bonnets, the study recommends a maximum height of 85cm for further study. The long lead time to 2035 would help minimise disruption to existing production and designs, says T&E.