Pedestrian risk from electric cars

Pedestrians may be twice as likely to be hit by electric/hybrid cars as petrol/diesel ones because of how quiet electric vehicles are, a study of casualty rates in Great Britain has found. Researchers looked at data from 2013-17 and found the average annual casualty rates of pedestrians per 100 million miles of road travel were 5.16 for electric and hybrid vehicles and 2.40 for petrol and diesel vehicles. Collisions with pedestrians were, on average, twice as likely with electric and hybrid vehicles and three times as likely in urban areas where background ambient noise levels are higher than in rural areas. Mitigation of this hazard is needed amid the phase-out of fossil-fuelled vehicles, say researchers.