The percentage of accidents involving vulnerable road users is bigger for EVs than for petrol cars. This is partly due to how quiet EVs are, says traffic institute
Home News
More than 40% of electric vehicle crashes involve pedestrians or cyclists
Lisa Bradshaw
Published:
More than 40% of accidents in Belgium involving an electric or hybrid vehicle also involve a pedestrian or cyclist. This is a far higher percentage than the percentage of accidents involving all cars and vulnerable road users, which is 27%. The figures come from Belgian road safety institute Vias.
In the last five years, the number of electric and hybrid vehicles in Belgium has risen from three to 20%. This figure will only continue to grow, notes Vias. The agency points to the lack of noise produced by electric vehicles (EVs) as one of the reasons why they are more likely to be involved in accidents with vulnerable road users.
Car sounds differ
Since 2021, all EVs sold in the EU must be equipped with an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS), which emits a noise when the vehicle is moving slowly or reversing. This was introduce so that when an EV is moving through a parking lot, say, or rounding a corner, vulnerable road users would be alerted.
According to research carried out by Vias, pedestrians do not always hear this sound. The institute conducted a study with 70 people, half of which were visually impaired. The study involved fully electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as petrol cars.
In nearly 40% of cases when the car was moving at 10km per hour, the test subjects did not hear a hybrid vehicle coming. This was 32% for fully EVs and 27% for petrol vehicles.
The results were similar when the speed increased to 20kph. In nearly one in five cases, pedestrians did not hear the hybrid vehicle coming. This was 7% for electric vehicles and 11% for petrol cars.
‘Increase sound levels’
Vias also notes that not all AVAS systems emit the same sounds, so pedestrians don’t always know if the sound is a car or not, especially if there is a lot of background noise. Vias would like regulators to require that AVAS systems are uniform with regards to sound.
“Right now, manufacturers choose the sound themselves,” said Vias in a statement. “We also ask that sound levels increase for cars driving up to 10kph so that people who are visually impaired can hear them.”