Will electric cars become the new " silent killer?"
Accidents with electric or hybrid cars pose a greater danger to pedestrians (by twice as much) than with gasoline or diesel cars, a new study has warned.
A study of the statistics of road casualties in Britain revealed that the risk increases by about 3 times in urban areas, where ambient noise levels are higher.
Scientists say that necessary measures must be taken to reduce the risks, amid a broad campaign to phase out gasoline-powered cars, to reach the desired environmental goals.
The research team analyzed the differences between electric and gasoline-powered cars in terms of pedestrian injury rates per 100 million miles of road travel in Britain, using government road safety statistics.
There were 916,713 victims of road traffic accidents between 2013 and 2017. Of these, 120,197 were pedestrians and 96,285 were hit by a car.
Three quarters of pedestrian victims (71,666 (74%)) were involved in an accident with a gasoline or diesel car. About one in 50, about 1,652 (2%), had an accident with an electric or hybrid vehicle.
Study author Professor Phil Edwards said that most car accidents occurred in urban areas, and a larger percentage of them involved electric or hybrid cars (94%) compared to gasoline or diesel vehicles (88%), and in rural areas, 6% versus 12%, respectively.
"Pedestrian accidents were (on average)more likely with electric and hybrid cars than with gasoline and diesel cars," Edwards added.
The research team of this Wicker said that younger and less experienced drivers are more likely to commit road traffic accidents, and this may be responsible for some of the increased risks potential.
"One plausible explanation for our results is that ambient noise levels vary between urban and rural areas, making electric cars less audible to urban pedestrians,"Edwards said.
The results were published in the Journal of Epidemiology and community health.
Source: Daily Mail