Nine crossovers score high in new IIHS pedestrian avoidance test

WASHINGTON — Nine of 11 crossovers earned "advanced" or "superior" ratings in a new test of pedestrian crash avoidance systems conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The ratings are a response to the recent rise in pedestrian deaths. In 2017, there were 5,977 pedestrian fatalities, a 45 percent increase since reaching their lowest point since 1980 in 2009, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data.

The 2018-19 Honda CR-V, 2019 Subaru Forester, 2019 Toyota RAV4 and 2019 Volvo XC40 responded the best in re-creations of an adult pedestrian entering the road from the right, a child darting into the street from behind two parked cars and an adult walking in the vehicle's travel lane near the edge of the road. The BMW X1 did not meet any of the test parameters and was not rated.

IIHS plays an important role in the deployment of advanced safety features because automakers compete for the group's annual Top Safety Pick, which can influence a consumer's buying decision. IIHS also tests front crash prevention systems, headlights and rear crash prevention systems.

The institute will include pedestrian crash prevention ratings as part of the criteria for the 2020 Top Safety Pick awards, spokesman Joseph Young said in an email.

Vehicles were scored according to their average speed reductions in five repeated test runs on dry pavement at speeds ranging from 12 mph to 37 mph. Only the Forester and RAV4 avoided hitting the dummies in every perpendicular test. IIHS gives credit in the 37 mph parallel adult test to systems that issue a timely warning (greater than or equal to 2.1 seconds time-to-collision), upping the odds of a driver response.

The CR-V and Forester are the only crossovers in the group to earn credit for issuing a warning in the parallel adult test before automatically braking to mitigate the impact with the dummy.

The IIHS classifies the vehicles as small SUVs, but Automotive News classifies them as subcompact, compact and midsize crossovers.

The vehicles can detect and brake for pedestrians using a combination of automatic emergency braking systems, tiny cameras and radar sensors in the front grille that continuously scan the roadway and horizon for pedestrians, and in some cases bicyclists or animals, that might cross ahead.

"We want to encourage manufacturers to include pedestrian detection capabilities as they equip more of their vehicles with automatic emergency braking systems," David Aylor, the institute's manager of active safety testing, said in a statement. "We also want to arm consumers with information about these systems so they can make smart choices when shopping for a new vehicle."

Roughly two-thirds of front crash prevention systems offered on 2019 models have pedestrian detection capabilities.

A 2018 Highway Loss Data Institute analysis found that Subaru's EyeSight system with pedestrian detection cut the rate of likely pedestrian-related insurance claims by 35 percent, compared with the same vehicles without the system.

Last year, the IIHS issued a study showing that the size of a vehicle plays a contributing role in pedestrian fatalities and urged automakers to improve front crash prevention systems, headlights and vehicle design.