# Australians are obsessed with SUVs and huge utes, but experts say they are making our roads deadlier

About 60% of the 1.2m cars that drove out of the showroom last year were SUVs, but road fatalities reached a 12-year high too

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George Upjohn vividly remembers his interaction with the driver of an SUV after a collision that happened while cycling in Sydney’s south.

“I had blood all over my shins and when I hobbled up and asked why she didn’t turn her head to check to her side before veering into my lane, she said she didn’t need to because the sensor in her car would have alerted her to me. She said I must have been at fault and rode into her,” the 32-year-old claims.

But Upjohn finds himself on the wrong side of Australia’s latest car trend.

SUVs and huge utes have become the most popular vehicles in Australia, increasingly serving as the new family car. But experts are concerned their safety pitfalls could be making the nation’s roads deadlier.

In 2024, Australia’s enthusiasm for four-wheel drives and dual cab utes such as the Toyota RAV4 SUV and Ford Ranger over smaller cars such as the Toyota Corolla and Mazda 3 continued to flourish, with .

Of the 1,220,607 new vehicles sold in 2024, most were SUVs, with about 57% market share, an increase of 2.4% on the previous year. Light commercial vehicles – which includes utes – accounted for about 22% of sales.

Passenger cars – which covers sedans and hatchbacks – continued to slide in popularity, accounting for about 17% of purchases.

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The trend is a remarkable flip from Australians’ vehicle preferences over the past decade, with the small cars and family sedans dominating the top 10 list in 2014.

Also in recent years, Australia has spectacularly failed at its mission of bringing down road deaths and serious injuries.

Hospitalisations each year from serious injuries caused by road incidents , to 39,505.

Fatalities have grown at a similar rate. No state or territory is on track to meet a goal set out by a 2021 national strategy to halve road deaths by 2030. Instead, deaths have increased by almost 19%.

The 1,300 deaths in 2024 – the highest since 2012 – capped off a , before seatbelts were compulsory.

Zooming in on 2024’s data, a troubling trend emerged.

Driver and passenger deaths slightly decreased on the previous year but roads became far more deadly for other users.

Pedestrian deaths rose by 7.1% on the previous to 167, while cyclist deaths jumped 11.8% to 38. Motorcyclist deaths increased by 10.3% in a year to 278.

No experts point the finger solely at larger cars for worsening road fatalities in Australia, with risky behaviour from all road users also contributing to unsafe roads.

However, senior road academics say there is one key trend flying in the face of efforts to improve road safety: car bloat.

## ‘You have to expect more trauma’

The study of road trauma broadly focuses on two factors; changes in driver behaviour and exposure – in other words, how much driving is occurring.

“If you’re driving more dangerous cars more often, you have to expect more trauma,” Prof Stuart Newstead, the director of Monash University’s Accident Research Centre, said.

On one hand, Australians are driving more than they ever have, partly the result of a growing population and the revival of free movement after a Covid lull.

In the 2023-24 financial year, Australians drove just shy of 260bn kilometres, up from about 245bn kilometres in 2013-14, according to government estimates.

That overall jump in driving is considered a rise in exposure. Equally, the growing number of cyclists and the related spike in delivery riders through urban areas, also comes under rising exposure.

On the other side of the equation, the risk profile of driving has also worsened, in large part driven by vehicle choice, Newstead said.

“People driving these vehicles are more likely to be speeding because it feels like they go smoother over the road at higher speeds compared with smaller cars. It’s easy to feel like you’re not speeding at all,” Roberts said. “These vehicles are a bad idea on urban roads.”

Bumper height matching standards in recent decades, designed to better distribute force between smaller cars when hit by larger SUVs and utes, appear to have made side-on collisions somewhat safer but studies suggest they have had less benefit reducing danger in other scenarios posed by the increasingly heavier weight of larger vehicles – which have only become more populous on roads.

In 2000, Toyota’s HiLux in a single cab (two-seater) version – the most popular ute at the time – was about 1.61m tall, 1.69m wide, 4.73m long and weighed just under 1,200kg.

In 2025, Toyota’s HiLux in its dual cab (five-seater) version – the most sold style currently – is about 1.8m tall, 1.87m wide, 5.32m long and weighs about 2,110kg – nearing double the most popular ute model from 25 years earlier.

“You’re managing a whole lot of mass here at speed, and all that energy has to go somewhere,” Newstead said. “It’s just the laws of physics, more mass and speed is going to wipe out a lot more.”

When colliding with a smaller vehicle with less mass, they can cause catastrophic damage. “If a Dodge Ram hits your Mazda 2, you’re going to come off quite badly,” Roberts said.

Newstead urges authorities to update Australia’s laws to mandate a minimum pedestrian and vulnerable road user safety score, as well as for testing protocols to better assess larger cars.

Mother of two Peta Stamell echoes Newstead’s concerns. The Canberra mother, who has dwarfism and is 1.16m tall, said the proliferation of large SUVs has made walking around her neighbourhood feel considerably more dangerous for her and her children, Rowan, 3, and Avril, 11 months.

As she is unable to see the drivers in larger SUVs and utes, she worries they are unaware of her, citing two recent “near misses on roads with these huge cars” while at pedestrian crossings.

Stamell said she was “outraged” that Ancap testing hadn’t been updated to consider the influx of taller cars.

“It’s keeping me up at night,” she said. “I’m honestly really scared for my family’s safety.”

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