SUVs should be banned from school pickups to keep children safe - and prevent more climate chaos

The presence of sports utility vehicles on city streets have long been a point of contention. But around throngs of schoolchildren, they’re an unacceptable risk.

At about this time last year, two little girls having a tea party to celebrate the end of term at their London school died, after a woman driving a Land Rover had a seizure. Her vehicle ploughed through a fence and into a building, killing young Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau and injuring others. Although police are holding an additional review into their investigation, the driver will face no charges due to having suffered an unexpected medical incident, the BBC reports. But the tragedy raises another important question - why are we driving these huge, deadly cars around our schools in the first place?

SUVs are usually bigger than the average family sedan, so it only stands to reason that they would cause more damage if they were to hit someone. A 2022 US study published in the Journal of Safety Research found that children hit by an SUV were eight times more likely to be killed than children who were accidentally hit by other passenger cars.

There’s also a general perception that SUVs are safer for their occupants than smaller vehicles, and another 2017 study from Austria found SUV drivers were also more likely to take part in risky behaviours on the road. This included higher frequencies of using mobile phones while driving, not wearing seatbelts, and ignoring traffic lights - all of which could put and children in or out of the vehicle at increased risk.

It makes sense then why there have been a lot of high profile parties clamouring for them to be banned from city streets. From the Tyre Extinguishers, a loosely-affiliated vigilante group who let down SUV tyres - often illegally - en masse in cities around the world, to well-regarded road safety campaigners like the European Transport Safety Council.

Frankly, it’s mindboggling to me why they are so popular in cities in the first place. It’s a daunting sight just watching them pick their way down the too-small streets of many UK and European cities, their colossal frames just inches from the parked cars or buildings on either side. Their precursors were military vehicles and they’re often equipped with four-wheel drive, but the ones clogging up supermarket carparks - making it nigh on impossible for anyone in the adjacent spots to get in or out of their car - all look far too clean to have spent any time off-roading.

When it comes to school pick up, driving an SUV should be an automatic no. Little kids can be unpredictable, and a split second of inattention - or not seeing a small child over an enormous bumper - could all too easily lead to another tragedy.

Parents want the best for their children. That’s why so many of them diligently drop them off and pick up them up right at the school gates every day, seeing them off safely to get a good education that will serve them well in the future. But SUVs are also an environmental disaster, one that could have a lasting and devastating impact on the world your children will have to live in growing up.

The International Energy Agency says that the drop in oil consumption caused by more people buying EVs in 2020 was completely cancelled out by more people buying SUVs. Their popularity is actively hindering our gains in the fight to rein in climate change, and we’re fresh off the back of the hottest year on record. We need to do better for our children, and for all of those still to come.

What do you think about SUVs in cities? Join the conversation and make your voice heard by commenting below.