More than a decade after airbags became standard fittings to protect drivers and passengers, similar safeguards could now be extended to the outside of vehicles, softening the blow for pedestrians and cyclists hit by cars.

An airbag has been developed to inflate under the car’s bonnet, reducing the impact on any riders who land on it. Another, at the base of the windscreen, stops a cyclist’s head going through the glass.

The bags are triggered when sensors detect that a person is heading towards the car after being hit. If adopted by car companies, the invention has the potential to save some of the lives lost on Britain’s roads. In 2006, 675 pedestrians and 146 cyclists were killed.

Mats Odman, a spokesman for Autoliv, the Swedish manufacturer that has designed the airbags, said: “In Europe each year more than 10,000 pedestrians and other vulnerable road users are killed in a collision with a vehicle.

“Most of them hit their head on the hood or the windshield.”

The new airbag is an advance on existing safety features such as “pop-up” bonnets, which prevent injuries by rising up slightly when they are hit, keeping the victim’s head away from the engine.

The Jaguar XKR is already fitted with these bonnets and other manufacturers are preparing to install them.

Nigel Wonnacott, of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “All new technologies are worth looking at but the lion’s share of investment is going into the technologies that are preventing accidents happening rather than just those technologies which mitigate the effects of a crash.”

Wonnacott gave the example of electronic stability control systems, which adjust the car’s wheels to prevent skidding.

The introduction of airbags as standard fittings in cars has been credited with cutting by 25% the chances of someone inside a vehicle being killed in a crash. The focus now is on saving the lives of those who are hit by a car.

For every kilometre travelled, a cyclist is still about 20 times more likely to be killed than a car passenger.

Fatalities have included Jason MacIntyre, 34, the cycling champion who died in January after colliding with a van during a training ride near Fort William, Invernessshire.

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