THE growing popularity of “Chelsea tractors” is causing road deaths to rise again after decades of decline, a study has found.

People in small cars are 12 times more likely to be killed than those in a 4x4 when the vehicles collide, according to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). The study found that the rise in sales of 4x4s and people-carriers was causing more than 20 extra deaths and serious injuries a year among people in small cars.

Medium-size cars have become less popular in recent years, so many more crashes involve a big vehicle hitting a small one. TRL found that there had been a significant change in the national car fleet since the mid-1990s, with big increases in large cars and super-minis.

People carriers and 4x4s are typically more than double the weight of small cars. The high bumpers on 4x4s tend to override the side-impact protection on small cars and penetrate the body.

The research provides the first evidence in Britain that the popularity of big vehicles is a key factor in rising road deaths. A total of 1,769 drivers and passengers were killed in 2003, the highest number for seven years.

Car manufacturers had previously denied that there was a problem and have rejected evidence from the United States on the ground that the American market is different from Britain’s.

Sales of 4x4s grew by 12.8 per cent last year, to 179,000, more than double the number sold a decade ago. People carriers have grown at an even faster rate, with more than 126,000 sold last year, ten times as many as in 1994. Small cars made up 35 per cent of the market last year, compared with 26 per cent a decade ago.

In the US, relatives of people killed when their small cars were hit by 4x4s are suing manufacturers for selling dangerously incompatible cars.Land Rover has acknowledged that its vehicles may present a greater risk to drivers of small cars and is altering its designs.

Road safety groups said that the alterations would make little difference to the extra risk posed by 4x4s.

• Gas-guzzling vehicles should pay an additional £150 in road tax because of the extra damage they do to the environment, the Government’s energy efficiency watchdog said. This week the Energy Saving Trust will recommend a new road tax band for the least-efficient vehicles. Most 4x4s and many luxury saloons and people carriers would be included and would pay £320 a year, compared with the present top rate of £170.

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