[Macha]

It depends. At like 80kph, you're pretty screwed from the impact alone regardless of the vehicle. At 15kph, both are pretty survivable from an impact perspective. But if your survive the impact, the next question is where do you go? For big, raised, boxy vehicles, the answer is more often "under the car" than for cars with ramping low fronts. Having the weight of the car on you is dangerous by itself, even at 1kph.

Then of course there's the impact of the design on driver visibility and therefore accident frequency, especially if the pedestrian is a child, short, in a wheelchair, etc.

[kristianp]

I think the impact location is important here. A large SUVs grill can impact on the pedestrian's head, for example.