How much protection does your car provide? You may have checked its safety score on the European New Car Assessment Programme's convenient and quite enjoyable website (www.euroncap.com). Within each class of car Euro NCAP finds huge safety differences between different models. Euro NCAP tests a car's protection of three types of accident victim: adult occupants and child occupants when driven into a wall, and pedestrians when hit at 40km/h (25mph).

Compared with the occupants of your crumple-zoned, side-impact-resistant, roll-barred car, the pedestrians, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists outside it are about as well protected as a family of hedgehogs. So how well does your car protect those outside it? Who caused the accident will make no difference to our injuries. What Euro NCAP has found is that your car's front end design can make a big difference as to whether an unfortunate pedestrian survives with minor injuries or makes a trip to the undertaker.

A scientist at the Transport Research Laboratory tells me that Euro NCAP's pedestrian safety scores can give a rough idea of how well each model might reduce harm to a pedal cyclist as well. This would apply to the type of accident in which the front of a car hits a cyclist in the side, in which the TRL says that the most common killer is the cyclist's head hitting the top of the car's bonnet.

In cases of a car hitting a motorcycle the pedestrian safety data would be less indicative, as the momentum and direction of the bike add to the physical forces on the rider. However, being hit by a car that offers good pedestrian protection is still likely to be a bit less nasty! Just four cars tested by Euro NCAP have scored zero out of a possible four stars for pedestrian safety: the Audi TT, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Skoda Superb and Suzuki Grand Vitara. Euro NCAP uses adjectives such as "abysmal" and "dire" for the test results of these models.

The TT is a sportster and the Superb is a saloon, so eco-warriors please don't blame it all on 4x4s!

Nor are particular makers at fault. VW Group makes the TT and the Superb, but some of their SEAT and VW models give good protection to pedestrians (see below). Suzuki make the Grand Vitara but their Swift gives good pedestrian protection (below again).

Many models in each class score only one or two stars for pedestrian protection. And beware: Euro NCAP scores each model only within its class, so direct comparison between different classes of car is not accurate.

How much a car's front end may hurt an accident victim depends on various design factors of shape, height, whether the bonnet is too inflexible or whether it flexes so much that the victim hits the solid engine block beneath.

Another factor is the car's weight, as its momentum is its weight multiplied by its speed. Heavier cars have more momentum so they hit you with more force per square inch. But the Citron C6 is a large car that scores a maximum four stars for pedestrian safety, because if it thinks that a pedestrian collision is happening its bonnet will pop up like an airbag to catch the victim. And don't worry: like an airbag this is designed and tested not to spring up at the wrong moment and actually cause an accident!

A dozen other new or recent models score a respectable three out of four for pedestrian safety. They include (in the most recent versions in each case) the Fiat Punto, Honda FR-V, Honda Jazz, SEAT Altea, SEAT Leon, Suzuki Swift, VW Golf, VW Touran and MG TF.

The makers of cars with poor safety scores say that they will try to improve them. In the meantime Euro NCAP gives you its data to help you to make your informed choice. I choose the motorcycle that suits my needs and then decide what helmet and body armour I might wear. You choose what class of car you need and then decide which model is safe enough. If you look out for bikes and pedestrians on the road, please look out for them when you buy your next car as well!