The goal of this study was to describe the kinematics and injuries of a pedestrian hit by a vehicle. Four full scale cadaver tests were performed with a small city car and a mid-sized sedan traveling at 40 km/h. For each vehicle type, a short and a small subject was set in a well defined initial position in order to compare response differences related to anthropometric variation. For each body region sustaining trauma, injury mechanisms were determined based on the pedestrian kinematics and the deformation of the vehicle. The kinematics of the pelvis were shown to depend on the subject stature relative to the vehicle geometry and were found to be a primary factor in determining whole body kinematics and injury patterns.