SUVs and trucks have outnumbered cars in every state since 2018, according to the Federal Highway Administration. That’s a danger to cyclists. A new report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says that SUVs cause more severe injuries than cars when they hit cyclists.

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Is This a Government Study?

The IIHS is not a government agency. It’s a safety research lab and study group funded by a consortium of car insurance companies.

Insurers have a financial interest in making accidents rare and ensuring that accidents don’t cause severe injuries.

So the institute conducts its own set of crash tests, often considered more rigorous than government testing. It also employs data scientists to study accidents so insurance companies can determine what makes them less common and less severe.

Study Examined Crash Data

For this study, IIHS Statistician Sam Monfort looked at detailed crash and injury data from 71 crashes in Michigan involving vehicles and bicyclists. Each crash involved a single cyclist age 16 or older and a vehicle. Data included “police reports, medical records, crash reconstructions and other information,” the institute says.

Injuries to bicycle riders’ lower extremities were common in all types of crashes. But, on a scale measuring severity, “scores for head injuries inflicted by SUVs were 63 percent higher than for those caused by cars.”

Cars Throw Cyclists. SUVs Run Them Over

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Cars were more likely to vault the cyclist over the vehicle, but “only SUVs caused injuries by running bicyclists over.”

The difference, Monfort says, comes because “the higher front end of an SUV strikes the cyclist above their center of gravity.”

Another IIHS study last year found that SUVs and pickups were more likely than cars to hit pedestrians when turning and more likely to kill them. Researchers also attributed that finding to the taller hoods of SUVs.