IIHS: SUVs now safer than cars in a crash

[ahmed_7erzon]

Not so long ago, consumers who put safety first had to avoid sport utility vehicles given their tendency to roll over more easily than any other type of vehicle. But now, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, SUVs have a driver fatality rate half that of cars.

In assessing risk, the IIHS study multiplied each model's number of years on the road by its total number of units.

SUV driver deaths amounted to 28 per million registered vehicle years, compared to 52 for trucks and 56 for cars. Minivans again had the lowest driver fatality rate at 25 per million registered vehicle years.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2007 requirement that all vehicles be equipped with electronic stability control by the 2012 model year has paid off. The same holds true for the 2009 rule to toughen roof strength during rollovers – which account for less than 2 percent of all crashes, but 40 percent of all fatalities.

"Thanks to this technology (ESC), we anticipate the number of rollover fatalities to drop by thousands every single year," NHTSA administrator David Strickland said in a statement.