By Charles Pekow — Watch out if you’re biking near an SUV. If you get hit, especially in the head, it’s likely to be much worse than if you collide with another type of auto, according to a study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which examined 71 bicycle-SUV collisions.
The trouble stems from getting smashed from components near the ground on SUV fronts when cyclists hit the street and get run over. Danger was the same no matter the speed, time, demographics of the cyclist or other factors.
But SUVs could be designed to lessen the impact, IIHS says. “Future work should investigate specific front-end shapes that underlie these effects. Understanding how vulnerable road users are being injured can inform design changes to help protect them,” concludes “Bicyclist Crashes with Cars and SUVs: Injury Severity and Risk Factors.”
See https://www.iihs.org/topics/bibliography/ref/2277.
