The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety reports that fatalities from SUV-car crashes are only about one-third as prevalent now as they were 10 years ago. A decade ago, IIHS found that collisions between cars and SUVs weighing 3,000 to 3,499 pounds resulted in 44 deaths for each million registered vehicles. Between 2008 and 2009 that number had fallen to 16 fatalities per million vehicles. New designs and safety features are credited with making the difference.