MUNCIE, Ind. -- Sport utility vehicles are increasingly popular among drivers, but insurance companies are raising the rates for the trendy auto.

During accidents sport utility vehicles (SUVs), which can weigh as much as 6,000 pounds, cause greater property liability losses and higher costs due to bodily injuries and medical fees, says John Fitzgerald, a Ball State University insurance analyst.

"For the last two years we've seen the liability rates for SUVs edge up slowly," said Fitzgerald, associate dean of the College of Business and a finance/insurance professor.

Insurance companies have raised the rates anywhere from five to 10 percent for SUVs, he said. Several studies indicate that these vehicles are not as safe for passengers.

Studies by the Farmers Group, the nation's third-largest auto insurer, found that claims indicated that SUVs are generating higher liability claims. When the company began offering policies earlier this year, it set rates for sport utility vehicles about five percent higher.

To raise rates, insurers must obtain approval from state regulators and must deal with an increasingly competitive marketplace, Fitzgerald said.

Liability accounts for about half of a typical premium. A 10 percent increase in liability would result in about a five percent rise in a driver's total premium, he said.

Fitzgerald points to several factors for the increase in SUV insurance rate hikes, including:

• Drivers tend to be younger, unmarried males who have higher incidents of accidents than older married males and single females.
• Smaller sport utility vehicles have higher rates of rolling over during an accident, which results in higher death rates. About 80 percent of those involved in SUV rollovers die during the wreck.
• SUVs are among the most popular vehicles stolen by thieves.
• The top-selling SUVs failed to pass the crash studies done in 1995 by the Institute of Highway Safety. Each vehicle was found to have liabilities in protecting the driver and passengers.

"We are not saying that these aren't good vehicles to buy and drive," Fitzgerald said. "But, people have to be aware of the risks, such as rollovers."

While single males pay more to drive SUVs, insurance companies must separate what is driver-related and vehicle-related as sales spread to other markets.

"Women and married couples, who are safer drivers, are buying these SUVs in higher numbers," he said. "They are increasingly popular vehicles, which complicates the insurance issue."