Women are much more likely than men to suffer a serious injury when they are involved in a crash, but the heightened risk is related to vehicle type and crash circumstances, according to new research.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says that, despite men being involved in more fatal crashes than women, on a per-crash basis women are 20-28 percent more likely than men to be killed and 37-73 percent more likely to be seriously injured.

In the study, when IIHS researchers limited the comparison to similar crashes, they found those discrepancies mostly disappeared, and that crashworthiness improvements had benefited men and women more or less equally.

“Our study shows that today’s crash testing programs have helped women as much as men,” said Jessica Jermakian, IIHS Vice President of Vehicle Research and one of the study’s authors.

“That said, we found that women are substantially more likely to suffer leg injuries, which is something that will require more investigation.”

“The numbers indicate that women more often drive smaller, lighter cars and that they’re more likely than men to be driving the struck vehicle in side-impact and front-into-rear crashes,” she added.

“Once you account for that, the difference in the odds of most injuries narrows dramatically.”