Originally Posted by genec
I tend to think so too... but my personal experience in both auto and bike accidents indicates that the severity of auto accidents tends to be greater.
The last bike accident I had left me in pain for 2 weeks and required some cosmetic surgery.
The last auto accident I was in required well over 6 months of treatment.
I was moving at well over 20 MPH in the bike accident.
I was at a complete stop in the car accident.
Both accidents were the result of someone else failing to yield the right of way.
I tried to stay away from this one, but I thought I'd add to Gene's comments. It's really hard to say exactly which is worse, because there are so many variables and possibilities. Of course, a well-designed motor vehicle can protect you somewhat from the effects of a collision. But on the other hand, travelling at higher speeds typical of driving a car, even if you don't get a head injury (a major cause of death in car crashes) or crushed in some way, your internal organs can be damaged just by sudden deceleration. Internal bleeding can result.
On a bicycle, you are not protected from collisions and you can be thrown on your head or neck (this happened to my niece while mountain biking--I also landed on my head/face once.) Yet speeds are usually not very high, and as a result, motorcycles, which usually go very much faster, are involved in about 30 times as many fatal crashes per million hours of riding than bicycles.