are sedan cars as safe as sports utility vehicle cars as far as the risk of...

Combustion? as in bursting into flames? Could you rephrase the question perhaps?

As far as driver and passenger safety in general goes, they're really comparable with the new cars today. Some sedans have fairly low safety ratings but many sedans and SUVs all have high marks in safety. my favorite place to check that stuff out for specific cars is edmunds.com